Gary Levin comes down as Television Editor USA Today

When Gary Levin left Variety To serve as the best TV reporter in USA Today at the beginning of 1998, “touched by an angel” was still broadcast on CBS.

“The X-Files” was a hot building for Fox. “Suddenly Susan” Anchored Monday for NBC. “Boy meets world” was halfway through the run on ABC. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” rose on the WB and “Moesha” was an anchor for UPN.

After 28 years at USA Today, Levin draws the curtain on his full-time journalistic career and jerks as a television editor.

The television industry was light years away from today’s vast, global pay TV market when Levin arrived in the New York office of USA Today. Which means that he was perfectly positioned in what was then the most read newspaper in the country to describe the wild ride of companies, content and technological innovation that greatly expanded television.

In a greeting to Levin’s unusually long run at the newspaper in Gannett, the US today brought colleagues to his skills as a journalist and to his character as a colleague. Levin recently received the Ultimate Fourth Estate Tribute – a fake front page of USA Today with stories that announce his lifespan and his performance.

Robert Bianco, an old TV critic for USA Today, emphasized how strong Levin supported him, even when Bianco’s reviews angry the sources of Levin.

“My God, he was nice to work with. Seriously funny – and sometimes just bad – a dry sense of humor illuminates by an absurd preference for slapstick,” Bianco wrote.

Another former USA Today colleague, reporter, Bill Keveney, mentioned Levin’s Drive to break news and provide strong stories on his beat. Levin created the “Save Our Shows” function in USA Today as a vehicle to draw attention to worthy programs that a viewer boost needs to keep them in the air.

“I will always admire the report of Gary’s shoes-leather-to-day calls with his afstig list of contacts to meticulous activities on saving our shows,” Keveney wrote. “And I appreciated his blunt honesty that a delicate ego could bruised, but earned him respect from TV -execs.”

Before USA Today, Levin spent two and a half years with Variety In New York, about TV, marketing, advertisements, sports media, broadcast news and companies. Earlier in his career he was a reporter for the advertisement age.

Below are two examples of Levin’s work for Variety: