Entertainment
Greg Moody
Critic at Large Greg Moody was born in Piqua, Kansas, on October 4, 1895. Within hours, he had become the hit of his parent's vaudeville act, "The Five Moodys," as "Elmer, the Flying Baby," in which his mother sewed a suitcase handle to the back of his One-sie and launched him into the balcony. The handle also came in handy during the family's many quick jaunts out of various tank towns just ahead of the authorities. Despite his infancy, Child Labor Laws allowed Moody to work in the theater because of a variety of factors: He wore tailored baby suits, drove a small car like that annoying mouse, Stuart Little, smoked his mother's cigars, voted openly for President Hoobert Heaver, played second base for the Vaudeville Mudhens and made the State of Indiana believe he was 45. (His mother claims it wasn't as difficult as it sounds.)
Moody sporadically attended various primary schools, majoring in lunch and obnoxious classroom behavior. He then attended Plainwell High School, the only high school in the nation made completely from rice and old shoes.
Upon his high school graduation, Moody blackmailed ... attended ... Western Michigan University, School of Liberal Arts, Buggy Whip Design, Mystical Wandering and Radio Tube Architecture. He is the last graduate of the school to ever get a job.
Moving on to New York City, Moody worked as an actor in a professional company of Godspell, a stand up comic, stock room boy, dresser for the cast of "Oh, Calcutta" and messenger boy for American Express Travel Services, where he regularly delivered airline tickets to CBS-TV and drew a mustache on Dan Rather's photo.
In 1975, Moody made the natural show biz career move, jumping from a burgeoning stock room boy career in the Big Apple to a hospital orderly job in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After winning the love of his patients and doctors with his bedside manner and refusal to hold patients in position for X-Rays, he was lured away from the medical profession by an All News Radio Station, the signal of which never left its own parking lot.
Moody's performance as Grand Rapids' Critic at Large won rave notices from local arts groups. The Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and Grand Rapids Civic Ballet still hate his guts. Especially the Civic Theatre, which still smarts from his comments: "You hope somebody soon invades this island" -- and-- "If Nellie Forbush flaps her arms any more, she might just fly away, which, as I think of it, is not a bad idea."
To this day, Moody is not allowed to darken the towels in the Civic Theatre restrooms.
He then went on to be Critic at Large in Milwaukee radio, and then, after a surprise format change to country music, which did not require an on staff Critic at Large, to the job of TV/Radio Columnist for The Milwaukee Sentinel.
Moody's six-day-a-week prize winning column of blistering social commentary and general nonsense at the Sentinel got him noticed in Milwaukee TV. He was hired away by WITI (CBS) in 1981, mainly in an attempt to shut him up. He then spent five years working as a Greg-Of-All-Trades with no set job description, although he showed a rare talent for putting For Sale signs on every open desk in the building, including that of the General Manager, which led, oddly enough, to his next job:
In 1986, Moody moved to KUSA-TV in Denver as Critic at Large, before putting one over on management here and bringing his act to CBS4 in 1988. In his 20 years at CBS4, Moody has won 14 regional Emmy awards for commentary and writing in subjects ranging from movies to TV, newspapers to books, Hollywood history to journalistic ethics, a subject about which he knows little or nothing.
Moody is the best-selling author of five mysteries, "Two Wheels," "Perfect Circles," "Derailleur," "Deadroll," and "Dead Air," all published by VeloPress in the United States and Germany. He's as popular in Germany as David Hasselhoff, Jim Belushi and Kathie Lee Gifford.
Amazingly, Moody is married to a beautiful woman, referred to by her friends as "Poor Girl" and intends to remain so, at least until she comes to her senses. He has two children, who love, respect and ignore him depending on their current financial needs, two dogs, one rat and two cats who are convinced his head is a cat bed. Moody lives a single level life in a split level home on multiple planes of reality. Someday, he hopes to revive the family act and once more become "Elmer, the Flying Baby." The problem, of course, will be finding someone strong enough to loft him, once more, into the balcony of life.
Read Greg's blog The Moody Bugle.