Life & Times Blog - Blog Archive - Life & Times Says Goodbye

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About the Story: In 2003, Life & Times left the studio and went into the field, driving from place to place and covering issues and people that make Southern California interesting. We look back at our best stories, the most fascinating places and the most remarkable people we've had the privilege of meeting. And let me tell you: Southern California is full of smart, creative, dedicated and wacky folks! (TRT: 24:53)

Life & Times Says Goodbye

Publish date: December 26, 2007
Last updated: May 14, 2009

Reporter's NOTES

Val Zavla
When I joined KCET in 1987, I never thought I would be part of a phenomenon: Life & Times, KCET’s longest-running news series. Throughout its 16 years, it has evolved into one of Southern California’s premier sources for coverage of important issues, dynamic people and local arts and culture.

Sixteen years, 22 Los Angeles–Area Emmy Awards and 25 Golden Mike Awards later, Life & Times has come to a close. Our final show was broadcast on December 28, 2007. The letters of appreciation we have received from viewers is truly heartening. And I just wanted to thank you for allowing us into your homes every weeknight. I’m honored to have worked with such a dedicated and hard-working team of reporters, producers, editors and contributors. Sixteen years on the air is a remarkable feat. And I’ll always value the memories of being part of such an accomplishment.

The good news is this is not really goodbye. We are working on a new weekly newsmagazine that we plan to launch this spring: SoCal Connected (W.T.). It will blend the best of Life & Times and California Connected to bring you in-depth reports, features, headlines and commentaries in a lively, updated format—along with an enhanced website to get people involved and connected to their communities.

So until then, keep supporting and tuning into KCET! And please comment on this blog and share your favorite memories about the show!

COMMUNITY VIEWPOINTS

01.26.2008 | 8:49 pm
To Life & Times and Val Zavala: I will say that I am not disappointed in the current format for Life & Times being discontinued. It had become a bit too “fluffy” and light for my taste, compared to previous formats.

However, I want to say how much I admire you, Val, for your abilitiy to accept the many changes that must have been difficult. I respect your flexibility, the way you adapted so quickly to the new challenge.

I look forward to the new, proposed program and, hopefully, Val, you will be given the opportunity to demonstrate your abilities and wonderful personality. Thank you for your dedication and professionalism.

I believe that you have a lot to offer an audience that we haven’t seen yet. All the best.

JLS - North Hollywood, California

01.23.2008 | 12:24 am
I will surely miss Life & Times–one of my favorites of all time.

Bob - L.A., California

01.18.2008 | 3:41 pm
I’m saddened to see Life & Times end its amazing 16-year run. I am more saddened to see so many people choose to take a shot at Val Zavala in this forum.

I consider myself blessed to have been able to know and work with Val. She is a warm and genuine person without a personal agenda, other than to provide a public service by focusing the Life & Times lens on the people and events that shaped the greater Los Angeles community.

All those Emmy and Golden Mike Awards speak to the quality of the segments that Val and the very committed and hard-working people at Life & Times produced. Great job, L&T team!

I hope that all the nay-sayers have earned the right to complain by providing KCET with financial support. Membership starts at about a dime a day, which is an amazing value for the quality programming that KCET and PBS produce, as exemplified by Life & Times.

Don Davidson - Claremont, California

01.18.2008 | 3:00 pm
I’ve stopped watching KCET at 7 PM. Life & Times was an easy-going, pleasant contrast to the evening’s newscasts. I don’t need the frequently aggressive, caustic tone of the program that has replaced it.

Edraw - Rancho Palos Verdes, California

01.18.2008 | 12:03 am
I am glad to see KCET stop wasting money and time on this pathetic program. Val Zavala ruined the show.

She used it for her own social engineering agenda. She did not help her community.

She did not help women on TV, and she certainly contributed to racial divisions in the Los Angeles area. One program stood out above all and proved her racist agenda when she interviewed a Mexican Spanish-language news activist and anchorwoman.

Zavala showed news footage of the amnesty, communist and socialist worker’s May Day protests. She DELIBERATELY aired footage that was held in the second rally in the following year.

The participants were briefed and coached to fly the American and Mexican flags. Zavala did NOT show the extensive footage of the thousands of Mexican glags and Communist hero Che Guevarra’s image on tee shirts and protest signs.

She aired the second year’s May Day rally’s “cleansed,” version in which the protesters carried Mexican and American flags in greater numbers and less Mexican flags. Numerous high-profile news stories regarding illegal immigration would appear in other news broadcasts, yet Zavala avoided the topic.

On the rare occasions she dared discuss “immigrants,” she called them, “undocumented,” (forget that they have Mexican Consular documents or ficticious documents) “immigrants.” Never illegal immigrants or illegal aliens.

Zavala is a traitor to the U.S., and she is furthering the racist Mexican agenda to cease land that never belonged to brown-skinned people who are indigenous to Mexico (Aztecs, Mayans, etc). This land was RED-SKINNED Indian people’s NOT BROWN.

She is a racist and certainly NOT professional in any way. The program was boring and uninformative and maddening!

Maddox, Press, Hershenson, Morrison, THAT WAS LIFE & TIMES! Get RID of Zavala!

Kitcat - long beach, California

01.17.2008 | 3:15 pm
We hate to see Life & Times go, even if it is going to be replaced by another similar program. We like California Connected, too.

So I don’t want it replaced either. We have loved seeing Val as she became more and more comfortable with her role and congratulate her on her success.

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer has been on longer than 16 years. Why not Life & Times?

P.S. What’s going to happen to Huell Howser? Don’t tell us that you are going to mess up our entire evening of tv watching!

marlou32 - Garden Grove, California

01.17.2008 | 2:38 pm
Hedy Val! Sorry to see a worthwhile show stop production, but I agree with someone on here that there should be plenty of archives from which to continue or assemble into a new show. Best to all.

keninla - Los Angeles, California

01.16.2008 | 4:53 pm
As a transplant from Boston to SoCal, I found few KCET programs with a local touch. The contrast between Howser’s offensive style (with interesting content) versus the pleasant style (with sometimes overlong topics) on L&T meant, for me, that the WRONG PROGRAM was cancelled.

There have been too many repeats and reruns of those shows, instead of the more important PBS documentaries. I’m concerned that KCET management is not really up to current challenges.

Why not repeat The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and 8 to 11 PBS shows between 1 AM and dawn instead of the lovely CAS programming (available elsewhere)? Why is the “early” 3 PM videocast of The NewsHour frequently clipped by starting late?

Why are the repeater locations not yet broadcasting in digital? Lack of leadership or lack of funds?

lost faith - Santa Barbara, California

01.15.2008 | 6:05 pm
KCET, how could you cancel a show that won 22 Emmy and 25 Golden Mike Awards?! L&T kept Southern Californians abreast of the issues that are unique to the residents here.

If the new show will be as good as Life & Times, it should air DAILY, not weekly! We deserve more in-depth local stories in California than a weekly program.

HaChau from Alhambra, California - Alhambra, California

01.09.2008 | 5:35 pm
We’ll all miss such a great show and host. What about re-runs by topic or chronologically?

What about a DVD for schools to be an example of what TV coverage can be? Thanks for all your great work!

Dr. Warlphoost - Fullerton, California

01.09.2008 | 3:30 pm
After sending this note, I will do my homework. Ms. Zavala is still a VP at KCET, isn’t she?

I hope so. Life & Times has been a favorite show to watch while making the transition from work to home each evening.

It covered witty, intelligent and interesting local stuff with a wonderful host. Life goes on.

I look forward to what will come to us down the road. Thanks!

benbull - San Bernardino, California

01.08.2008 | 7:48 pm
It is incomprehensible to me why KCET would do this. L&T was an important program, connecting us to what is going on in L.A. and people who are involved in REAL issues–not celluloid ones–as opposed to the Tavis program, which focuses on HOLLYWOOD and BORING “entertainers” and “celebrities” for the most part.

Tavis’ program hardly needs to be on TWICE, considering how extremely lightweight and trivial we find it. Now, where do we learn about what’s happening in our community?

Certainly, not from that unaccountable survivor Huell Howser! Please bring back Life & Times: It’s what KCET should be doing!

aelovson - Santa Monica, California

01.06.2008 | 7:55 am
What a sneaky departure for one of the really fine local news programs. First, NPR’s dismissal of Bob Edwards and, now, KCET’s dropping of L&T.

Why didn’t you give an explanation to your faithful viewers about the reasons for the termination? Was the staff and producer tired of the program or short on funding support?

Pulling the plug on such a fine program is a huge disservice to your audience and will not be placated with a weekly program. Give it up! Why was the show cancelled?

al - San Clemente, California

01.03.2008 | 10:04 pm
I am so sorry to see this show end. I watched L&T for all those 16 years and was very disappointed to learn that it was ending.

There is a real need for more local, in-depth coverage of local news and events. Although I preferred the more political early incarnation of L&T, I came to really appreciate Val’s tenure as the even-tempered and genial host of the ongoing story that is SoCal.

Best wishes to all the reporters and to Val. I look forward to their next projects.

Clover - Mar Vista, California

01.03.2008 | 4:34 pm
I was very disappointed to learn that Val Zavala’s Life & Times is no longer on KCET. Just when the program was getting so classy! Good luck and best wishes in whatever you do next, Val.

DeeDee - Los Angeles, California

01.03.2008 | 9:07 am
I am a regular viewer of your show, and I was dismayed when I heard that you would be going off the air. I read here that you will return.

Thank you. Life & Times was one of the few, if only, KCET show that focused just on Los Angeles and Southern California.

You also provided in-depth coverage of very important issues that no other TV station was covering. We need you, and we need more shows like L&T now more than ever. I look forward to seeing your new format in the near future.

llozano - Long Beach, California

01.02.2008 | 8:20 pm
I will miss the show, even though it got a lot weaker in recent years. I also wonder how a weekly show can possibly make up for it.

I think that the decision to cancel it is awful. I’m tempted to make a snide remark about making room for more Celtic Woman, but I won’t.

Oops, I guess I just did! Even at KCET, the national dumbing-down campain continues.

Andreas G - Huntington Beach, California

12.30.2007 | 3:34 pm
THANKS, VAL, FOR YOUR PERSON AND EFFORTS FOR LIFE & TIMES. Your leaving will, I fear, be a loss for KCET.

So I wish you a speedy return in the next series. I was there at the beginning with Hugh, Pat and Kerman, and I know you took some of my e-mailed suggestions.

Thank you for letting me know that I was heard. I believe that you have been a positive and unique guiding force behind KCET’s news.

I applaud and thank you for your efforts. Unlike the some other comments here, I much enjoyed your multi-cultural approach to the L.A. news scene.

We are an important part of the global village and we need to get to know our neighbors. For me, as a WASP, that means getting to know how “they” see “us,” even if it is unfavorable to “us.”

With Pogo, I believe that “us” is our enemy and that our self-importance ignorance is a major weapon. Long ago, I left commercial TV to find “news,” at the BBC or cable sources.

And I don’t like it when the BBC targets the L.A. market, i.e., during the recent fires. But I fear that real news is hidden behind corporate shields, and I lust for a good muckraking flare.

Could you and KCET nibble around its edges? Val, there are few media personalities that one gets to feel like they know personally and you are one of the few who I find likable.

Your positive attitude and smile are welcome. It might improve the ratings if you were a little more confrontational–only where it is important.

BobB - Long Beach, California

12.28.2007 | 1:27 pm
Dear Val: Those high-powered intellectual types had a different approoach to news, mostly political. I liked your “news I can use” better. I’ll miss your smiling face.

Ron R, LA - Los Angeles, California

12.28.2007 | 1:25 pm
Great job, Val. I’ll sorely miss you. Best wishes in your new career.

Ron Rapallo, LA - Los Angeles, California

12.28.2007 | 1:23 pm
I resisted watching your program when Val took the reigns, but over the years, it has become a staple part of my day. I have depended on it for good in-depth reporting on what’s happening in my L.A. city.

I’ve grown to love Life & Times, and I must say that I will miss your smily face, Val. Hugh Hewett, Pat Morrison, Kermin Maddox, et. al., had more politics as their theme.

They were good at sparring and intellectual discussions of things somewhat removed from my everyday experience, but you, Val, have been down-to-earth, actually, literally, out there on the frontlines. I have liked your variety of Life & Times better, Val: “News I can use.”

You’ve always been cheery on the air, and I know that it hasn’t been a bed of roses running such an important program. I appreciate all the hard work that went into the production of the series.

It’s time for you to move on to a new direction in your career and life. God bless you, dear one, and thanks for being my TV pal all these years.

Val Zavala - Los Angeles, California

12.27.2007 | 11:15 pm
I will miss you all. Thank you for all your hard work.

MARKANTHONY - Long Beach, California

12.27.2007 | 9:33 pm
All I can say with the demise of Life & Times is GOOD RIDDANCE. It always made me laugh to hear Val Zavala claim on those pledge drives how you can count on KCET to have no political agenda, wherein, if you ever took a look at her L&T shows, it was just one long diatribe about the poor illegal Mexicans and how they can’t get their hands on more of our public benefits or how a church is giving asylum to these criminals.

I guess, with the creation of the V-me channel and shows on PBS in FULL SPANISH (gee, no favoritism there, even though we don’t see shows in Tagalog, Armenian or Chinese) ol’ Val’s relevence is a bit moot or maybe she got an executive position at Telemundo. Next time, use your own pesos to pay for your propaganda.

Davey - Alamo, California

12.27.2007 | 8:48 pm
I about flipped when I heard that Life & Times was ending, but I feel better now that I know that a revision is in progress. With time, that is essential for survival in most cases.

I’m looking forward to the new format, but I will miss Life & Times; 16 years is an incredible run! Good luck to everyone.

Vikster - Azusa, California

12.27.2007 | 1:34 pm
This is to 16 years of great TV viewing. Life & Times has been a mainstay of so many people’s lives and will be sorely missed.

Jackie - Los Angeles, California

12.27.2007 | 1:33 pm
Oh, Val, I’m sad to see Life & Times go, but I’m excited that your creative energy will be moving in to a new format! I’m looking forward to more Zavala productions in 2008! All the best to you, my friend.

S.S. - Los Angeles, California

12.27.2007 | 1:32 pm
Happy Holidays to you, Val! Thank you for caring for our friendship bell and your hard work to harmonize the communities with each other.

S.C. - Los Angeles, California

12.27.2007 | 1:31 pm
Merry Christmas, Val. How very sad about Life & Times. You have done an amazing job!

Sandy - Los Angeles, California

12.27.2007 | 11:10 am
The retrospective of the early L&T reminded my of why I used to really like the program. Although I still watch it, the recent L&T lost much of the original vitality.

Don Breyer - Claremont, California

12.26.2007 | 11:34 pm
Why?! Why?!

Why?! I will miss L&T and Val.

I hope that the new show will be great or better. We’ll see.

MARKANTHONY - Long Beach, California

12.26.2007 | 10:40 pm
I am very sorry to see the program end. Although I had not previously read much local news in the L.A. Times, I found Val Zavala’s selection of stories excellent and very interesting to me. It became my favorite program on KCET, and I hope that it at least gets reincarnated on a future program.

Greg - Los Angeles, California

12.26.2007 | 10:11 pm
What a loss. I cannot understand why Life & Times is ending.

It is one of the most informative programs on television. What can they be thinking?

V.S. - Newport Beach, California

12.26.2007 | 10:10 pm
As a regular viewer since the beginning of L&T, I am very sorry to be losing your wonderful show. Thank you for all the great information about our area in terms of art, politics, history and the resources available here. I’m sad to lose you.

J.S. - Long Beach, California

12.26.2007 | 10:09 pm
I can’t believe it’s going off the air. I’ll never forget the story on homelessness in Santa Barbara, Calif., when I stared in disbelief at the lady who always took my money on the Santa Barbara Pier and who outed herself as homeless on the show.

I’ve talked to her a million times and never once thought that she could be homeless. And the lady with the cat who shopped at the food bank.

She was so debonair and regal that I just wanted to invite her to my next dinner party. I just love that show and I think about it every time I go to Santa Barbara.

Thanks so much for bringing it to me. It really changed the way I think about a lot of things.

A.S. - Claremont, California

12.26.2007 | 10:07 pm
I am very sad to hear that Life & Times is ending. This is a program I made every effort to see daily.

Val Zavala and the other reporters have done an excellent job in reporting on stories that were interesting and pertinent to us. Farewell, Life & Times. I will truly miss you.

I.M. - Los Angeles, California

12.26.2007 | 10:06 pm
I am very sad to hear about the end of Life & Times, my favorite show. How else could I have known about so many things that are happening locally and every weekday?!

How can a weekly show possibly replace it?! Val Zavala, there is no one with a greater balance of intelligence and compassion, reason and feeling than you.

Thank you, Val, for such a great show. We love you!

T.M. - Los Angeles, California

12.26.2007 | 8:44 pm
Let me get this straight. You are going to discontinue Life & Times, but keep on with the infomercials like Suze Orman, Wayne Dyer and those awful Irish women?

And to keep on playing over and OVER and OVER the Roy Orbison Black and White Nights, the Peter, Paul and Mary, the Three Tenors, the Doo Wop and the multitude of other tired “opportunities” to buy stuff from people in which you get a cut of the proceeds? What is your business plan?

Who do you serve? I am so sick of this.

Flerkk - San Luis Obispo, California

12.26.2007 | 8:41 pm
I LOVED Life & Times when the three amigos (or four) were there. A faithful, entranced listener.

If KCET is starting a new show, I hope it will be REAL LOCAL NEWS, in-depth and not like the other stations’ sound bites that are picked up from the morning’s newspaper. This look back makes me long for the past. Please make me happy with the future.

jkarpenko - Glendale, California

12.26.2007 | 8:39 pm
Tonight’s show was, indeed, bittersweet. How far we have come since that civilized discourse on civil society!

The dumbing down and trivialization of the program under Val Zavala’s leadership is why I no longer am a regular viewer. I devoutly hope that the new format will bring back significant discussion of the critical issues that face us.

john nordquist - Los Angeles, California

12.26.2007 | 8:13 pm
My husband and I will truly miss Life & Times. There is so little to watch on TV that is of any value–especially at 7 PM–that the loss of your show at 7 PM will be very sad for us. Thank you for your excellent shows.

bemajanine@yahoo.com - Canyon Lake, California

12.26.2007 | 7:19 pm
Zavala and Life & Times will stop wasting valuable airtime? Ah-men.

After Jess Marlow split, WHY she was allowed to use our airwaves: a mystery. She isn’t a trained reporter; her tentative guestions, accompanied by giggling, as irritating as nails on a blackboard.

But her crime: throwing up “stories” featuring ONE ethnic group–excluding all others. How hard to guess which one, while LOCAL Issues–politics, government, city council “reps” machinations, Mayor V. doings, public and private, NOT on her radar–nor ANY other subject that actually informed L.A. residents about ANYthing that matters.

What is going on in Mexico, S. America, et. al.: SO “valuable” to locals–there are only five to eight (?) stations that cover. So devoid of skills, focus and class–look at the way the end of L&T was “announced”–a promo to watch the good past shows–without ANY actual announcement that the thing has been killed.

Ah, well, the thing was morphed into the most useless, wasteful, irrelevant use of airwaves possible. So at least we can celebrate its death.

Good riddance. But IF the replacement doesn’t cover all aspects of informing locals about LOCAL politics and government–stuff that MATTERS–with REAL reporters who KNOW HOW to do the job, don’t bother using up our airwaves. Just run Classic Arts Showcase and be done with the pretending.

Find a sponsor who cares about informing ALL locals, not just the cultural issues of one ethnic group. Any chance station management will listen? Get some respect for L.A. locals: Put Jim Lehrer news BACK into the previous timeslot–FOLLOWING the 6:30 PM network news, so locals can actually get off the freeway and home in time to watch it.

Poppy - Beverly Hills, California

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