Huell Howser, TV show host dies, at 67

In this March 31, 2005, file photo provided by the Howser production company via KCET, television host Huell Howser poses for a photo at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Lancster, Calif. Howser, the homespun host of public television's popular "California's Gold" travelogues, has died at age 67. less In this March 31, 2005, file photo provided by the Howser production company via KCET, television host Huell Howser poses for a photo at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Lancster, Calif. Howser, ... more Photo: Uncredited, Associated Press Photo: Uncredited, Associated Press Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Huell Howser, TV show host dies, at 67 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Huell Howser, the perpetually upbeat public television figure who chronicled all things Californian, from avocado-eating dogs to the majesty of Yosemite National Park, died Sunday of natural causes, a spokeswoman for his former station said. He was 67.

Mr. Howser's Southern inflection and youthful sense of amazement at the small and overlooked helped create a legion of followers across the state for his "California's Gold" program, produced by Southern California's KCET and broadcast statewide.

"His personality made you want to talk to him," said Maryann Finn, 89, of Pinole, a worker at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond during World War II whom Mr. Howser interviewed as part of an episode on that wartime effort.

"It was an easygoing, Southern-drawled visit," Finn recalled of the interview aboard the World War II-era Red Oak Victory cargo ship. "He was visiting with you. He wasn't being an interrogator; he was being a conversationalist."

After graduating from the University of Tennessee, working on the staff of a U.S. senator and serving a stint in the Marine Corps, Mr. Howser, a native of Tennessee, began his television career in Nashville, according to his production company website.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1981 to be a reporter for KCBS-TV and fell in love with California, the site says. That led to his idea to travel the state with bare-bones equipment to tell its stories, spawning 19 seasons of "California's Gold" and six spin-off series.

"We operate on the premise that TV isn't brain surgery," Mr. Howser said on the site. "People's stories are what it's all about."

KCET officials, in a statement, said Howser "elevated the simple joys and undiscovered nuggets of living in our great state," whether it was artwork woven from lint or the exoticism of cactus gardens.

"On one level, it's some of the most awkward television that's ever been made, and at the same time it's some of the very, very best the medium has been capable of," said James Adomian, a 32-year-old comedian from Los Angeles whose signature work includes impersonations of Mr. Howser.

Adomian rattled off episodes that have stuck with him since he was a teenager glued to Mr. Howser's shows in the 1990s.

"He was a part of my life growing up," Adomian said. "I've made fun of him, but it came from a place of genuine admiration. ... He seemed to come from a better world than ours."

Finn, a native Californian, said Mr. Howser's shoes would likely never be filled.

"He would find these little parts of history that are important but have been forgotten," she said. "And then he would take you on these journeys that make them live again."