USC Annenberg Remembers Mike Daniels
Daniels graduated from USC in 1958 with a degree in journalism. He worked as a news producer at KNXT/KCBS-TV for nearly 40 years. Gerry Ruben, who worked with Daniels, said Daniels was "one of the good guys in news" as well as the inspiration for a classic television character.
"He was good friends with Neil Simon's brother -- and was the inspiration behind one of the two leading characters in the the play, 'The Odd Couple,'" Ruben said. "Mike was Felix, a CBS newswriter, in the original Broadway play."
At USC, Daniels taught a variety of broadcast journalsim classes and was a broadcast writing coach.
Students remembered Daniels as a "tech-savvy" and "truly caring" instructor.
On his Facebook page, Daniels commented on his love of diversity, especially on social media outlets like Facebook.
"I grew up at a time when it was unheard of to openly express opinions that went against the belief of your friends and family," wrote Daniels.
"Bite your tongue! Go along with the wisdom of your group. And don’t rock the boat. As a lifelong sailor, I know something about boats. They’re much more fun when they’re rocking."
For the record, an earlier version of this story erroneously reported Daniels worked at KTLA.
