Just six months after the 33-year WJZ veteran left the station, he has signed a deal to host a Sunday morning round table on WMAR.
Here's how Sher describes the concept of the show, to begin in mid-September: "Four panelists and me, and it's totally a mixed panel. They yell and scream."
In other words, Square Off, the spirited gabfest that Sher hosted for 19 years before WJZ pulled the plug in 1997.
Sher even hopes to use the Square Off name for the new half-hour program, which will air Sunday mornings at 9:30. Bill Hooper, Channel 2's general manager, tells me they're looking into whether WJZ has rights to the name. They'll come up with another if need be.
"I was disappointed when Square Off was pulled off the air 12 years ago and am just delighted that Baltimore once again is going to have its own local, controversial, hot-tempered debate show," said Sher - who, incidentally, will receive a lifetime achievement award next month from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
The show's exclusive sponsor will be The Murphy Firm, Billy Murphy's law practice, Sher said. Murphy and his mother, the late community and civil rights activist Madeline Wheeler Murphy, were two regulars on the original Square Off.
The furniture survived
They didn't need the Scotchgard after all.
The directors and other bigwigs admitted to the filmmakers' lounge at last weekend's Maryland Film Festival managed not to muss up the fab furnishings on loan from Nouveau Contemporary Goods.
"They [store owners Steve Appel and Lee Whitehead] were told that Matthew Modine fell asleep in the teal damask armchair for quite a while," said Nouveau spokeswoman Vicki Aversa. "No drool detected."
