Walter Cronkite To Posthumously Guest Star on "Ghost Whisperer"

"CBS said that the voice of Walter Cronkite will continue to announce the 'CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.' "

In a related decision, CBS also announced that it will "respectfully reconfigure" portions of its "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" archive to create the highly revered late journalist's dramatic guest starring debut on the network's season finale of "The Ghost Whisperer."

"Cronkite" will "play" "Alfred Keagan" a lovable bank security guard who can't seem to face the loss of his Korean war-bride "Oki," played by Miyoshi Umeki (Bill Bixby's live-in maid "Mrs. Livingston" from "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" in her first network television appearance since retiring shortly after her own death in 2007.)

In what CBS promises will be a uniquely moving, highly emotional episode "Belinda" (series star Jennifer Love-Hewitt) first encounters Keagan when, as luck would have it, the sleepy bank he guards is held up on the very afternoon of his retirement. Grateful to Keagan for running across the crowded bank floor to leap on her, knock her to the floor and lay on top of her until the police arrive and pry the elderly widower off, Belinda offers to help Keagan cope with the loss of his beloved Uki.

She explains that the only way to feel sure that the dead people we love will find any measure of peace in the hereafter is to locate them right after they die in the form of bewildered ghosts, trick them, briefly trap them and discuss the situation with them in a rational manner "before they turn into a zombie version of themselves and you wake up looking at two bloody stumps screaming 'OH, GOD! SHE ATE MY HANDS! SHE ATE MY HANDS!' which, I'm sorry to say, happens a lot more than you'd think. A lot more."

In another series first, Belinda's fee is revealed to be $8,500 -- which includes candles, ghost capture and release.

Tomorrow: Going against deceased super-agent "Zombie" Lazar's advice, Karl Malden declines CBS "Streets of San Francisco" reunion offer. Actor prefers sweet release of cold, cold eternity to working in television another twelve days.

Comments

[Winning09]

Oh.

[decoupagefan]

Agree with previous commenter that not only is this joke in poor taste to both Cronkite and Jennifer Love Hewitt (star AND producer), and not that funny to begin with, but shows a total lack of knowledge of the hit show Ghost Whisperer. 1) Her character's name is Melinda, not Belinda 2) She doesn't trap and release ghosts, she leads them into a light (usually off camera that none but the ghost can see) 3) the set up -- elderly bank guard rescuing Melinda -- is absurd. GW would never have an obvious plot line like that. Melinda would either read about robbery in the paper or overhear someone talking about it in the street and then begin meddling and stalking the elderly bank guard until he finally was convinced by dead loved one trying to kill him that she was for REAL. 4) Melinda would never charge anyone and doesn't spend her money on candles. Inappropriate ball gowns ill-suited for sewer expeditions is obviously where her antique store profits go to.

[JohanMcBugnuts]

Wow, Ghost Whisperer has its own Trekkies. Gwekkies?

[BlackJAC]

GHOST WHISPERER has its own tie-in novels and comic books.

[JScott]

So next.... an entire TV show using deceased people but only those who's estates don't require a license fee...unle­ss they pay it.... so no Elvis or Mariyn....­.probably no Michael either.

[BlackJAC]

John Wayne did a Coors Light commercial after he died: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaTPIiIcYJQ&feature=player_embedded

[stockdale]

Great job of reporting. One slight error, though: Sources say that the real reason Malden declined is that he's set to star in the new Fox series "Sekulovich," about a ghost cop who has a midget helper, played by Hervé Villechaize, who lives in his nose.

[MA]

How about having the role of Oki played by Michael Jackson in the most sensitive and moving comeback role of his life, er death, whatever.

[Yat1954]

I love the line about Miyoshi Umeki retiring shortly after her own death in 2007. Love your work, and say hello to your father for me!

[jojojo]

Mr. Bierko,

I saw you on Broadway as Harold Hill. I've done Jacey Squires a few times in regional theaters, and you did a terrific job. You were also very fine in Cinderella Man, though the writers apparently made old Max Baer a lot meaner than he was in real life. YOU were terrific.

[Dickie Sampsoun]

Jacey Squires, eh? You must have a fine singing voice! I understudied Ewart Dunlop several seasons ago at the Mitzi Gaynor Playhouse in Elkhart and had a grand time. How did you handle the quick change after Lida Rose? Our wardrobe supervisor devised an ingenious breakaway suit which made the change a breeze for us. Write back!

[jojojo]

yep. breakway suits do it. Thank goodness for velcro! In a jekyll and hyde production, i once had 4 costumes on to start the second act. I'd run off, and they'd yank one layer off me and i'd go back on for a number, then off...and on...

[3fingerbrown]

And don't go away during the commercials: The late Billy Mays will be pitching the new Showtime Rotisserie Casket, for those who want to turn in their graves slowly and evenly.

[BlackJAC]

And they cancelled UNHITCHED *why!?*

[Steven Weber - Huffpost Blogger]

...and that IS the way it is. Genius.

[Thinkbolt]

I had to get half way through this story before I realized it was a joke. That's how bad things have gotten with the entertainment industry. I actually believed this premise...

[BlackJAC]

Considering there was this beer commercial a couple years back with John Wayne, as well as some TV show with Humphrey Bogart, it's okay to fall for the joke.

[BoVandy]

I think it might also have been that the "joke" wasn't all that funny, and in poor taste

[RealityBaseCamp]

I think I speak for us all when I say, "Huh?"

[sallythewerewolf]

That was my reaction!.­..

[LMPE]

I'd be only too happy to co-star with Jennifer Love Hewitt.