It’s Tuesday afternoon. Do you know where your City Council member is? If it’s Daryl Slusher you’re looking for, look no further than Channel 6 — home of the new Daryl Slusher Show, starring the ex-Chronicle reporter and his lovely sidekick (read executive aide), Tina Bui.
Since the Nielsen ratings don’t survey the city’s cable channel, it’s hard to say whether Slusher’s show will be a “success.” However, it does provide respite from commercials, while offering the type of “witticisms” Austin has grown to expect from Mr. Place One. And that’s not all, folks: Aside from the jokes, viewers also receive valuable information — and many opportunities to watch Slusher slowly unravel his psyche. For example, during the July 31 installment featuring special guest Austin Police Dept. Chief Stan Knee, Slusher went into Donahue mode, introducing topics for discussion with personal tidbits (albeit without the same studied skill as Donahue — talk show host suaveness is not harvested overnight). “I always say, the best traffic officer is each driver behind the wheel,” Slusher said, before allowing Knee to begin.
Viewers also get to watch the sometimes pedantic council member make occasional screw-ups. For instance, Slusher offered this observation when talking about Iris Jones and the new police monitor office: “I am proud to be on the council that passed the first police oversight system in the country.” The Police Oversight Focus Group met for months, studying the many oversight systems in place across the country before coming up with the design Austin now has.
All things considered, Slusher may be on to something here with this TV show concept (though he’s not the first council member to have such a show). But can he spruce up the excitement and punch up those questions to formulate something a bit more out-of-the-box? You be the critic. The Daryl Slusher Show runs live every Tuesday at 1pm, and is repeated on the following Wednesday at 10pm and 11:30am Thursday.
This article appears in August 9 • 2002.