Black Ice

Channel 17's evening anchors in St. Paul, Jamie Thorneburg and Marcy Whitchurch, open a winter-weather report by warning viewers about black ice in increasingly sinister terms, and weatherman Isaac Labuda happily joins in. When field reporter Darren Hepner checks in live from a snowbound Ramsey Hill, he pushes back, insisting black ice is no more dangerous than white ice, has to survive constant attacks from plows and salt trucks, and that the real problem is the oppressive white snow running the city. The anchors and weatherman keep piling on loaded warnings, with Marcy describing how black ice crept up on her near an ATM, while Darren defends it as a product of its environment, until the rattled anchors move on to their next story.

Writer Rich Talarico has said the idea came from a Weather Channel report that described black ice in a strikingly ominous tone. He also noted that the two anchors were played by Groundlings performer Laird Macintosh and Arden Myrin, whom he first met in a 1993 Improv Olympic class in Chicago.