I Spent the Day with Katie Couric
I was 20 years old and working on the set of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in Pittsburgh when I got the chance to meet Katie Couric. This was back in early 1993, when the program was celebrating it's 25th anniversary and lots of media and press were in and out of the studio. Katie was a new face on the Today Show back then, having recently replaced Debra Norville's short term run and she was quite popular.
Man, was she cute! Katie's smile is remarkable. I actually wish she'd go back to the morning show because I think she's more of a 'morning' person. Her smile is one of her best qualities, and she rarely smiles on the evening news. She looks so old when she doesn't smile. When Katie Couric is laughing and having fun, she not only looks like a kid, but that's the real Katie.
Her co-host in the early 90's was Bryant Gumbel. I drew a caricature of the two of them, with their coffee mugs and Katie taking a swing at Bryant. When she first started on the show, he was always picking on her, and she was constantly slugging him for his remarks.
Fred Rogers invited me to spend the morning with he and Katie. I actually got to sit in on the interview, which was conducted on the Mr. Rogers' interior house set. That's where his program starts and ends, in the house. For those of you who are Fred Rogers' fans know that the program's middle part is when the trolley visits the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, which is an imaginary land of puppets and people. Of course, everyone knows that!
Katie was very popular at that particular time. She was appearing on the cover of many magazines, and it just so happened that she was on the front of the TV Guide that very week she came to Pittsburgh . She autographed a copy of the magazine for me and it says CORY-THANKS FOR THE GREAT DRAWING! She liked it! She liked it! And she was so kind and very personable and quite friendly to everyone.
This was a great day for me. It was so early in her career. She's had a roller coaster ride in her life, but I think she's great. Cool, within just a few years I had Willard Scott say my name on national televsion, thanking me for the caricatuere I drew of him and now Katie! How cool. The Willard story is here at storytrax http://www.storytrax.com/node/386
Comments
Not a Fan
Thanks for the story. While I am not a big fan of Katie Couric you certainly can not argue about her work ethic. She has worked hard to get to the position she is at today. I feel her liberal bias comes through in her reporting and that just does not work for me. She is far from being a fair and balanced reporter.
I remember when you called me and told me the story over the phone. You should tell them about the time in California. We met several TV and Movie Stars in Hollywood. Even Miss America 1987.
get well
The California trip will be 20 years this June. I have some time. I think we both need to rewrite the infamous BAT story, as we did in our separate high school English classes. I had English second period and Cooley had it in the afternoon. Erin and I wrote the same story of capturing a bat in my attic years ago, only thing is in my story I was the hero and in Erin's story HE was the hero. Our English teacher loved it and had us both read them and debate about it in both of our classes, it was hysterical.
Of course Erin's version is a tall tale