Who Will We "Call For Help" Now?

So far, this spring, television viewers have lost such pop culture classics as "Friends" & "Frasier". However, as San Francisco based cable channel “Tech TV” has been assimilated by the dreaded Borg, Comcast, who’s merging it with their 24 hour Video gaming channel, another program cancellation is going sadly unnoticed by the majority of the viewing public, as Friday, May 21, 2004 marked the final episode of Tech TV's "Call For Help". During it’s 6 year run, host & show creator, Leo Laporte helped thousands of computer owners effectively use those complicated pieces of technology, making sure they did not go the way of most family VCR’s and sit in the background with the “12:00” time light endlessly flashing on & off. Everyday, like a best friend or favorite uncle, Leo came into our homes, answered our live phone calls, & tried successfully to help us understand & make sense of everything from the internet, cell phones, DVD players & printers to network routers, hard drives & motherboards. If it has a chip in it, you could call Leo & he could help you use it to its fullest advantage. He honestly believes that these devices can help you change your world for the better. I believe him. It wasn’t enough that he did this everyday for one hour; he actually did it for two. He also created & co-hosted “The Screen Savers” as well. How many hosts do you know that would work 2 hours of live television 5 days a week? Leo did. He didn't "just do it", he did it magnificently, with style & flair & loved every minute of it. Leo didn't just do two hours of live tech help TV 5 days a week. He did it as a master communicator and accomplished educator & entertainer. He has the rare educator gifts of patience & humor. He listened carefully to each question and explained the answer thoroughly, in simple terms the novice could understand, while never speaking down to the more tech savvy viewers, and all the while making the whole experience entertaining. His software & hardware reviews came from actual personal experience and not from payoffs from companies plugging products. If he didn’t like a product & didn’t think you should waste money on it, he told you so. There are a lot of people who are going to miss Leo & “Call For Help”. People, who depended on him to take away the confusion of all this new technology that changes faster than I can type this. I do hope the show pops back up on one of the Discovery channels or similar outlets, because Leo, your work is not done. We need you. It’s not enough for us to have to settle merely for your streaming radio broadcasts each Saturday & Sunday on KFI, Los Angeles. There is too much visual content that needs to go along with your explanations. Besides, we will miss your face. Until then, I will take solace in that “for one brief shining moment” there was a place where, if I had problems with my “personal confuser”, I didn’t whine or moan…all I had to do was “Call For Help”. Thank you Leo, for six great years.