One of these men my daughter called Dad. The other she recognized as President of the United States– even at age four. Sadly, both fathers are gone. Ronald Reagan 2004.  Daughter’s Dad 2009.

“Fatherhood is all about the things that matter most:  about love and new life, about trust and responsibility, about faithfulness to a family and to a calling.  … What fathers do for their families, they do for our country as well, because the strong and loving families they help create are the soul of a nation.” Excerpts from President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 Father’s Day proclamation.

My own Dad, Roy Cole, died in 1974 of a heart attack at 59 when I was only 25. I think of him often. I can still smell him. Fragrant memories of a long gone presence and influence. The sweat sheen on his tanned skin after mowing the grass with a push reel lawn mower. Old Spice aftershave. His pipe tobacco.

Alexandra was 26 when Bob died in 2009. He steadied her when she took her first steps.

And down the aisle.

September 16, 2006.

Love.

Fun.

Cherish the memories.

For Those of a Certain Age who cherish the memories of a different America in another world where newspapers didn’t scream WWIII size headlines heralding Saturday’s birth of Kim Kardashian‘s out-of-wedlock spawn, The Donna Reed Show‘s Paul Petersen had a hit in 1962 with “My Dad.”

Like Jon Stewart, I am taking off the summer.  He’s directing an Iran movie, hoping to become the next Ben Affleck.  I run after grandsons.

Photo: CNN’s Don Lemon.

In the meantime, interact with me on Facebook.  I post daily.  Tweet me on Twitter.

Russian TV. In English. The gulag of TV.

NYT: Given that the Kremlin-owned network devotes considerable airtime to critics of the American government, and finds fault with President Vladimir Putin’s rule about as often as Fox News produces exposés on the Republican Party, the hiring of the 79-year-old American prompted a stream of mocking comments from Russian skeptics and the foreign press corps in Moscow.

Legend of the fall.

Russia Today press release:  Award-winning interviewer Larry King will host a mold-breaking political talk show on RT from next month, speaking to both leading establishment figures, and those who are not afraid to go against the grain.

“I have always been passionate about government and issues that impact the public, and I’m thrilled at the opportunity to talk politics with some of the most influential people in Washington and around the country,” says King.

King’s career has spanned 56 years and more than 50,000 interviews, but he says the show will break new ground. The veteran broadcaster will not shy away from causing controversy, or using his authority to give a chance to hear voices other media ignore.

“I have interviewed every US president since Nixon, and lest people forget, I helped usher Ross Perot into the national conversation during the 1992 presidential contest. I appreciate the importance of providing a platform to those with real alternative visions for our country’s future,” says the host.

King also moderated the third-party presidential debate, broadcast live on RT in October last year.

RT will air the new show ‘Politics with Larry King’, produced by Ora.tv in June as well as ‘Larry King Now’, which was launched on Hulu and Ora.TV in July 2012. The programs will be recorded in RT America’s Washington, DC, studios and Ora TV’s studio in Los Angeles. RT America will be the exclusive US broadcaster for both programs, which will continue to stream online at Hulu.com and Ora.tv and also be available online on rt.com.

Larry King has retained his trademark suspenders worn through his 25 years on CNN (he quit the news network in 2010),* but has not been afraid to show a more opinionated and frank side, which he says is a must for the new media age.

“Whether a president or an activist or a rock star was sitting across from him, Larry King never shied away from asking the tough questions, which makes him a terrific fit for our network,” says RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.

“Larry King has entertained and informed millions of viewers over the years, and millions of digital viewers over just the past year,” adds Ora TV’s CEO, Jon Housman.

“We’re thrilled to bring Larry King’s insights and one-of-a-kind discussions, from celebrities to world leaders, to RT America’s television and online audiences.”

Larry’s abrupt return to television unleashed a torrent of reactions, both in Russia, where he widely-known as an ultimate figurehead of US broadcasting, and in his homeland. Through the day, Twitter was awash with comments on King’s new place of work that ran the gamut appreciative to surprised to irreverent.

*CNN carted straitjacketed Larry out of the building on a gurney.

This wasn’t the tweet featured in the press release:

When neither ratings nor ethics matter: Larry King to put out a show on Kremlin-owned Russia Today. Kind of perfect, actually.

— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) May 29, 2013

In a world where octogenarian TV talent are grist for soylent green (see Babs Walters), Larry, under the thumbs of Russia’s ossified Politburo, is State TV’s eternally preserved Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.  Through glass and not under glass.

RT America airs here on a few cable channels. NYP.

Larry King press release:  RT is a global international news network that broadcasts 24/7 in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 630 million viewers worldwide. RT is the only Russian TV channel to garner two nominations for the prestigious International Emmy Award. It is the only television news channel to cross a one BILLION views mark on YouTube.

999 million 999 thousand 999 more viewers than CNN. …

Barbara Eden, 78, reprises I Dream of Jeannie, in Vienna Saturday, blinking, nodding, crossing her arms — and conjuring master of fine tarts Bill Clinton at the “Life Ball.”  UK Daily Mail.  NYDN.

I Dream of Genius.

“Make Hillary disappear.”

Headmaster Bubba rubs the vamp.

Perhaps this is why Bill Clinton sabotages Hillary.

I Dream of Jeannie: “Archetypal reactionary fantasy, simultaneously establishing a woman with almost limitless power while literally enslaving her to a man who doesn’t want her to use it.”

NY Gov Cuomo gives political phoenix Weiner the shaft.  NYP head.

After going down on Weiner, Cuomo “shame on us” if we elect him claims he was just joking. NYP.

Weiner demonstrates the size of his … ego at a campaign appearance Thursday.

As for his sexting addiction and pathological lying, Weiner blows it off as “a blind spot.”

H/t Jim Bohannon.

“Mystery poll” points to a run by NYC police commish Ray Kelly?

Babs buzzed NYT media reporter Bill Carter into her lush apartment to spin her retirement from TV after a half-century in the biz.  An anti-climatic retirement announcement upstaged by a leak in March.   At the time “Don’t Rain On My Parade” Babs angrily denied the report.

Babs wanted the biggest bang for her buck during the May ratings sweeps.

The 83-year-old broadcasting doyenne will announce next summer’s retirement on The View.

Barbara Walters: “When I go, I’m going to go like Chelsea.” Not Clinton. “Cabaret.”

Carter:  The farewell tour (a term Ms. Walters rejected) will include appearing on one last edition of the 10 most fascinating people (they will not pick an all-time Top 10, but Ms. Walters will select a No. 1 overall); a last interview with President and Mrs. Obama; a series of retrospective clips from “The View”; possibly a last Academy Awards special (which Ms. Walters stopped doing three years ago); and a prime-time special next May that will attempt to sum up her career.

Ms. Walters has a wall in her apartment that is a fair approximation of how that summation might look: the list of interview subjects include Fidel Castro, Golda Meir and every president since Richard M. Nixon.

Don’t ask for her to pin down an individual high point, though she does come back often to the period of “shuttle diplomacy” when she was flying back and forth between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel.

Did she do him?

Mr. Castro made a charismatic impression; Muammar el-Qaddafi proved mercurial; Yasir Arafat gave her one of his trademark kaffiyehs. He also signed it, but her housekeeper thought it was laundry and put it in the wash.

“I asked Yeltsin if he drank too much and I asked Putin if he killed anybody,” Ms. Walters said, referring to the two Russian leaders. “Today there are not a lot of heads of state that you’d even want to interview.”

Any subjects who got away? “The Queen,” she said. “My bosses at ABC said maybe I should tell her it’s my last year.”

She has 12 Emmy Awards. But she said she probably took most pride in the comments from other women in the television business who told her she inspired them. She was, after all, the “Today” girl who forever changed that designation on morning television in 1974 when the host, Frank McGee, died. She had shrewdly inserted in her contract that should there be a change in the host role, she would inherit the title: co-host.

“From that moment it became co-host for women,” she said. “It was a meaningful event. That made me very proud.”

But now it’s goodbye to all that. She will retain the title of co-executive producer on “The View” and may consult on issues like who replaces Joy Behar or one of the other hosts. But nobody will replace Barbara Walters. She never took the title of moderator on the show, so there is no need to fill her position once she leaves.

Haul in Jodi Arias and Cleveland’s creepy chick captor to testify.  Or better yet, subpoena Nancy Grace.  While we’re at it, why not Kim Kardashian, Claire Danes, George Clooney, Lindsay Lohan — all of whom are courted and sucked up to by journalists and politicians at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner?

SNL uses Issa‘s name.  There really is a “Doc Hastings” in Congress but he’s white.  And Republican.  Why didn’t SNL use Maryland Dem Elijah Cummings‘s real name?  Maybe because SNL‘s Elijah is a bonehead.   And Repub Trey Gowdy is identified as another real member, Dem Peter Welch.

Facebook fans fuming over NBC dropping Rock Center.

The Brian Williams vanity vehicle debuted Halloween 2011 and was moved several times in futile attempts to lure eyeballs.  Huff Post.

Had the host been anyone else but NBC’s  Nightly News “icon” Brian Williams, the newsmag would’ve been canceled faster than it took those Cleveland hostages to escape their creepy captor.

Bill Carter NYT:  NBC announced on Friday afternoon that “Rock Center” would not be back on its schedule in the fall and would have its last program in late June.

The ratings for the program were always at a level that threatened cancellation, though they were not especially lower than those for most of the 10 p.m. dramas the network tried out this season. And, as often is the case, the hourlong show suffered from being moved around the schedule. “Rock Center” was a particular vagabond, suffering through five different time slots on the NBC schedule.

Mr. Williams issued a statement saying: “I’m so proud of the work we did. Our people got shot at for this broadcast. They pulled countless all-nighters. They investigated, cajoled, hustled and cared deeply. They won awards, won the respect of their colleagues and produced great television journalism.”

What is NBC News “Special Correspondent” Chelsea Clinton going to do now? Remain on the NBC payroll like Maria Shriver and be paid for doing nothing.