My friend Clay sent me this article, "Long Night at Today" from New York Magazine a few days ago. Knowing that I'm a morning news junkie, especially the Today Show, he knew I would enjoy the read. And enjoy, I did. If you are any fan of Today you know about the Ann Curry fiasco that NBC is still trying to recover from and deal with that happened last June. If you don't know {climb out from under the rock} Meredith Vieira decided to leave Today in 2011. Next up to bat for the co-anchor job was "always the bridesmaid" Ann Curry who had been passed over the last time the job had become available. From the start, her chemistry with Matt just wasn't happening. It wasn't the sexual tension, flirty relationship of Matt & Katie or the jokester Big Sister/Little Brother Matt & Meredith relationship. It was awkward. I am a long time fan of Ann, have always thought she was the most compassionate and great hard news anchor...but I admit it was awkward to watch. Even the first day. Awkward.
I don't really want to spend this post talking about the situation, but more why I LOVE the Today Show. The Today Show reminds me of my childhood and getting ready for school in the morning. After reading the article, there is a part that mentions about when Today was at it's peak and ran promos stating "Matt, Katie, Al, and Ann: America's First Family." When reading that section, the theme song for those commercials IMMEDIATELY entered my head. I remembered ALL the words. I went to YouTube to find it. This is it:
When watching this I immediately think
rushing down the stairs to the laundry room to get something to wear to school from the clean clothes, mom yelling up the stairs for us to hurry up, toasting a pop-tart or scarfing down hot, homemade oatmeal in the winter, downing some chocolate milk, dad in his recliner reading the paper & drinking coffee, mom making lunches in her pjs&robe, and catching the Top News Stories with Ann while listening for the car pool van to honk the horn.
America's First Family was right. We started EVERY DAY with them. On Halloween I would always get my dad to record the show on the VCR so I could see their costume reveal. My freshman year of college was when Katie left and Meredith Vieira replaced her. I also LOVE Meredith. She had always been my favorite on The View, and her time on Today was fantastic. She meshed and transitioned almost seamlessly. I watched a lot of her time on Today because I was in college and watched frequently while getting ready for my 9am classes.
I watched Ann's first day and frequently throughout her stint. But I could sense the awkwardness The article is really great in explaining the atmosphere on set. It was not pretty. It was not the usual Today. It was not a family anymore. Also I LOVE Savannah. I've loved her since she first joined the 4th hour of Today. From the first time she and Matt Lauer interacted on camera, they had GREAT chemistry. My only complaint is that her and Natalie look just a like. The diversity of the cast is kind of gone.
My parents are now loyal GMA viewers. I don't know when this happened, but it was after I went to college. It's so weird. We used to be such an NBC family, now all we seem to watch is ABC. Strange how things shift depending on morning show viewing-and NBC has no primetime shows. I mean NONE. I am still LOYAL to TODAY. {And it's okay to watch the above video 5 or 6 times...I did}
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