'Detroiters' devotes hilarious episode to Detroit TV news icon Mort Crim

Julie Hinds | Detroit Free Press

Mort Crim is getting a comedy promotion.

The former Detroit news anchor for WDIV (Channel 4), who regularly does wacky cameos for "Detroiters," is the main focus of this week's story line.

On the episode airing at 10:30 p.m. Thursday on Comedy Central, Motor City ad men Sam Duvet and Tim Cramblin (played by real-life pals Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson) hire their favorite anchor, Crim, to star in a commercial.

The spot for a furniture store named Garner Weich (an homage to local staple Gardner-White) is supposed to be about feeling comfortable in tough times. But once the cameras begin rolling, Crim veers away from the script and somehow winds up challenging ISIS to a fight.

Despite pleas to stick to what's written, he refuses to stop ad-libbing. "I'm giving you gold. Don't make me shovel crap," he says.

The episode, titled "Mort Crim," is one of the season's funniest so far.

See an exclusive 'Detroiters' clip

Crim still has the soothing baritone voice and attitude of gravitas that made him famous – only now the 82-year-old retired broadcast journalist is portraying a fictional version of himself that's more outrageous than distinguished.

Before the second season premiere of "Detroiters" in June, Crim told the Free Press that becoming part of the sitcom was "an easy sell."

"We've got to laugh at ourselves and our professions," he said.

Crim retired from Channel 4 in 1997 after anchoring at the station for about 20 years. He now lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and usually tapes his "Detroiters" cameos from there.

He frequently pops up on the show in scenes where Sam and Tim are watching the news at their favorite watering hole, the Temple Bar. Typically, Crim is seen delivering a bizarre news headline or doing a belligerent segment called "Chump of the Week," where he often blasts someone who's wronged him.

For this week's episode, which was filmed in 2017, Crim returned to Detroit to film multiple scenes with Richardson and Robinson, who grew up in Detroit and Clarkston, respectively, and are Crim fans in real life.

Crim's first brush with comedic fame came in 2013 when Will Ferrell mentioned in interviews that his "Anchorman" persona, Ron Burgundy, was inspired partly by seeing a clip of Crim in a documentary.

After facing a flurry of media attention from the disclosure, Crim got to meet Ferrell at the New York premiere of "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues." At the after-party, as Crim described to the Free Press at the time, "I stuck my hand out and said, 'Will, it's nice for you to get to meet me.' "

In real life, Crim is no stranger to being a celebrity spokesman. In fact, he might be best known to millennials for his ads as the Majic Window guy.

But the award-winning broadcast journalist, who's now working on a memoir titled "Anchored," is thoroughly enjoying his new oddball image on "Detroiters."

After all, he explains, if he were still doing the actual news, it would be just as hard not to crack up "if I weren't crying during the commercials."

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.

'Detroiters'

10:30 p.m. Thu.

Comedy Central