Hugh Downs

He said, you know, they could have just printed it and you would never know the difference.

And I met a guy once who was an Australian and It was kind of like the Hugh Downs of Australia.

I met a guy once who wrote a book in Australia.

I don't remember.

Stay with us.

[upbeat music] In a 60-year career that began before the age of television, Hugh Downs has reported everywhere from the North Pole to the South Pole.

He holds-

This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome.

And even experienced weightlessness on board what NASA affectionately calls the Vomit Comet.

Yeah.

This Friday marks Hugh Downs' final appearance on 20/20.

He joins me now for a conversation about a rather remarkable career in communications.

So it's, it's kind of a cool shot.

Years ago, I used to do, uh, uh, 20/20 on ABC News, and the set was a whole bank of TV sets that were behind Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters to make it look like a control room, which led to a lot of shows over the years moving their news desk and their anchor positions right into the middle of their newsroom so that even the people at home were in sort of a fake, immersive environment-

[laughs]

... uh, that they were part of the news gathering operation.

And you and I, we got about a minute, sir.

before the heartbreak, also had a life-changing experience for the positive by knowing Hugh Downs.

I mean, I spent a lot of time with him.

You have much more experience.

Um, a book that explores the whole notion of longevity in America.

Hugh Downs, uh, actually mentioned Dr. Hayflick to me, has said in his book, he set forth a history of aging theories, sorted out and resolved fragmentary and conflicting ideas about why organisms age and die, and has dispatched several aging myths, all with certain style and, and, um, clarity.

I thank you very much.

Thank you.

This is 2020.

Oh, h- Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, and this is 2020.

Mm-hmm.

That's for the, that is for all the 38 up millennials out there.

So I think that's what he focused on, both on radio and television, and what was always front and center for him.

And if you see him interviewed even later in life, uh, Hugh Downs did an interview of him in the '70s, not long before he died, and he was still talking about the important things such as capital T truths and the work of Jesus Christ.

I want to talk a little bit also about those whose Christian broadcast careers paralleled his.

The most direct parallel, as you well know, is The Lutheran Hour's Walter A. Meyer.