Some sad news this morning.

Yesterday, I learned that my favorite professor at Columbia died on Monday. His name was Ed Morris, and if you read his obituary, you'd know some of the things that I liked so much about him, and some of the things that made him an incredibly unique person in television.

The obituary does mention that he was once program director at our local public television station, WTTW Window To The World. What it doesn't mention is that the man was among the first television executives who realized the brilliance of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In fact, it was Ed who was generally credited with first introducing that show to America, via public tv.

Aside from Ed's love and appreciation of fine arts, and his desire to meld that appreciation with television (something which is done far too rarely in this country), he had incredibly high standards. He was the first professor at Columbia to give me a B in a class when I truly deserved it. I never questioned getting that B because, since it came from Ed, it was honest. When you were wrong, when you were mistaken, he let you know. Therefore, when that man gave you an A, you knew it was because you did A work. You earned it.

I had a special affinity for Ed because he was the first staff member I met when I went to register for classes as a brand spanking new TV student. I was extremely sick that day with a fierce summer cold, and didn't yet have confidence in my academic abilities. We talked, he signed me up for his TV History class, and assured me that I'd be fine. I think I can say that I became one of his favorite students, and he invited me to come by his office just to chat if I liked, which I actually did many times over the course of my studies there. He would ask me what I wanted to do with my career, and he would tell his TV war stories. We would always talk about his desk display collection of old pipes and ashtrays.

He was just a good guy. Smart and into the arts without being pretentious, and a television executive without being slimy. A hilariously funny, passionately outspoken, and occasionally gruff old bastard. There should be more people like him, especially in this business.

Good professors make all the difference.

There's no good way to segue into anything else right now. If today at work is anything like yesterday at work, I just might come back to bring you some funny later. I will say, though, that if you ever by chance run into a former film major down at your alma mater while you're taking care of some Semester in LA business, it's probably not a good idea to make smart ass remarks about kung fu movies, because, hey, you never know.

I think I'm going to surprise everyone at work by showing up on time today.