Depending on your age, Pernell Roberts was either western hero Adam Cartwright or grumpy surgeon Trapper John to you. Pernell Roberts starred in two long-running television series, Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D. But despite his success as a TV star and personality, he was never happy being a celebrity and had a reputation for being difficult and demanding. Pernell Roberts passed away on Sunday, January 24, succumbing to pancreatic cancer. He was 81.

Roberts was probably most famous as Adam, the eldest son of Ben Cartwright, brother of Hoss and Little Joe on NBC's mega-hit Bonanza. For six years, beginning in 1959, Roberts was Ben's smartest and most accomplished son. Roberts got the most serious story lines and carried a lot of the show. But Roberts chaffed under the formulaic structure of the western hit. He was frustrated that the quality of the writing wasn't better. He questioned why three grown men continued asking their father's permission to do anything.

Ever since I found out that Today's Meredith Vieira had her own blog, I've been checking in on it every so often, and I'm liking what I've been seeing. Not only is Vieira a good writer, but the easygoing, self-deprecating manner she shows on the air comes through in the blog. She's talked about childhood memories, her dog, her family, and her thoughts on whatever she's been working on for either of the shows she's on (Today and Millionaire).

When I caught up with Vieira in Pasadena earlier in the month, I asked her how the blog got started and how she's been finding it. "The blog was an afterthought," she replied. "They (NBC) asked me to do it, and I'm not a computer person, and I didn't really know what (the word) blog meant... What does it mean by the way?"