As a kid, I got to watch Great Misbehavin."

Oh!

Just to see that cast, Nell Carter, Armelia, Ken Page, André De Shields.

To see that music from the great Fats Waller.

And then to turn around and get a I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.

Those two shows led me to where I So, hey, you know what it's like.

You're watching it now If you're getting that feeling and I'm feeling, do yourself a favor, keep the gifts coming and keep this thing rolling.

Happy birthday Great Performances.

My first memory of watching a sh I mean, I like i And I think I was like, what is this?

I, I remember looking forward to as a little girl, eight years ol Sunday mornings, waiting in front of the television from 9to 12.

I was like, please, please, please have a ballet, have Broadway, have something.

And it was just such a core memory for my mother and I.

And she knew how much this was inspiring me.

It just it just fed my soul, fueled my fire.

And that was my only access to New York and the professional arts.

So I am truly grateful that I had that growing up.

And I watched it all the way up into my twenties until I moved here.

And the fact that I am on it right now is just wild.

And I just this is the biggest honor in my life.

Today is the best day of my life.

An opera at the Met was turned on.

I'm not sure if it was "La Traviata" or if it was a "Ring Cycle" or But what PBS did that I had never seen before are these incredible backstage interviews with the artists who are And as a singer and a huge, you know, art fanatic, I got to watch sort of the inner workings of what it's like to be backstage with the performers before they go on stage.

And in that moment, it made me feel like maybe I could do that someday.

So that's what I hope things like this can do for generations that are coming up and excited to become performers as well, because there's just no stopping you if you have that dream.

My earliest memory from PBS is "Sesame Street," and as so many kids were influenced by that incredible show, for me, it was the performances.

It was it was the singing and the dancing and those incredible legends that would So thank you, PBS, for instilling that in my life from a very early age.

Every single year since I can remember, I watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with my grandma at Christmas time.

And so PBS has always been a part of celebrating the holidays and has been a huge part of my entire childhood.

So thank you.

So my wife and I h and we had set up our a mattress on the floor.

We didn't have cable hooked up yet, so w And it was probably two o'clock in the morning.

And on came David Foster's "H And I was like, "This is the greatest concert I've ever seen in my entire life."

be cause it was three o'clock in the morning and "I have to see how the rest of this."

We didn't have a VCR hooked up, we had VCR, young kids, Google it.

And I called, I picked up my cell phone and I ca "Hi like to make the donation to get the DVD of David Foster."

And my wife rolls over out of her slumber and goes, "Are you donating to public television?"

And I said "yeah don't worry about it, go I can watch it whenever I want.