Twitterer Of The Day (2-18-11) - The Cultute of Pop, DVD, Movie, TV, Pop Culture Review

Twitterer Of The Day (2-18-11)

Posted: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:01:53 PST

As a sunglasses donning, ivories tickling Billy Joel might croon, I must be in a (vintage) VH-1 state of mind this week...First I profile John Fugelsang as one of my fave Tweeters of the week...and now, lookie here, another reason to watch that once wonderful, once watchable channel.

(But hey, at least that Ochocinco show had nice eye candy....sorry)...

Bobby Rivers' career has taken him from coast to coast....literally. Hailing from South L.A., he survived the divorce of his parents by losing himself in classic films at a young age, becoming quite the expert at trivia in the process. So much so that he managed to talk his way into contestant status on The Movie Game, a late 1970's/early 1980's quiz show based in Hollywood. Not only was he the first African American to win on the program, but its youngest, too.

After graduating from Marquette University, Bobby landed his first TV job in Milwaukee as a news reporter, but the savvy, whip smart entertainment side of his brain just couldn't be denied. On the advice of the legendary Rose Marie (Sally from The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Robin Williams, Rivers plunged into the then relatively new world of pop culture/features reporting journalism.

Beginning with a stint on the popular PM Magazine, a television series whose format was tailored to the markets in which it aired, Bobby joined an elite group of up and comers including Entertainment Tonight's Leeza Gibbons (huge crush on her, btw), Dancing With The Stars' Tom Bergeron, Today Show host Matt Lauer, and a young editorial commentator named Dennis Miller. With some of Bobby's segments airing nationally, the next phase of his career followed as Milwaukee's first ever African-American film critic, setting the stage for the likes of Elvis Mitchell.

New York came next as Rivers began a two year stint at WPIX which led to his highest profile gig ever: A vee-jay gig at VH-1, where he also hosted the popular Watch Bobby Rivers which included rare interviews with Meryl Streep, Kirk Douglas and Paul McCartney, the latter being one of the most watched episodes of any VH-1 program at the time.

Post VH-1, Bobby has kept busy with a multitude of projects including playing TV entertainment/features reporter for WNBC (or as Howard Stern had to say it, Double-U NNNNNN Bee Cee!) and WNYW, a return to film reviewing for Lifetime Live, hosting Food Network's Top 5, and contributing film reviews yet again for Whoopi Goldberg's radio show from 2006-2008.

Rivers' Twitter feed is a must for his long time fans, movie lovers and those who appreciate quick witted pop culture blurbs including this timely tabloid stinger: “I thought I'd make it through a week without seeing one of Lindsay Lohan's parents on a network morning news show. No such luck.” 

FOLLOW BOBBY RIVERS ON TWITTER

NOTE: Scroll downward for more of my Twitterers Of The Week...

New Tweeter picks Monday thru Friday!

-J.R.

Jeffrey Rosado is a writer, performer, pop culture historian and all around nice guy, until he sees Lindsay Lohan's fame-whoring parents on the telly one time too many...Where's Elvis and his gun when I need him to blow up my TV during such moments?

FOLLOW JEFF ON TWITTER: marquee_man