by Herbie J Pilato
(LB’S NOTE: TVWriter™ Contributing Editor Emeritus Herbie J Pilato wrote this awhile ago, but for some reason it never came to our attention. We’re very glad to be rectifying that situation right now!)
Before I began my contracted 18 months as a Page for NBC in the spring of 1984, my tenure with the Peacock network was several times foreshadowed. In the fall of 1982, for one, while studying Television and Film at U.C.L.A. I had a celebrity brush with actress Bea Arthur, then best-remembered as the star of TV’s iconic Maude series (CBS, 1972–1978), and soon to be recalled to fame as one of NBC’s ground-breaking senior leads in The Golden Girls (1984–1991), alongside Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty.
