WPIX Action News open -- July 10, 1975 with Pat Harper and Joe Harper

This is the open for the WPIX Action News from July 10, 1975, anchored by then husband-and-wife anchor team Joe and Pat Harper. The theme song is "It's Superman," from the musical "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman"
This open suffers from a few technical glitches that reflect that realities of live local TV in the 1970s.

[@danlivni2097]

Pat Harper was a great broadcaster. Sadly she passed away from a heart attack in 1994.

[@mr.djcooncoon8196]

Living in Spain...

[@bobbysaraceno5323]

Am I the only one who wishes you posted the whole newscast? WPIX should set up a VOD service for old clips. I love the old stuff.

[@georgemaster1838]

Bobby Saraceno Being a former New Jerseyan,this was a part of my childhood.

[@ADAMSIXTIES]

I remember when they had promo for the new newsteam of Pat and Joe Harper. Pat was NYC's 1st female news anchor.

[@silvereagle2061]

I was like 8 years old and I remember not wanting to go to bed until I saw Harper's broadcast and Bonanza either before the news or right after, I can't recall which but they both were staples in my life before going to bed.

[@elizabetho5359]

Grandma and grandpa ❤️ rip

[@tapthatt2012]

tvnewsman must be loving this! never thought one of these opens would surface.

[@blazerbobcat]

That same theme song was used by WTOP-TV (now WUSA) back in the 1970's.

[@gtc1961]

So sad...all people i watched in my youth. I know Pat and Joe are gone but what about all the others? Jeff Kamen, Frank Casey! Wow...

[@MattMcIrvin]

This same "It's Superman" theme was used by WTOP/WDVM's Eyewitness News (Channel 9 in DC, now WUSA) all through the 1970s into the 1980s.

[@hamburg1306]

Blast from the past. My memory is that Joe and Pat were married but divorced. Originally Joe was solo anchor. Called "Harper News". I think initially Bill Jorgensen from Ch. 5 replaced him them Steve Bosh who you remember is shown in flashback newscast of tragic death of Thurman Munson.

[@mr.djcooncoon8196]

Anyone remember Roberto Tirado and the sports guy....

[@ericsamuelson5656]

Cable TV systems in Pennsylvania, Upstate NY, and New England use to carry this channel before all TV markets require to have WB (now CW) affiliates

[@mr.djcooncoon8196]

Pat was a beauty....Especially later on with the slightly shorter hair....

[@elizabetho5359]

❤️

[@wmbrown6]

From what I could tell, WPIX was still using the General Electric PE-250 color camera at this point.

[@wmbrown6]

The reporters on film were, in order: Bill Littauer (later the "voice" of "Action News" after its 1977 revamp), Scotti Williston, Jeff Kamen, and Frank Casey. I thought I saw Jeffrey Lyons at far (frame) left; who would have sat at the desk next to the clocks?

[@PamelaRachil]

Is it just me or did anybody else wonder if the movie Anchorman took cues from Pat & Jim Harper? I remember watching them when I was a kid and when I saw the movie, they were the couple I thought of. Was Pat Harper the first woman anchor-women?

[@chalklounge]

Did Pat Harper marry her dad? My goodness he was old for her.

[@damiboi5119]

Since when was WPIX a Post-Newsweek station?

[@tyrese3745]

Never. The Daily News owned the station up until a least 1991, when Tribune officially took over it.

[@retroguy1976]

throwback lol

[@johnetheridge5833]

I thought they were father and daughter

[@tyrese3745]

I thought WPIX used Al Ham's "Move Closer to Your World" back then, like WPVI-TV Channel 6 in Philadelphia did in 1972.

[@vintagetvandexciting]

later from 1976 to 1984

[@wmbrown6]

@@vintagetvandexciting - 1977 to 1984, actually, but yeah . . .

[@paktype]

Was Joe Harper the husband of Pat Harper, or her father? Seemed way too old to be her husband.

[@wmbrown6]

They were married, at one time; there was only about a dozen years' age difference between them (despite Joe's whitish grey hair). I'd read some articles from this period to the effect that, personally, they were already divorced but remained friends when they were anchoring the news together; professionally, they would be split up for good by WPIX by spring 1976. But Pat would go on to have a longer career in TV news, as we all now know.

[@StukInBuf]

+wmbrown6 I think Joe Harper died about a year or two after this broadcast aired.

[@wmbrown6]

+SuperPat88 - Actually, Joe died in 1983, aged 61. He all but retired from the business after WPIX dropped him.

[@StukInBuf]

wmbrown6 Thanks for the correction.

[@davidribroma2425]

@@wmbrown6 I seem to recall an ad for "Harper" News

[@jasons6501]

70’s rejects.