The Honorary Mayor Is In!

There are always a handful of names that get thrown around when we talk about the legendary members of our community. A few of them sang songs, and some acted in those fancy Hollywood moving pictures. Yet none of them earned the prestigious title of “Honorary Mayor.” That belongs to one man and one man only… Fritz Coleman.

Although Fritz is most well known for his nearly 40-year run as the weatherman on Channel 4, his career at NBC may not have ever happened if it wasn’t for his passion for stand-up comedy. “I came out here in 1980, to pursue a career in stand-up. In 1982, I was working [as a performer] at The Comedy Store. My friend, at the time, who worked at Channel 4, brought his boss and his boss’s wife to see me do a show on a Friday night,” Fritz explained. He continued, “I had talked on stage about doing weather in the Navy, I was in the Navy for 4 years and did armed forces radio and television. I was forced to do the weather against my will.”

Although Fritz didn’t know much of anything about the weather, Channel 4 saw him as a perfect fit. Fritz recalled the Channel 4 boss saying “It’s perfect because there’s no weather in California, this will work out great.” A stand-up background was more than ideal, as he pointed out. “When you’re doing the weather, no one is helping you out… You would figure out the weather story, makeup four or five bullet points, and conversate the audience through that story.” Fritz ended up working at Channel 4 until his retirement in 2020, only 2 weeks shy of his 40th anniversary at NBC.

Through all his years on air, Fritz continued to do comedy as an outlet to talk about something other than the never-ending supply of vitamin D we get here in Southern California. The Honorary Mayor explained, “I do single-topic monologues, I’ve been doing it for about 30 years.” His first show was called ‘It’s Me, Dad,’ which was about life as a divorced father. His second show, ‘The Reception’ covered the topic of being divorced as well. Next came ‘Tonight at 11’ which gave insight into his time on the news. The fourth installment of his single topic monologues, ‘Defying Gravity,’ was a show about getting older. His current show, which Fritz titled ‘Unassisted Living,’ is about getting really old.

“Unassisted Living,” which has been playing once a month at The El Portal Theatre, has been extended for a third time. Come October, the show will have been running for a year. For those of you who want to see it, the next performance is Sunday, July 21st at 3 pm. Seeing as how this is The Tolucan Times, I had to do my journalistic duty for our community. I had to know what it really means to be our Honorary Mayor. “I’ve been the Honorary Mayor for 28 years. I have no political power, I can’t even get a parking ticket fixed in this town,” Fritz quipped. “But I love it. It’s public relations for this community that I love very much.”Having been a part of the community for so long, Fritz was truly excited to have The Tolucan Times return this past year. With a lifetime of experience in news and media, he sees the importance of a local news source. He says, “There is a school of thought that news is going to become hyper-local. These papers are going to be more valuable to people’s lives than something like the LA Times… I think this type of paper is going to be the future.” Like many of us, he has a story of his first time seeing the actual Toluca Lake. “At first I thought the lake was just a legend, like the Loch Ness Monster, only rich people could get back there. Then I got a couple of friends, through my acquaintances in Toluca Lake, invited me back there. It’s a beautiful spot, with these spectacular homes,” he shared. When I asked him where in Toluca Lake he eats, he swiftly responded “Breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy, dinner at Paty’s.” I don’t think there is a more Toluca Lake response than that. Follow Fritz on Instagram: @RealFritzColeman.