Jack Perkins (reporter)

Jack Perkins (born December 28, 1933 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American reporter, commentator, war correspondent, and anchorman. He has been dubbed "America's most literate correspondent" by the Associated Press.

Perkins received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Case Western Reserve University in 1956. While at Case Western Reserve, Perkins joined the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.

Jack Perkins has appeared on NBC Nightly News and The Today Show, and on A&E as host of Biography. Until 2012, he hosted A Gulf Coast Journal, a weekly magazine show which aired on Tampa, Florida PBS member station WEDU-TV. He also hosts and narrates special programs on Chattanooga, Tennessee PBS member station WTCI-TV. Perkins was formerly a news reporter for NBC affiliate KNBC, in Los Angeles, California.

Perkins devotes a great deal of his time to creating original photography and poetry which he brings together in books, recent titles including Island Prayers: Photographs and Poems of Praise (2006) and Nature of God: Exploring Nature to meet the Creator.

His 2013 book, Finding Moosewood, Finding God tells of the period in his life between 1984 and 1999 that he and his wife Mary Jo, lived on Bar Island off Acadia National Park in Maine to live a simple life, and there found God.

Perkins's son, Eric Perkins, has followed his father into journalism, serving as Sports Director at KARE-TV, the NBC affiliate station in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Perkins and his Biography introductions have been parodied several times on Mystery Science Theater 3000, with Perkins portrayed by Michael J. Nelson as a somewhat scatter-brained man prone to long, meandering, name-dropping rambles about nothing in particular, and, on syndicated versions of MST3K, dubbed The Mystery Science Theater Hour, the character introduced the films. Perkins has declared himself a fan of the show and his parody on it, even participating in an online drive to save the program during its first cancellation. Perkins was also spoofed on Saturday Night Live, first by Harry Shearer reporting on the Walter Keane art exhibit in 1980; and then by Darrell Hammond, who played Perkins as a sarcastic alcoholic while hosting Biography.

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