CHUCK HENRY: Eye on Inventions

For more than eight years, Emmy-winning Chuck Henry served as host of KABC-TV’s magazine series, “Eye on L.A..” Now he and Paula McClure (of ABC’s “The Home Show”) are the hosts of the new syndicated weekly series “First Look,” which previews new inventions, technologies and systems. Each week, “First Look” features new products in the areas of electronics, science and technology, robotics, medicine, automotive, computers, travel and leisure, health and fitness, food and the environment.

Henry discussed “First Look” with Susan King.

How does “First Look” find inventions? Do inventors come to you?

The question that gets asked a lot is, “Are you going to run out of new ideas and new things?”

The whole design of the show is there has never been a clearinghouse, as it were, where you could go and find out what all these new ideas and inventions are. They are literally tens of thousands of ideas and inventions that people have come up with, either large corporations who have a great amount of money behind them or just guys in the backyard working on something in their garage. There’s plenty.

The sad thing is that the backyard individuals have got great ideas, but they have no concept on how to market them. That’s the big stumbling block. A guy will work five, 10 or 15 years on something, really perfect it, and then he has no idea how to market the idea.

A lot of people will see the show and then they will contact us.

Other than that it’s lots of research through magazine and news articles and calling around. There’s a staff of researchers back in New York who work on it. The hardest thing is clearing up the ones that work from the ones that aren’t any good.

This show’s focus is on things that can impact on your life. That’s the criteria. It has to be new. It’s something the general public has never seen before and it can be everything from a gadget to a surgical procedure.

I really think probably some of the best (inventions) are the surgical procedure stories, like an artificial limb that for the first time people can get a sense of feel through.

Whereas before, people with artificial limbs could use them, but let’s say if they were to grab a ball they would grab it too hard and squish it and break it. The guy has developed a way through sensors attached to the nerve endings that do work to give these people now a feeling in their limb.

What have been the most frequent inventions the series has shown?

I have done a lot of bicycles and lawn mower stories.

One lawn mower is a solar-powered lawn mower, but it’s impervious to any kind of water or dampness. A guy takes the hose and squirts it and it keeps on cutting the grass. Another guy has come up with one that has small computer sensors on it and is absolutely automatic. You take it out to the lawn, you show it where the lawn is, you turn it on and you go back in your house and it will automatically cut the grass. If a little kid comes by, it will stop. It won’t hit a kid, a dog, or a ball.

We’ve shown an automatic transmission bicycle. And we’ve shown bicycles where you don’t peddle it with your feet, you peddle it with your hands, so your handlebars rotate.

Are you still working for KABC?

I’m employed by KABC and I continue to produce shows for Channel 7. I produce about three or four new documentaries a year.

The last one I did (which aired last month) was a thing called “Forgotten Hollywood,” which I hope will become a series of shows. I have always loved films and it’s kind of a tribute to the lost Hollywood.

Each one I produce is completely different from the last one. Another one that I did was on Amelia Earhart. I actually went down to the South Pacific to the places she supposedly went down and retraced her flight. I did interviews with people who claim they saw her after her plane went down.

Do you prefer producing to being in front of the camera?

Producing shows is what I really love. When I was in school I never saw myself on camera, but it just kind of happened.

I did the news for 18 years and then I got a real break at KABC and I started to work on “Eye on L.A.” and I could produce my own shows. So I kind of got back to where I started.

“First Look” airs Saturdays at 4 p.m. on KNBC, Sundays at 5 p.m. on KESQ and Saturdays at 1 a.m. on KGTV.