Bill Beutel/Roger Grimsby; Chuck Scarborough/Sue Simmons; 3 more memorable local news anchor teams

New York has several fine TV news anchor teams on the air right now but none like the original rock stars of local TV. Such stardom takes years to establish. Moreover, in the days when they ruled, audiences had just six stations to choose from, and weren't distracted by social media, streaming, and cable news fistfights.

 Here are five iconic local anchor teams, and why they mattered:

ROGER GRIMSBY/BILL BEUTEL

Grimsby ("Here now the news") was WABC/7's TV anchor from another planet, who didn't happy-talk his way through the latest weather report or "how about those Mets!" stories. He joined Ch. 7 in 1968, moved to the "Eyewitness News" anchor desk in '69 and a year later was teamed with Bill Beutel, who remained his partner until 1986. Beutel's straight-ahead style complemented Grimsby's acerbic, occasionally dyspeptic approach and the team dominated local news for most of their time together.. Beutel retired in 2001 and died in 2006, at 75, while Grimsby passed in 1995 at 66.

CHUCK SCARBOROUGH/SUE SIMMONS

New York's only anchor team with a national profile, to us they were just "Chuck 'n' Sue" — an opposite-attracts team at WNBC/4 who became part of the great city itself. Together, they also seemed to yoke the city's disparities — Chuck, a Southerner, and Sue, a born-and-bred New Yorker.  Chuck 'n' Sue were inseparable at 11 p.m. over a 32-year run, from 1980 to 2012, when she retired. (He retired in December, 2024.) She told me last year (on the occasion of her partner's 50th anniversary at Ch. 4), "Somehow we meshed. He was a lot more on the serious side when I first met him, but I chipped away over the years and he became such a fun guy." Would he have lasted 50 years without her? "Oh yes," she said. ("Probably not," he told me.)

JOHN ROLAND/BILL MCCREARY

Roland joined WNEW/5 (now WNYW) in 1969 and (other than a brief run as a reporter) was at the anchor desk over the next 35 years, until he retired in 2004. McCreary — his co from 1979-1983 — joined in early 1967 as one of New York TV's first Black reporters, determined to change TV's coverage of Black Americans. Together these two dominated the 10 p.m. news race. After McCreary's death in 2021 at 87, his wife O'Kellon McCreary told me that "TV stations didn't have anyone to go into the Black communities" but her husband made certain Ch. 5 got there. Roland (who died in 2023 at 81) once told me that an effective anchor "crashed through the TV set into that living room every night [and] took hold of your shoulder and held onto you for the whole program." Lucky for Ch. 5 that it had two of them.

ROLLAND SMITH/JIM JENSEN

Rolland Smith, now retired in California, was 11 p.m. co-anchor alongside Dave Marash, from 1986 to 1991, but the decade-long run at 6 (1976-1986) with Jim Jensen was the more dramatic run. Jensen was going through a lot over those years — an acrimonious divorce, and the death of his son in an upstate hang-gliding accident in 1979. The tragedy overwhelmed him. "He always talked about his son from that moment on," Smith told Newsday in 1989. Jensen battled drugs, alcohol and depression, while Smith remained by his side, on the air and off, when his co-anchor was undergoing treatment. On the air, Smith was the perfect complement to Jensen — serious, unflappable, even-keeled. Smith told me last year, "I did the best I could with the situation [and] all I could do as his friend was to listen ... No judgment. Just listen." Jensen died in 1999, at 72.

PAT HARPER/JOE HARPER

"Anchorman ... And Anchorwoman" was the headline of a 1975 ad for New York's newest team, at WPIX/11 — both married, while that anchorwoman was a New York TV first. Born Patricia Cipollaro, the Ch. 11 reporter had been married to Joe Harper, anchor of the 10 p.m."Action News," a few years before they were both named co-anchors. Joe Harper (who died in 1983) had a sonorous voice and steely delivery while Pat was looser, more approachable. Neither the team nor marriage lasted, dissolved within a year, although Pat returned to the anchor desk soon after (with Steve Bosh). Pat Harper — who died in 1994, at 59 — joined WNBC/4 in 1985 where she and Scarborough teamed at 6 p.m. from 1984 to 1990.