Letters From Bobby

Katie Couric can now sleep past 3:30am. Did you catch her send-off on TODAY this morning? What’d you think? Some of the taped salutes to her were so slickly produced that they looked more like informercials. I expected to see her on a BoFlex machine, for lord’s sake. Anyway…I wish her the best at CBS when she takes over a spot once held by Walter Cronkite. Also, I’m really looking forward to seeing MereMatt on TODAY — that’s my mash-up name for the upcoming new morning team of Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer. They’re both totally cool and I think their skills and warmth will equal great chemistry.

Did you see American Idol last night? Dang! It was practically Simon Cowell’s Legends of the Ball. Prince, Mary J. Blige, Meatloaf. Now that’s a party!!! How do I feel about Taylor Hicks taking the title? Hey…a down-home regular guy who’s a few pounds overweight, eats barbecue, has some grey in his hair and likes soul music — what’s not to love? I hope Hollywood leaves him alone. I hope no exec wants him to color his hair, eat salads and take a pilates class. He’s fine the way he is. He doesn’t need to resemble Ryan Seacrest. Ryan Seacrest doesn’t need to resemble Ryan Seacrest. And Clay Aiken needs to look at the cover of Barry Manilow’s new CD to see what he’s going to look like in 30 years. Make that 20.

Just a reminder that Oprah’s Legends Ball airs Monday night on ABC and she’s extremely proud of it. Hell, I would be too with the line-up she’s got! It’s awesome. I went to her website and saw a publicity pic of some of the legends — Black women who’ve contributed to the arts, politics and social causes. OK…I know I’ve mentioned this before and, please, bear with me…but where’s Whoopi Goldberg? She was the first African-American woman to win the Oscar® in 50 years. She’s one of the few Black actresses to have more than one Oscar nomination to her credit (she may be the ONLY one thanks to “The Color Purple” and “Ghost”). She won a Grammy for the recording of her one-woman Broadway debut directed by Mike Nichols back in the ’80s. She won a Tony for producing Broadway’s Best Musical one year (”Thoroughly Modern Millie”). She’s hosted a TV talkshow, successfully revived and starred on a classic game show (”The Hollywood Squares”) and Whoopi was the first woman of any color to host The Academy Awards. But, in the publicity photo, I don’t see her anywhere mingling with the likes of Mariah Carey — star of Glitter. Let’s all watch Monday night and see if The Color Purple co-star makes an appearance or gets a mention. Have you heard any TV reporter bring this up? Frankly, I’m concerned. We love Oprah. We love Whoopi too. They’re BOTH legends who have made major contributions to modern African-American history in the arts. Can I get an “Amen” on that?

It’s May, it’s May, the merry month of May “sweeps.” That’s the term for one of the most intense television ratings months of the year. Have you noticed the hyper-hype for shows this month? Every season finale is an event. With all this tightly-scheduled and highly promoted programming, our Prez has decided to talk to us all in primetime tonight about the problem of Immigration and illegal aliens from South of the Border. This morning, network execs are deciding if they want to air the Presidential adddress tonight at 8. Remember the old days when the President was really important — more important than a gameshow like “Deal or No Deal” or a medical series like “Grey’s Anatomy”? Remember the old days when an immigrant could get some lonely American chick to marry him and then use his accent and new citizenship to become a popular trainer in a trendy downtown Manhattan health club…or become the governor of California? Well, I guess all those days are gone. Part of the country soon could be a gated community with armed guards. Tonight, there’s a jump ball for the viewer’s political or entertainment attention. Which will be a more difficult challenge — poor Mexicans trying to sneak across the border into the United States, or Oscar and Tony Award winning actress Whoopi Goldberg trying to get into her Color Purple co-star’s Legends Ball scheduled to air on ABC? Frankly, I’m concerned. “Can’t we all just get along?” Let’s talk about those sons of Italy on HBO. Did you catch this week’s episode of The Sopranos? The writing and acting never cease to amaze me. Without giving anything away, I’m sitting alone in my studio apartment last night watching Vito light the candles while he’s making dinner for two and I said to myself…“That blimp got a hook-up and I’VE not had a good date since Clinton was in office? Once again, kiss my entire buttocks, Match.com.”

Besides Bush, the Ball and muscle boys busting loose on the finale of Fox’s “Prison Break,” it’ll be Judy Garland night on Turner Classic Movies. She’s a singing & dancing Harvey Girl in the wild, wild west and then she’s a German who dared befriend a Jew during the Nazi regime in “Judgment at Nuremberg.” I’m not making any of this up, y’ know. The Monday night TV dinner plate is pretty darn full. May sweeps — never a dull moment.

I got the script for the entire episode of CBS’ Guiding Light in which I played a high school teacher at the prom attended by Lizzie Spaulding. The script has the airdate on it. The airdate is May 11th. In several places on my script that date is printed. Well, it was wrong. The scene I shot aired earlier this week and I didn’t know until I spoke with someone in the production office late this morning after the show aired. I can’t believe that I missed the prom twice in one lifetime. On the bright side, however, I did get paid for my dayplayer work. If you did see me earlier this week, let me know how I did.