Transitions

Charles Gibson is out and Diane Sawyer is in. It seems ironic, but Gibson, who gave Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin an opportunity to show how ill-prepared she was for the office, has been replaced as the anchor of ABC's nightly newscast by a woman who got her first break working in a Republican White House (Nixon's). The 63-year-old Sawyer's promotion to the top news spot at the Disney Channel makes Brian Williams at NBC - whose ratings are so low the initials now stand for NoBody Cares - as the only male anchor on any of the three nightly newscasts on the major broadcast networks. Watch your back, Brian; Ann Curry may be looking at getting your job! :-D

Meanwhile, I just learned that Larry Gelbart, a writer on Sid Caesar's show "Caesar's Hour" and the chief screenwriter behind the first four seasons of the iconic situation comedy "M*A*S*H," has died. This is sad news, as he was one of my idols. He elevated sitcom writing to a high art form with his clever, acerbic dialogue and wry wit. Whenever Hawkeye Pierce had a perfect comeback or back-whacking zinger, you can bet Gelbart was behind it. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1982 Dustin Hoffman comedy Tootsie with Murray Schisgal, which offered the classic line, "I don't believe in hell; I only believe in unemployment!"

Larry David and his ilk could not have had the careers they had without Gelbart. RIP. :-(