Phillyist Interviews... Mike Jerrick

You seem to have a great deal of fun on air. Do you prefer doing the lighter type of feature stories where you can sort of go crazy or the hard news stories?
I got to tell you, this may be surprising to people, I like the much more topical, again bordering on the harder news. I have kind of changed as I have gotten older. That is a little more compelling for me. That is what I watch when I get home. I got the news channels on, sports and not so much the fluffier stuff. But, I love to have a good time. I have had a good time my entire life. I have to choose, newsier, more topical, what everybody is talking about today. That is what I like.

You co-anchored Good Day Philadelphia for three years, have pinch hit a few times on Good Day New York and you were on the weekend edition of Fox and Friends and Dayside on the Fox News Channel. Do you prefer doing local news or do you prefer the national stage?
I love the national stage, no question about it. It is so much fun, but I am a fan of local television, that is for sure. Even though this is a national show, it has local texture to it and a local feel to it. But one of the reasons I do like local televisions is because you get to be more specific about your town. Like in Philly – oh those Flyers how are they doing, the Eagles. You talk about certain traffic situations on the Schuylkill Expressway and more specific interaction with the public as you walk around, that’s cool. On a national stage when I am walking around you may have somebody Michigan and Houston, Texas and L.A., that’s cool, too. You just can’t be quite as specific and get into local politics and local issues. So it is both very exciting. I would never trade the national stage experience, it is fantastic.

You were on America’s Talking. Was that how you met Roger Ailes?
That is how I met him. In 1994 they decided to put together a cable network of nothing but talk. 24 hours of talk, one talk show after another. I think he had three months to slam it together, so he looked at thousands of tapes. He saw mine and said, "I’d like to talk to that guy.” Put a meeting together and in the first five minutes I though this would work. So that is where I got to know him. I think it was in April of ’94 and I have known him ever since. And he even mentioned back then in 1994 that he imagined me having a morning talk show. So it took this long to get it done, but it never left his mind is the way he tells it.

You have done a lot of interviews with a myriad of people, some serious, some not. Is there one or two that stand out?
This one right here. [Laughs] They do become a blur after awhile, but this goes back. [I only felt] nervous or whoa this is a big deal a couple of times.

One, Ozzie Smith is my baseball hero, my sports hero and I got to meet him and he signed a jersey for me so that was a thrill.

And Henry Fonda, long gone now, but it was such a thrill to meet him. I remember meeting him in a hotel room, that is where we did the interview. Knock on the door, opens the door and he has a glass of orange juice waiting for me. This big time actor, he made me feel at ease. Those two pop out.

Oh! Halle Barry. I have always been in love with Halle Barry and so I got to interview her twice. I remember the interview was set up a month in advance and so we had a countdown on the America’s Talking show and every day it was closer, closer and closer and she didn’t disappoint.

You and Juliet Huddy recently taped a guest shot on All My Children in the very difficult role of playing yourselves. Did you have fun doing that?
Well, I stayed up all night rehearsing myself. Now, I’ll tell you it was a lot of fun. When we first singed up to do it, “Ah, this will be great.” But when it got close, the day before I went into a panic. I thought it would be a couple of lines; you know, “Hi I’m Mike, welcome to the Morning Show. . .” The script, I swear, was an inch thick and we had a lot of lines. So the way we got around it, because we hold blue cards on the set on our real talk show, they let us have our lines on blue cards. So when Erica Kane is giving her lines, [pretends to look at blue cards and mumbles] ok, “Yes Erica, you’re right.” So it worked out that way, but Juliet and I were both very nervous that we would forget our lines. Have you ever been over to the set at All My Children? It is all these union people and they are on a schedule, scene one. . . So if you screw up everything shuts down and you have to do it all over again and they don’t screw up, the actors on a soap. She is whipping through three lines of material without flinching and we are sitting there, “Oh my God, don’t blow this!” But we made it through and it turned out to be a lot of fun. By the way that airs May 29th.

What do you miss about Philadelphia?
Oh man, that is a long list because I really like Philadelphia. A lot of times people would say, “Why would you like Philly?” You have heard that haven’t you. It is a tough city and all that. Luckily the people of Philadelphia accepted me, because if they don’t. . . They opened up their hearts to me the moment I went on the air. So that made me feel good and like the city because the people accepted me so instantly.

But I just had a great little life. I lived in Rittenhouse Square; the station is on Old City. So that was kind of my life. What is wrong with that?

The sports teams I am totally into now. I still go to the Eagles games. I am a Phillies fan. I got into hockey with the Flyers. I miss the sports.

I also miss the great restaurants. That is another little known thing by people around the country – Philadelphia has fantastic restaurants.

But again, the people – I miss walking down the street in Philly and having people just yell out of their car windows what they like and dislike about the show, what they like and don’t like about you. The majority of the time it was just really good feedback from the people. I am very much into people. That is what TV is, you tune in to watch other people, not sets and furniture and all that.

Is there one story in Philadelphia that you covered that sticks out?
This is my favorite thing. The Sixers, I am still a huge fan of the Sixers. I am a big fan of Allen Iverson and I hate that they traded him to Denver.

The Sixers made it to the NBA championship and they went out and beat the Lakers in the first game. Any sports fan in Philadelphia says it was one of the best nights of our lives. So even though they didn’t win the championship. . . In Philly if you win the championship they have a parade down Broad Street from City Hall to the stadium in South Philly.

I said, “Well too bad they didn’t win it all. I am still going to give them a parade.” So we got a helicopter and about five live trucks and I did it by myself. I walked from City Hall, live on the air over the two hour morning show and walked all the way down to South Philly. And people came out of their homes with cards, letters, gifts for the team. We had a whole bucket of gifts for the team by the time we ended the show at the stadium in South Philly.

Is there anything you miss about the Midwest?
I miss my friends. My closest friends are still the people I went to grade school, high school with. I’ve had my same close friends since I was five at All Saints School in Wichita, Kansas. I miss them, but I am constantly on the phone with them and e-mail them every day.

That is probably it. People you can trust and knew me before I got into television, so that is probably the number one thing.

And I do like the quiet of the middle part of Kansas. You can actually go out into a pasture in Kansas and hear your heart beat, that is how quiet it is. I like that.