Primary Colors, An Artist on the Campaign Trail

Artist-reporter Franklin McMahon has combined his more than ample talents with one of the outstanding television stations of the nation, WBBM-TV in Chicago, to produce an exquisite and meaningful look at the 1976 Presidential Primary elections. From the New Hampshire primary to conventions, artist McMahon dogged the candidates’ steps with pen and brush in hand, and, working with narrator and WBBM-TV anchorman Walter Jacobson, brought viewers a masterful piece of Americana, titled Primary Colors, An Artist on the Campaign Trail. The program brought a new dimension to reportorial journalism, a dimension which the Peabody Board found exciting and innovative. It contributed to a better understanding of all who sought and the one who won, the nation’s highest office. For this pioneering effort, a Peabody Award to Franklin McMahon and WBBM-TV.