Sportscaster Chris Berman Receives Walk of Fame Star
By STEVEN HERBERT, City News Service

HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – Sportscaster Chris Berman received the 2,409th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, honoring his more than 30 years with ESPN.

“I can only hope that the previous 2,408 have had as much fun getting here as I have,'' Berman said at the conclusion of the late-morning ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard, near Vine Street.

Berman early noted off some of the famed entertainers his star is near — Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson, Kirk Douglas, Gary Cooper, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis Jr., Mary Pickford and Katharine Hepburn.

“If these are my neighbors, what am I doing here?'' Berman said.

Berman said his star represents the efforts of his colleagues at ESPN, some of whom were present at the ceremony, including Professional Football Hall of Fame member Steve Young, Keyshawn Johnson and John Saunders.

“ESPN is truly one of the great success stories company-wise in the history of our country,'' said Berman, who joined ESPN in October 1979, less than a month after the all-sports cable channel began broadcasting.

“Thirty years ago we were just a pipe dream. Cable TV 1979, 1980, 1981 what the hell is that? Why would I pay 20 bucks a month for 36 channels? I already get six for free. I can't watch 36 channels at once.''

Tom Jackson, Berman's colleague on “Sunday NFL Countdown,'' called Berman “the face of ESPN for three decades.''

“The successes that we have had are all tied to Boom,'' said Jackson, using a shortened version of Berman's nickname Boomer.

Jackson said one of his favorite Berman moments came in 1995 when he was the play-by-play announcer on the game when Cal Ripken Jr. set Major League Baseball's consecutive games record.

“For 24 minutes, he didn't speak,'' Jackson said.

Berman also hosts “Monday Night Countdown''; the “Monday Night Football'' halftime show; the U.S. Open golf coverage, Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby, anchors the NFL draft coverage, and is a Major League Baseball play-by-play announcer.

Berman became the first cable sportscaster to be named National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He received the award five additional times, most recently in 2001.

“He is the best highlights man who ever lived,'' Jackson said. “I know that because I am with him when he does it and I've been with him for almost 25 years watching him do it.''

Berman is also known for the offbeat nicknames he has bestowed on more than 1,000 Major League Baseball players while narrating highlights. He has said his personal favorites include Roberto “Remember the'' Alomar; Bert “Be Home'' Blyleven, Jim “Two Silhouettes On'' Deshaies; and Fred “Crime Dog'' McGriff.

BIOGRAPHY

ESPN'S CHRIS BERMAN HONORED WITH 2,409TH STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME
Guest speakers: John Skipper, Executive Vice President, ESPN and Tom Jackson, NFL Analyst, ESPN
2,409th 6259 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Dillon's
on Monday, May 24, 2010

Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's The Second City Theatre and the cast of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He has also starred in a string of successful comedy films in the 1990s including Tommy Boy and Black Sheep before his death on December 18, 1997 in his Chicago apartment of cardiac arrest caused by a drug overdose.

Farley was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Anne, a homemaker, and Thomas "Tom" Farley, Sr., who owned an oil company. He had three brothers, Tom, Jr., Kevin and John, and a sister, Barbara. His cousin, Jim Farley, is a vice president at Ford Motor Company. Farley's family are traditionally Irish Catholic, and Farley attended Catholic schools in his hometown, including Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart. According to Joel Murray, a fellow Second City cast member, Chris would "always make it to Mass". Many of his summers were spent as a camper and counselor at Red Arrow Camp, near Minocqua, Wisconsin.

Farley graduated from Marquette University in 1986, with a concentration in communications and theater. After college, he worked with his father at the Scotch Oil Company in Madison. He got his start in professional comedy at the Ark Improv Theatre in Madison, and at the Improv Olympic theater in Chicago. He then performed at Chicago's Second City Theatre, initially as part of Second City's touring group. He was eventually promoted to their main stage. While working at Second City, he was discovered by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels.

Along with Chris Rock, Farley was one of two new SNL cast members announced in the spring of 1990. On the show, Farley frequently collaborated with SNL fellow cast members David Spade, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and Rob Schneider, among others. This group came to be known as the "Bad Boys of SNL". Popular characters performed by Farley included himself on "The Chris Farley Show", a talk show in which Farley quite often "interviewed" the guest, got very nervous and asked simple-minded or irrelevant questions, such as what their favorite rock band was; "Matt Foley", an over-the-top motivational speaker who constantly reminded other characters that he "lived in a van, down by the river"; Todd O'Connor of Bill Swerski's Superfans, a group of stereotypical Chicagoans who constantly shout "da Bears!";, a Chippendale's dancer, in a famous sketch that paired him with guest host Patrick Swayze; one of the "Gap Girls", who hung out together at a local mall; a stereotypical lunch lady, to the theme of Lunchlady Land performed by Adam Sandler; and Bennett Brauer, a Weekend Update commentator who often divulged his personal and hygienic problems via air quotes. Some of these characters were brought to SNL from his days at Second City. Farley also performed impersonations of Tom Arnold, who gave Farley's eulogy at his funeral; Andrew Giuliani, Jerry Garcia, Meat Loaf, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dom DeLuise, Roger Ebert, Carnie Wilson, Newt Gingrich, Mindy Cohn, Hank Williams Jr., and Rush Limbaugh.

Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central.

Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they relocated and settled in the working-class area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His mother, Rosalie, was a teacher and social worker for the mentally handicapped; his father, Julius Rock, was a former truck driver and newspaper deliveryman. Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery. His younger brothers Tony, Kenny and Jordan are also in the entertainment business. His older half-brother, Charles, died in 2006 due to a long struggle with alcoholism. Rock has said that he was influenced by the performing style of his paternal grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher.

Rock was bussed to schools in predominately white neighborhoods of Brooklyn where he endured racist bullying and beatings from white students. As he got older, the bullying became worse and Rock's parents pulled him out of James Madison High School. He decided to drop out of high school altogether and later received a GED. Rock worked menial jobs at various fast-food restaurants.

Rock began doing stand-up comedy in 1984 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star. He slowly rose up the ranks of the comedy circuit in addition to earning bit roles in the film I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and the TV series Miami Vice. Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II.

Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer and a professional basketball and baseball player. For the course of his four decade career, he was best known for his roles in films of the 1950s, such as Pvt. Davey White, in the movie South Sea Woman, opposite Burt Lancaster, as Det. Ben Merrill in Hot Rod Girl and as Burn Sanderson in Old Yeller, opposite Dorothy McGuire. He was also known for his starring role on television in the 1960s ABC hit western series, The Rifleman. Towards the end of his career, he reprised his role as Lucas McCain in The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, with Johnny Crawford and as veteran police officer, Capt. Damian Wright in his last film, Three Days to a Kill.

Connors was born Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors in Brooklyn, New York, second of two children and only son of Allan and Marcella Connors, emigrants from the Dominion of Newfoundland. His father was a longshoreman and his mother a homemaker. He was reared Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.

According to his sister, Gloria Cole, she said Kevin was never close to his father, avoiding the father figure bond growing up, and he was always getting into trouble. Allan later took a job as night watchman.

His mother, Marcella, was absolutely marvelous to Kevin and his sister, and was an excellent cook who kept the family well fed despite the fact that they were poor. She took several jobs working as a janitor so her family wouldn’t to go hungry. Long before Kevin was a sports fan, she was a sports fan herself who always enjoyed listening to both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants on radio. She had a wonderful relationship with Kevin, who cherished her.

Television producer Chuck Lorre was honored with the 2,380th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mark Panatier, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Chairman of the Board, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Christine Baranski, and cast members from "Two and a Half Men" and "Big Bang Theory."

7021 Hollywood Boulevard on March 12, 2009.

BIOGRAPHY

Award-winning executive producer, writer, creator Chuck Lorre has created and helmed some of the most successful sitcoms in television history, ruling the airwaves for the past 20 years, with hit shows like "Grace Under Fire," "Dharma & Greg," and "Cybill." He currently is creator and executive producer of two Warner Bros. Television and the CBS hit comedies, "Two and a Half Men" the number one comedy on television and four-time People's Choice Award winner, and "The Big Bang Theory" one of television's fastest growing sophomore series which, in its second season, is averaging more than 10 million viewers per week.

A native of Long Island, New York, Lorre got his start as a guitarist/singer, touring the country and writing several hundred pop songs that, as he puts it, "helped keep him out of the big time" (Debbie Harry's top 40 hit "French Kissin' in the USA" being the lone exception). After more than a decade on the road, Lorre decided to turn his attention to television. He began writing animation scripts for DIC and Marvel Productions, as well as writing and producing the themes and scores for such animated series as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

A spec primetime script soon led to freelance work on the syndicated comedy "Charles In Charge" and eventually to a staff job on the NBC sitcom "My Two Dads", starring Paul Reiser. Lorre's big break came in 1991, when he became a supervising producer on the ABC/Carsey-Werner hit comedy "Roseanne." Over the next two seasons, during which he was upped to co-executive producer, Lorre helped bring the show to the height of its critical and popular acclaim, shattering one sacred cow after another in the process.

Since then, Lorre has dominated network television by single-handedly keeping the multi-camera sitcom alive through hit series that generate mass appeal. He continues to break television records with "Two and a Half Men." It is the number one off-network sitcom in syndication for the 2007-2008 season. During this season, the rebroadcast of the show has delivered more viewers than first-run episodes of nearly every other sitcom.

In January 2009, Lorre kicked off the New Year when he was honored with the NATPE Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award for exhibiting extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating television programming and in evoking the spirit of Brandon Tartikoff's generosity. This past February, Lorre was presented with the 2009 Television Showman of the Year Award at the 46th Annual ICG Publicists Awards Ceremony, which recognizes individuals whose creative accomplishments reflect the finest qualities of what has traditionally been defined as showmanship. Lorre will also receive the David Angell Humanitarian Award on behalf of the American Screenwriters Association for demonstrating his charitable efforts at the Venice Family Clinic. This award is presented to an individual in the entertainment industry who contributes to global well-being through their donation of time, expertise or other support to improve the human condition.

Despite his busy schedule, Lorre is involved with the aforementioned

Venice Family Clinic and the Dharma/Grace Foundation, where he insisted that the foundation directly benefit the people for whom the money was intended. In other words, dollars had to be translated immediately into services. Through the Dharma/Grace Foundation, Lorre has made it possible for funds to be distributed to the Clinic in perpetuity. In 2002, Lorre was honored with the Silver Circle Humanitarian Award for his compassion and his determination to assure that the sick be cared for, that children be given a healthy beginning and that no one be turned away for lack of financial resources. Another addition to the clinic, The Robert Levine Family Health Center, named after Lorre's father, provided free healthcare services to more than 4,000 women and teens in 2008 and continues to serve a growing number of patients at 5% increase each year. In addition to serving as a core benefactor and advocate for the organization, Lorre is also a member of the Philanthropy Board.