Straight Talk with Art Levine

by Lorine Parks

“Before you think of all you want that you don’t have, think of all you don’t have that you don’t want.”

It’s this positive attitude with a wry twist that has made Long Beach’s Art Levine a successful TV host and programmer. If you can get LBTV3 or Frontier FiOS21, or Charter 188, you can watch his acclaimed program, “Stay Connected!” On Saturday and Sunday at 9 and 10 am, and again at 7 and 8 pm, Art serves up his community-oriented TV talk show centering on “Politics, Arts and Business.” Art is also editor-in-chief of Straight Talk, a magazine, relating community and television show news, and a weekly TV show of the same name. “Each person can make a difference,” Art says.

Art entertained and informed us with a video showing his lively give and take sessions with guests. After 25 years as host of the most watched and respected cable talk show in the greater Long Beach area, Art has talked with everyone from then Governor Deukmejian to now County Supervisor Janice Hahn. He has questioned Congressman Dana Rorhabacher on the subject of torture, lawyer Gloria Allred on ethics and a Disney Imagineer about creativity. “As TV host, I get to ask all the things I’ve always wondered about,” Art said. “Blackness, Jewishness: how does that feel to an outsider?”

Art is hoping that mergers of TV stations will soon make his program on Charter Spectrum TV more accessible, so that Downey can be one of the many cities surrounding Long Beach that receive Stay Connected!

Any last words? “Never, never, never, never, never give up,” says Art.