The native Tennessean whose twangy “that’s amazing” catchphrase punctuated 19 years of
charmingly un-slick “California’s Gold” on PBS stations and made him a household name in the state, is calling it quits. The Sac Bee says that although his shows about California places and people will continue to air, there won’t be any new ones. The 64-year-old Howser apparently preferred not to make a big deal of his retirement. He’s made no public announcement and, thus far, there’s no mention of it on the website of Huell Howser Productions.
Howser’s rise as something of a state treasure (after stints in news in Nashville and New York) began at public station KCET in Los Angeles. For years he has lived in the Mojave Desert near Twentynine Palms. That is, when he wasn’t exploring every nook and cranny of the state for one of the several programs with which he’s been attached over the years.
Above, that’s him in a rare “produced” segment of “California’s Gold” in which he belted out “California Here I Come” with plenty of help at LA’s Musicians Institute.
