San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
TV meteorologist known for high jinks
Joel Bartlett became a TV meteorologist after he was caught in a storm at sea during a voyage that he probably should have known to avoid, given that, at the time, he was a weather forecaster for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
Bartlett told his harrowing shipwreck story at the Tiburon Yacht Club, and in the audience was a producer at KPIX. He detected Bartlett’s talent as a communicator and hired him to do weekend weather updates on a 13-week tryout that developed into a 31-year career — 14 at KPIX and 17 more at KGO-TV.
Bartlett, who had a knack for getting out of the studio and into the middle of the inclement weather he was covering, died March 31 at his horse ranch in Sonoma County, said his wife, Sahar Bartlett. He was in hospice care after a three-year battle with gastrointestinal cancer. He was 81.
“A lot of things in my life have been blessings in disguise,” Bartlett said in 2012, during his induction into the Silver Circle by the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. “Doing the weather on TV was one of the luckiest breaks for anyone to have, and it happened to me.”
Bartlett, who had no previous TV experience, was hired in 1974 and soon joined by co-anchors Wendy Tokuda and Dave McElhatton and sports anchor Wayne Walker,
to complete one of the mostloved foursomes in Bay Area TV news history.
“Joel was a real meteorologist who was a scientist who took it seriously, and that was not necessarily the case with TV weather people back then,” Tokuda said. “Joel was the real deal, but he was also very personable and charming.”
Bartlett may not have been the first TV meteorologist to stand in miserable weather to deliver his reports, but no competitor out-suffered him. He’d broadcast his report standing in floodwater. “Right now it’s still and clear. That means it’s still raining, and
clear up to my knees,” he’d announce. “Whoo, I love the feel of the rain in my face.”
To emphasize how hot it was, he stood with an ice cream cone dripping down his hand and onto his sleeve as he delivered his report.
“Joel was the high jinx of weather for 30 years,” said George Lang, Bartlett’s longtime cameraman and close friend. “He could take something as dry and scientific as weather and make it something that was fun to watch and giggle.”
Bartlett delivered one report in his tie and shirt with his slacks rolled up to his knees
while standing in shallow water at the bay front. At the end, he announced he was going home, handed over his microphone and dived into the bay, headed north toward Marin County.
“You’ll do anything for ratings!” Lang yelled as Bartlett disappeared under the water.
Before moving satellite imagery became prevalent, a weather reporter’s tools were a map and a marking pen. To liven it up, Bartlett would either open or close his report by flipping the marker in the air like a baton and catching it while looking at the camera and proclaiming, “Go out and and make it a great day.” It became his signature line.
He did one report while dressed in a tuxedo and purportedly tap dancing. The rapid staccato could be heard, but he could be seen only from the waist up.
“He was always up for anything that was funny,” Lang said. “He didn’t have an ego at all. He was one of those people who did not belong in television news.”
Bartlett was born Feb. 3, 1941, in Atlanta and raised in Arlington, Va. He graduated from Wakefield High School in 1958, and Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1962. He’d been in the ROTC and entered the Air Force, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant recruited as a meteorologist because of his background in science and math. He served six years, then pursued a job as a staff meteorologist at PG&E, to get to San Francisco.
When he got the job in 1968, he moved to Sausalito and spent six years with the utility company, joining with a friend to buy the sailboat that got him hung up on the rocks in the bay and changed his life’s trajectory. At KPIX, he benefited from the station’s use of handheld cameras and live shots transmitted to Sutro Tower and back to the station from a truck with a microwave dish on the roof. KPIX was a Bay Area pioneer in the live remotes that Bartlett became known for.
“A lot of anchors get tense on camera, but from the get-go Joel was a natural,” said Harry Fuller, retired news director and general manager at KPIX. “Perfection wasn’t an issue for him as it is with some newscasters. He knew the goal was to communicate information. It wasn’t about him.”
Aside from his marking pen, Bartlett’s favorite props were live animals. He once broadcast from inside a fish tank with seals nuzzling him. “Believe it or not, we had some showers break out over Northern California late this afternoon,” he reported.
“He was always open to silliness. That’s what made it so fun,” Lang said. “He could switch from being your teacher to being the kid in the chair next to you.”
He used his own horses as promotional tools. During one such ad, he was seen grooming his horse — named Tornado — in a barn with hard rain pounding down. “You really think I’d take you out in a storm like this?” he said to the horse. “Trust me, Tornado. It will clear up.” He was then filmed galloping away under clear skies.
In 1989, Bartlett was lured to KGO-TV as a centerpiece for a new unit called the Naturalists, to expand the Channel 7 News from traditional weather forecasting into reports on the environment and ecology, topics not commonly covered back then.
While reporting for the Naturalists, he still did the weather report, and the onlocation antics continued. He mushed a team of huskies. He rode a bull at the Cow Palace during the Grand National Rodeo. For a report in the Sierra, he was buried in snow and had to be dug out by a heroic rescue dog.
“KGO poached Joel away to improve the ratings,” Lang said, “and it worked.” Bartlett won an Emmy Award for weather casting in 2002. At the podium in his tuxedo, he took the opportunity to predict the weather for the next day. “It’s going to be beautiful,” he announced, “so go out and make it a great day.”
Four years later he retired to work with animals full time. At a benefit to save an old horse stable in Fairfax, he met Sahar McVickar. They were married in New Zealand, in 2011. In 2012, they moved from San Anselmo, further up into horse country, to property they purchased outside Santa Rosa.
“Joel spent all his time working on the ranch,” Lang said. “He was really good at feeding horses and mucking out stalls. He was in love with his John Deere tractor.”
Survivors include his wife, Sahar Bartlett of Santa Rosa; daughter, Cory Bartlett of Modesto; son, Todd Bartlett of Los Angeles; stepson, Alex Demos of Santa Cruz; and brother, Jerry Bartlett of Virginia.
“No finer man, husband, human has ever walked this earth,” Sahar Bartlett said by email. “I am beyond blessed to have shared the last and best fifteen years with Gentleman Joel.”
Donations in his name may be made to: Sonoma Equine Rescue Rehab and Adoption, 3736 Roblar Road, Petaluma, CA 94952; and Silver Paws for Love Foundation, P.O. Box 9004, Santa Rosa, CA 95405