THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030640
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
``WHAT'S HAPPENED TO BROWN EYES?'' a colleague called to me, in passing.
``WHICH BROWN EYES?'' I yelled after him as my mind ran through all the brown eyes in my life, starting with Boomer, the Labrador retriever.
``THE ONE ON NBC-TODAY!'' his voice came back, fading down the hall.
Ah, yes, now I recall.
It was Dark Eyes, Giselle Fernandez.
She appeared early in the summer as co-host of the Saturday ``Today'' show and then began showing up as a substitute here and there.
When she was helping host the weekday ``Today'' show, she put her raven hair in an updo hairdo that emphasized the angularity of her high cheekbones.
With heavy eyebrows, flashing smile and prune-dark eyes, she was striking, and in the rapid chitchat that ripples between acts through morning shows, she was swift and apt.
On the TV screen that often dehumanizes people, she was alive and enjoying it. And now, suddenly, as my colleague noted, she is gone.
Meanwhile, other dark-haired, dark-eyed young women are appearing. My thought was that NBC was trying to balance the norm of blondes who have dominated TV screens.
Were I not wary of being charged with a conspiracy complex, I would suspect that the powers that be at NBC are showing other brunettes in an effort to make us forget Giselle.
Gentlemen, if that is what you are about, it will not work!
I spent a half-hour Tuesday calling NBC in New York, trying to get through the voice mail that offers all kinds of options except a live human voice to answer a straight question:
``Where is Fernandez?''
After the sixth try of pushing buttons and listening to recordings listing a directory of offices, none of which ever led to a sentient creature, I finally broke through and reached a living being instead of a machine.
I felt like Robinson Crusoe when he found a human footprint in the sand on what he had thought was a desert island.
And my informant assured me, briefly, not to worry, that Fernandez was still with NBC and would be reappearing on the screen.
The NBC heads, who, after all, are running a communications network, ought to realize that morning viewers breakfast with these people and would appreciate a word as to where they are when they don't show up at the table.
I phoned my colleague in advertising and told him not to fret, that Fernandez would be back - if not at NBC, then surely ABC, CBS or CNN. by CNB