Alistair Cooke

Los Angeles -- His audience might not be as large as Johnny Carson's. But another TV institution is about to leave the airwaves after more than 20 years of being a regular visitor in the homes of American viewers.Alistair Cooke, 83, will retire as host of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre," with his last appearance scheduled for Nov. 29, said Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of the series."Masterpiece Theatre" is the longest continuing prime-time drama series on TV. And Cooke has been host since it began 22 years ago."

theater 'Peter Pan - the Musical': What a concept - in this production, the boy who won't grow up is actually played by someone with a Y chromosome. ("Peter" traditionally has been portrayed by a woman.) The nontraditional casting meant that some songs had to be reorchestrated. Through Jan. 4 at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Drive, Olney. Showtimes vary. Tickets are $25-$48. Call 301-924-3400 or go to olneytheatre.org. Mary CaroleMcCauley design Bike racks: Why do bike racks have to be boring?

LONDON - It began March 24, 1946, with a polite "Good evening," followed by a simple sentence.Alistair Cooke said: "I want to tell you what it's like to come back to the United States after a sobering month or more in Britain, and what daily life feels and looks like in comparison."Fifty years and more than 2,000 scripts later, Mr. Cooke is still writing and presenting his "Letter from America" for the British Broadcasting Corp.The 15-minute radio program is wonderfully old-fashioned. Just a man speaking into a microphone, explaining the ways of his adopted country.

The American Home Front: 1941-1942 Alistair Cooke Atlantic Monthly Press / 327 pages / $24 Soon after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Alistair Cooke, a reporter for the BBC, made a shrewd decision. As his fellow journalists converged on Washington, he bought a Lincoln Zephyr, recapped its bald tires and took to the road to see what was going on in the rest of the United States and what Americans outside the circles of government thought about the war. The reporter was a little late meeting his deadline, as Harold Evans points out in his introduction to The American Home Front, 1941-1942.

WashingtonCharming, graceful, supremely eloquent and erudite, a bit stooped but otherwise amazingly youthful for a man who's 82, Alistair Cooke seems exactly as advertised in his role of gracious host on public television's "Masterpiece Theatre."Except for one thing.In person, the venerable, expatriate British journalist, who has been an American citizen since 1941, can also be -- surprise! -- a bit snappish."I hope you're not going to take 180 pictures," he admonishes a photographer at the start of an interview.

It was perhaps the most unlikely of friendships, wrote Alistair Cooke, of his relationship with H.L. Mencken, the Baltimore author and critic. Cooke, 95, an author and broadcaster, died this week at his home in New York City. A native of Manchester, England, Cooke came to the United States in the early 1930s to study at Yale and Harvard universities. At Harvard, he began seriously studying the origins of American English, which naturally brought him in contact with Mencken, who had written The American Language.

Alistair Cooke, who died Tuesday at 95, showed what a gifted person can do with a simple idea - or an idea that seems simple when you look back at it. Cooke made his name in his native England beginning in the 1930s, covering the United States for the British Broadcasting Corp., the (Manchester) Guardian and other newspapers. He showed his touch early when he wrote of Greta Garbo: "She gave you the impression that if your imagination had to sin, it could at least congratulate itself on its impeccable taste."

LONDON - There are many people who can speak with authority and many who can write with eloquence, but what set Alistair Cooke apart from others - so many others - is that he could do both. He did so in a style he probably invented and certainly perfected, writing not in precisely metered sentences but with an ear for the way people talk. It was a personal style that, as it turned out, would make people listen. Cooke died at his home in New York yesterday, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.

RUSSELL Baker, who began his career at The Sun and went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes at The New York Times, seems to us the perfect replacement for Alistair Cooke as the host of "Masterpiece Theatre" on public television stations. Not the same accent, certainly, and not the same personal style. A man who claims he cuts his own hair, Mr. Baker is not your typical television personality.But in our opinion he's something much too rare on television these days -- he exudes authenticity. (We can almost hear him taking that remark and spinning it into one of his fanciful columns that almost tricks readers into discovering some insight into life.

LOS ANGELES -- Russell Baker met the press here yesterday in his new role as replacement for Alistair Cooke on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre." And Baker was at his self-deprecating best."

Alistair Cooke, who died Tuesday at 95, showed what a gifted person can do with a simple idea - or an idea that seems simple when you look back at it. Cooke made his name in his native England beginning in the 1930s, covering the United States for the British Broadcasting Corp., the (Manchester) Guardian and other newspapers. He showed his touch early when he wrote of Greta Garbo: "She gave you the impression that if your imagination had to sin, it could at least congratulate itself on its impeccable taste."

It was perhaps the most unlikely of friendships, wrote Alistair Cooke, of his relationship with H.L. Mencken, the Baltimore author and critic. Cooke, 95, an author and broadcaster, died this week at his home in New York City. A native of Manchester, England, Cooke came to the United States in the early 1930s to study at Yale and Harvard universities. At Harvard, he began seriously studying the origins of American English, which naturally brought him in contact with Mencken, who had written The American Language.

LONDON - There are many people who can speak with authority and many who can write with eloquence, but what set Alistair Cooke apart from others - so many others - is that he could do both. He did so in a style he probably invented and certainly perfected, writing not in precisely metered sentences but with an ear for the way people talk. It was a personal style that, as it turned out, would make people listen. Cooke died at his home in New York yesterday, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.

LONDON - It began March 24, 1946, with a polite "Good evening," followed by a simple sentence.Alistair Cooke said: "I want to tell you what it's like to come back to the United States after a sobering month or more in Britain, and what daily life feels and looks like in comparison."Fifty years and more than 2,000 scripts later, Mr. Cooke is still writing and presenting his "Letter from America" for the British Broadcasting Corp.The 15-minute radio program is wonderfully old-fashioned. Just a man speaking into a microphone, explaining the ways of his adopted country.

As my generation slips into (gulp) middle age, we have finally come face to face with our own mortality.Often, it happens this way: One day you look into the mirror and see something that looks way too much like David Crosby staring back at you.It's the paunch. And the gray. And the easy-fit, fat-boy, Clinton-sized jeans.This is how you know you've had it. You drink lite beer. You drink diet soda. You haven't had a steak since Elvis died. There are actually days when you -- a man's man, after all -- will eat only a salad for lunch.

So, let's get to the real reason for watching the premiere of the 23rd season of "Masterpiece Theatre" tomorrow night at 9 on MPT (Channels 22 and 67): the debut of humorist Russell Baker as Alistair Cooke's replacement as host.There's no other way to say it: Baker is not very good.Actually, there is another way to say it: Baker's pretty bad.Baker knows it.In an interview shortly after his first performance was taped, Baker said, "I suspect I'm going to need a thick hide to survive the first few weeks of comment when all these people say, 'Well, it's not Alistair Cooke.

theater 'Peter Pan - the Musical': What a concept - in this production, the boy who won't grow up is actually played by someone with a Y chromosome. ("Peter" traditionally has been portrayed by a woman.) The nontraditional casting meant that some songs had to be reorchestrated. Through Jan. 4 at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Drive, Olney. Showtimes vary. Tickets are $25-$48. Call 301-924-3400 or go to olneytheatre.org. Mary CaroleMcCauley design Bike racks: Why do bike racks have to be boring?

So, let's get to the real reason for watching the premiere of the 23rd season of "Masterpiece Theatre" tomorrow night at 9 on MPT (Channels 22 and 67): the debut of humorist Russell Baker as Alistair Cooke's replacement as host.There's no other way to say it: Baker is not very good.Actually, there is another way to say it: Baker's pretty bad.Baker knows it.In an interview shortly after his first performance was taped, Baker said, "I suspect I'm going to need a thick hide to survive the first few weeks of comment when all these people say, 'Well, it's not Alistair Cooke.

LOS ANGELES -- Russell Baker met the press here yesterday in his new role as replacement for Alistair Cooke on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre." And Baker was at his self-deprecating best."

Leesburg, Va. -- Russell Baker has this theory about success. When good things happen to good people, it can be bad for you."I think that comes from my upbringing, ever since I was in the cradle: You don't expect anything good to happen," he is saying. "I always thought it was peculiar to me, but this Jewish girl I knew told me that if you were Jewish, you have this giant-thumb view of life. Just when things really start going well for you, this giant thumb emerges from the sky and crushes you."