On August 20, 1987, Gary Stollman—the son of former KNBC pharmacy specialist Max Stollman—went onto the news set and demanded consumer advocate David Horowitz read a manifesto at gunpoint. Horowitz obliged and read various statements, including that Stollman's father was "a double created by the Central Intelligence Agency and alien forces", along with numerous other conspiratorial allegations against the U.S. government. Once Horowitz finished reading, Stollman identified the weapon as an unloaded BB gun and set it down on the desk; Beard reached over and grabbed the weapon as police entered the scene and arrested Stollman. Stollman pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment, with a felony charge dismissed.
Beard left KTTV in December 2007. According to his personal website, he was fired despite the highest ratings in the station's history following years of increasing editorial disagreements with station management, whose audience market research was steering it toward ever more unsubstantial journalism and celebrity fluff. Beard had joined KTTV after earlier leaving KNBC for similar reasons, refusing to read misleading news teases and celebrity stories. KNBC management at the time let him out of his contract to go to a "lesser" station, but would not release him to go to channel 2 or channel 7, the other two network owned and operated stations in Los Angeles with 11 PM newscasts. The Fox owned and operated was acceptable because its 10 PM newscast would not compete against KNBC and Beard was considered a great reader by news directors and station general management.
In 2009, Beard returned to Buffalo and began anchoring for Channel 2 News Daybreak and Midday on WGRZ. While anchor, WGRZ's morning newscast, Daybreak vaulted into first place in Buffalo's Nielsen ratings. On November 1, 2016 it was announced that John Beard would be leaving WGRZ at the end of the year. Beard ultimately stayed over a year longer, with his final newscast airing January 18, 2018.
Acting work
He has appeared as himself and newscaster roles in television series including the 1994 animated seriesSpider-Man, 24, and most notably Arrested Development.
