Early Life & Career
Rivers' first television appearance was on a 1970 syndicated classic film trivia game show. He was a high school student. During those times on "The Movie Game", shot in Hollywood, he was the program's first African-American contestant and its youngest winner. Rivers, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles during the tumultuous 1960's, graduated from Marquette University in Wisconsin. After working in Milwaukee radio, he made his professional television debut in 1979 on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate, WISN-TV, as the city's first African-American film critic on TV. He did this as a contributor on Milwaukee's edition of "PM Magazine", a syndicated show that had such national hosts as Matt Lauer, Mary Hart and Leeza Gibbons. During that time, he was tapped to audition as a possible movie critic replacement when Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert left Chicago PBS for Disney syndication. In 1984, he'd moved up to co-host and associate producer of a live weekday show on WISN.
Read more about this topic: Bobby Rivers
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