From his vantage point on the set, Lauer believes Today has turned a corner. “The show that you watched yesterday and today is fundamentally different than the show we were doing six months ago,” he says. “That’s been a conscious effort. We will find a way each day to uplift and inspire you. It’s more who we are. We are not dour, depressed people.”

(“That’s who we are!” declares Hoda Kotb, the co-host of the tacky fourth hour of Today, who barges into the room with Kathie Lee Gifford.)

via Matt Lauer and the Decline of NBC’s ‘Today’ Show — New York Magazine

The whole piece is worth reading but this is my favorite part. Mostly because it reads like an almost too-good-to-be-true Lenny and Squiggy-style entrance from “Laverne and Shirley.” (Also this is Kotb and Gifford’s only appearance in the entire piece so it was used entirely for the punchline.)