wjewilliams@yahoo.com

I watched this show as a child and now only as an adult with the knowledge of Joan Crawford's life as Mommie Dearest do I get the humor of this show, with that horrible mother -- Mommie Dearest -- and her horrible child, Bratina! I don't remember anything about the puppies but the sound of Bratina crying, "But Mommie Dearest" still rings in my ears years later. What a riot.

This show is going down hill at warp speed. Three years ago, the show was interesting and intelligent, especially their "Hot Topics" segment where hosts Meredith Vieira, Joy Behar, Star Jones, then host Lisa Ling and occasionally the show's den mother, Barbara Walters would comment on newsworthy stories, often exposing a hidden side that had been buried in the pages of the country's newspapers.

Since then, however, it has regressed into a talk show parody, ranking in terms of content somewhere between Maury Povich and Ricki Lake. No matter how serious the subject at hand, the topic quickly turns to sex, Payless Shoes (for which Star Jones is the spokesperson), Joy's hot flashes or Star's celebrity friends. Subjects like war, murder and child abuse are punctuated either by jokes about viagara, or by Star Jones informing everyone of her self-proclaimed diva status -- Again!

Even Babs herself has fallen into the trash talk abyss, only managing to grab a foot hold long enough to shout out a promo for yet another "riveting" 20/20 special.

If it were not for Meredith Vieira, I would boycott this show completely. Only she seems to have the vaguest clue as to when it is appropriate to push the envelope. But each day I find myself turning it off earlier into the broadcast, shaking my head at the vapid, vacuous piece of pseudo entertainment/journalism this show has become. Please Emmy voters, don't encourage this show with an Emmy nod this year.

Post 9/11, I watched Larry King every night. He had a panel of political heavyweights talking about the news everyone was talking about. Over time, however, the show regressed into a mediocre Barbara Walters special with most of the guests being three hundred years old and far out of the spotlight, like Art Linkletter. I agree, King still manages to corner the market on topical guests but his knowledge of the topics is limited at best and as a result the interviews often become trite. Case in point, King recently interviewed the woman Roman Polanski supposedly sexually abused umpteen years ago. Having just seen "The Pianist" and knowing very little about the topic, I tuned in. Larry knew so little about the account (despite having unlimited access to relevant court documents and media accounts) that he basically took every word that woman said as the gospel. C'mon, Larry get with the program. And please, stop asking everyone where they were on 9/11?