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35 YEARS AFTER MOVING ON, PULLING INTO YOUR OLD HOME'S DRIVEWAY áCAN FEEL A LITTLE WEIRD. <Slam.> UNLESS IT'S STILL - HOME. <It's good to be back. It seems like old hometown again.> DOLPH PULLIAM GREW UP AT CHANNEL 8. SO WHEN HE WALKED BACK INTO THE NEWSROOM-- <Oh wow. .> MEMORIES FLOWED. <Like old times, huh? Laugh. A little different than it was when I was here.> SURE, THE STAFF HAS TURNED OVER MANY TIMES SINCE HE LEFT IN 1990-- <Hi. Olivia Good to meet you in person. Good to see you.> <Welcome home. Thanks. It's good to be back.> BUT SO HAS THE PROCESS OF MAKING TELEVISION. <We had little cubicles there and manual typewriter. You're kidding. We did. We shot, with 16 millimeter film with the old Bell and Howell cameras.> MOST OF TODAY'S JOURNALISTS WEREN'T BORN WHEN DOLPH PULLIAM WAS ON TV-8. SO MEETING A GROUNDBREAKIN G BROADCASTER BECAME A HISTORY LESSON. <We put on our headsets, and then we go running through and we listen to it. We splice, take that out, tape it. Splice in another piece.> <It took a lot of effort and then probably made you appreciate the job in a different way. Right? You bet it did.> BECAUSE DOLPH LEARNED ON THE JOB. IN 1969, HE AND HIS TEAMMATES AT DRAKE UNIVERSITY SHOCKED THE BASKETBALL WORLD, GETTING TO THE NCAA FINAL FOUR. NUMBER FIVE BECAME A HOUSEHOLD NAME AND EVERYONE EXPECTED HIM TO HEAD TO THE NBA. UNTIL HIS PROFESSOR PULLED HIM ASIDE. <And then he said, now I want you to go back to your dorm, okay? Put on a suit and tie. What? And I want you to go down to channel eight. I want you to meet the station manager. Oh, my God, I want you to take that job, and I would. Whoa, professor, I said, I'm going to go play for the Boston Celtics. He said, no, I want you to go down to channel eight.> DOLPH HAD BEEN DREAMING OF N-B-A RINGS. HIS PROFESSOR INSISTED. <But Dolph, you do this, you do this. You will become the first African-American television broadcast in the state of Iowa.> HIS FIRST WEEK ON THE JOB, RUSS VAN DYKE SENT HIM TO A SHOOTING SCENE. HE GOT THERE BEFORE THE FIRST SQUAD CAR. <All of a sudden a window breaks and a shotgun comes through the window. And I'm still walking. And the police officer grabbed me just as the gun goes off, boom. And he says, how long have you been on this job? I just got it, man. You got to get killed if you're not careful here.> <The things that go on that people never see, never see at all.> INCLUDING THE EARLY DEATH THREATS-- <I'm scared as hell! What's going to happen to me?> CALLED IN JUST IOWA'S FIRST BLACK BROADCASTER. <Some of your managers here were trying to protect you and keep you in house and you still decided to show up on air and do your job.> <By holding me back, they were hindering me from growing, experiencing life.> <So yes, I had to let them know, yeah, I want to get out there and I want to do this, so watch my back but don't hold me back. group And they did.> EVENTUALLY, DOLPH TRANSITIONED FROM NEWS AND SPORTS TO CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING- <Perhaps no show is more special or more important than Dolph and Company. TV8's locally produced children's show. No cartoons here. Just a show that lets a child think, question, experience and enjoy being a kid.> WITH SILLY MOMENTS FROM HIS HAIRY SIDEKICK-- <Harry the beast was the naughty little gorilla.> AND BIG QUESTIONS FROM LITTLE BOYS. <They had never met a man, a black person before. And but they watch you on TV and you become their friend because you talk to them and you smile and you're funny.> <During the show, he says, "Dolph, what kind of soap do you use? And I said, and I said, well, honey, the same kind of soap that you use. And he is oh, he said well Dolph, when I wash, my dirt come off. He said, but off your dirt not coming off. And that gave me the opportunity to explain to that kid, why our skin colors and how God had made us different. But we're still the same. He accepted it and he just stayed in my lap.> TEACHING PARENTS A LESSON TOO. <We all don't have the same skin color. Even if you're an African American, you don't have the same skin color, right? So the audiences finally get to know that. Iowa finally got to see that.> DOLPH LED FUNDRAISERS AT CHRISTMAS-- <Operation Santa Claus. Here at TV 8, it's been a proud tradition at Christmas time for 25 years.> ALONGSIDE MARY BRUBAKER. <Here we are again. Again. Did you get a little cold out there today? Just a little nippy.> AND EACH LABOR DAY, RAISING MONEY FOR JERRY LEWIS' TELETHON. <Back when we first started. Now we would go all night and, it was a, it was a gruesome task, but you had to believe. What were we doing in helping raise money to to fight muscular dystrophy.> BY THE 80S, DOLPH WAS A DAILY FIXTURE ON MID-DAY. <Mid Day Nats.> BREAKING BARRIERS WITH EVERY NEW SHOW. < As the first black As the first black person to do it? In such a forward facing role in this community in our state, what did Iwa give you? You know, You know, that's a that's a good question. And it's one that I didn't know about until I got in here. What was going to happen to me in the state of Iowa?> <I knew that everywhere I go, I was going to be the only African American in the building. In the room. In the meeting. And for the most part, I was.> <Some will be mean to me and many will be nice to me. And I have to learn how to accept them both.> < You were kind You were kind of a catalyst for for conversation, for change in the community. And were at a juncture where you could educate and help. Yeah. You have Yeah. You have to realize how powerful of a medium, what you all know now, how powerful a medium this is because people watch you and they judge you.> <And so it was a lot of things that I had to be the first, and being the first sometime is not as easy.> BUT IT OPENED DOORS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF BROADCASTERS. <I've had folks go into the broadcasting field, like African-Americans that said, I saw you on TV, and I figured that if you can do it, I can do it as well.> ALWAYS WITH - <Good Dolph Giggle.> THAT DOLPH GIGGLE. <And you ran the course an