By Rick Kaempfer
MELISSA IN THE MORNING
Melissa Forman
Photo:
Son Shine
Photography
Y
ou wouldn’t think that hosting a daily
television show would allow someone
to achieve proper home and work balance, but that’s exactly how it has worked out
for Melissa Forman, co-host of You and Me
This Morning on WCIU-TV in Chicago (5-9am)
“I’ve always loved doing mornings
because I feel like I’m not missing anything at
home,” she points out. “I’m working while
my family is sleeping. As they get older it’s
getting a little bit more frustrating because
they’d obviously rather not have their mom
go to bed at 8 or 8:30PM, but overall, this has
really afforded me the opportunity to balance
work and family. I’m home to make dinner for
them. It’s a really, really nice balance.”
Forman and co-host Jeanne Sparrow not
only have a chance to balance their lives, they
normally aren’t shy about sharing details
about them. “I’ve been doing this for twenty
years – telling stories about my kids and family is something that’s totally normal to them.
They’ve grown up this way. It’s in our DNA.
When I first started working with Jeanne, I
realized that she has a few boundaries – and
that was a bit of an adjustment for me because
I have none (laughs)."
Forman and Sparrow have an obvious
chemistry on the air, and that came very naturally. “When I met Jeanne, we realized immediately that we had similar senses of humor
and ways of looking at things, and when we
recently met (new contributor) Jonathan
Hansen we had the same reaction. We just sort
of hit it off immediately.” The three of them
not only have similar senses of humor. They
have a similar career background, which has
had a definite impact on the type of show they
do. “We come from radio backgrounds,”
Melissa points out, “and that will never leave
us. I mean there are moments when we just let
it all hang loose, and I’m sure people are
thinking, ‘I can’t believe they just did that!’
But that comes from our radio heritage. It’s a
slightly looser environment than a scriptedtype of television show. Whatever happens,
happens. Wherever it goes, it goes. That’s
what I love about it. Jeanne and I are not that
great at keeping time, so we get a lot of ‘Wrap
it up, wrap it up, wrap it up’ signs (laughs),
but that’s also because we’re very spontaneous.”
And they’re also very cognizant of keeping it light and upbeat. “I like to say we’re
news without the blues,” Melissa says. “We
try our best – although sometimes the news
does dictate that we cover more serious issues
– and sadly lately that has been the case in
Chicago. Other than that, we’re just being
goofy. And we’re just who we are.”
Despite the upbeat approach, there are
also no illusions about the difficulties the
show faces in making its mark in this crowded morning television landscape. “We’re not
really looking around or worrying about the
other shows that are up against us,” Forman
admits. “We’re more focused on us. This is
such a different thing here – we’re the first
morning show Weigel Broadcasting (owner of
WCIU-TV) has had, and we’re breaking new
ground because of that. We just try to do our
best work and do what we think people want
or need to see in the morning. We don’t compare – we can’t, really. The other shows are
established and have been around, and on stations that have done morning shows forever.
There’s no pressure on us because of that.”
Despite their humble beginnings, they certainly haven’t had a difficult time attracting
guests. “We do get quite a few celebrities coming through our doors,” Melissa points out.
“Every day there’s a different one, and we’re
allowed to have fun with them. The Wayan
Brothers were in not too long ago. We worked
with Regis {Philbin} for a while last
September. Working with Regis was such a
pleasure.” And recently, Gilbert Gottfried
came into the studio, and launched into one of
the funniest five or six minute spontaneous
rants that you’ll ever see. It ended with
Gottfried explaining in graphic detail how
(fellow WCIU-TV personality) Svengoolie
ended up with two black eyes.
But that’s part of the charm of working for
WCIU-TV. Despite the nationwide success of
the ME-TV brand, and the emerging national
appeal of their Decades network, Weigel
Broadcasting (owner of WCIU) is still a family run business, and everyone who works
there, according to Forman, is treated like
family. “I love that part of this,” Melissa says.
“I absolutely love it. The first time I pulled into
the building to park I ran into Norm Shapiro,
the owner. He said ‘Hey Melissa! How are
things going? Is there anything I can do for
you?’ and I realized immediately that this was
going to be a Y