definitely miss this lovely, lovely lady. ♪ ♪ here's a story of a lovely lady ♪ >> reporter: florence henderson captured hearts across america as one of the most beloved tv moms, carol brady. >> you'll find out. >> good luck on your debate today, jan. >> do i look okay today, mom? >> you look lovely. don't be nervous about a thing. >> reporter: starring as the matriarch of a blended family her career would be defined on her character on the 1970s sitcom "the brady bunch". >> i created the kind of mother that i wish i had and everyone longs for. >> reporter: taking on the role was something henderson embraced. >> i get so much fan mail from all over the world and everybody wants a hug from me and i hug everybody. >> reporter: in the decades following the show, henderson never shied away from limelight

returning to her iconic carol brady for multiple spinoffs of "the brady bunch." ♪ you are my lucky star >> reporter: but even before she became a brady, henderson seemed destined for show business. >> i don't ever remember not singing and i would sing in pass the hat, and i'd sing for groceries. >> reporter: henderson's career took off at the age of 19 on broadway when she landed a leading role in "oklahoma" in 1951. ♪ oklahoma >> reporter: becoming a bona fide star on stage, her tv career progressed as she became nbc's "today" girl in 1959 and she broke barriers as the first woman to guest host "the tonight show" for johnny carson in 1962. henderson earned her star on the hollywood walk of fame in 1996. and recently danced her way back into the spotlight on "dancing with the stars."

henderson is survived by her four children. she'll be remembered most as america's favorite mom. ♪ i want to be loved by you, just you and nobody else but you ♪ ♪ i want to be loved by you >> "variety" is reporting that she was actually at "dancing with the stars" on monday supporting her brady bunch co-star maureen mccorpser who later tweeted out this photograph of the two together. writing, you are in my heart forever more. then going on to say florence is a dear friend for so very many years, in my heart forever, love and hugs to her family. i'll miss you. tom bergeron also sending out a tweet saying heartbroken, i'll miss you my friend. really what's most touching about listening to her talk there was saying that she wanted to play the mom that she wanted to have. you think about her background, very humble beginnings. she grew up with a single parent who struggled with alcoholism. you have to think that playing

that icon, that everyone wanted and loved her. >> all right, thank you. >> joining us now by home is former today show host jody applegate who hosted later today with florence back in 1999. i know you woke up to the news that florence henderson had passed away and we are sorry that was what you heard the minute you woke up. thanks so much for joining us and i'm wondering if you can give us your reflections on your friend? >> well, good morning. yes, i'm home with my 2 and 4-year-old, and i was out of the news loop because of the holiday, and the first i heard of it was when your producer called me a couple of minutes ago. so i'm on the one hand shocked because she always seemed so young to me. even though i knew her when she was well into her 70s. when she did the show together on nbc. but i also grew up watching her. you know, the word iconic gets overused these days, but i watched "the brady bunch," maybe

it was in reruns by the time i was watching it. then when i had the chance to co-host a show with her, it was a little bit surreal to be then working with someone who was burned into your childhood memory as a tv star. and she was very maternal to the people that she worked with, also. and i don't have to tell you guys, the tv business is not necessarily full of genuine, humble people. but florence was the real deal. i never -- everything i knew was exactly what you saw when you watched her on tv. she was not a phony. and she was recognized by kwlaefr one. she shot promos once in times square in broad daylight and they dropped us off in the middle of times square and trying to shoot promos with all the billboards behind us. you couldn't shoot it because people were getting out of running cars to run over to her. mother brady. in every ack sent from the four corners of the world because she was once of the most recognizable faces in the world.

and she was so warm and kind and had so much patience with every single one of them. we were there for hours. >> we -- i love that. and i also love when you talk about authenticity, what was she like with the cameras weren't on? >> she was really the same. i know that that might sound like a made-up show business anecdote. but she's probably the only person i can think of who is literally -- maybe one or two others, but who is literally exactly the same. but she also had a little bit of a hollywood throwback aspect to her. which i also found charming and instructive. she was very lady-like. and that's a -- an old-fashioned sounding word. something that we don't think of that much these days. but even though she was obviously a survivor, because of her upbringing and surviving and she was a broadway star and tv star and she managed to work it, you know, work it girl, all those years, but she still when she would -- no matter how early the call was, 5:00 a.m., 6:00

a.m., already made up when she showed up. >> you know, obviously, so identified with one rule, so identified with carol brady. she had a long career, did a lot of things on stage and screen but that is how people know her. how did she deal with that? because at least publicly, from what we saw she seemed to have a sense of humor about it. self-deprecating that's the one thing people associated her with. >> she did not take it for granted. maybe because of her humble beginnings. she would get so much fan mail like the e-mail that people would help her with e-mail because this was in the late '90s, that i mostly knew her, but you know, snail mail she would answer every single one of them. with a signed 8x10 glossy. like i'm sure it took her like a lot of time every week. but she never neglected her fans because she understood the importance of it. and she remembered where she came from. >> i love how you call her a lady and that she was authentic.

when i was raiding the piece in "the new york times" this morning, apparently she was asked in 199 how she would like to be remembered. probably someone who survived for a long time in a very tough business, hopefully managed to retain a sense of humanity. do you have one quick story for us, jodi? >> let's see. weird but we went out to this event where they roll out new shows in pasadena every year, the networks when they're debuting a new show they put on a big dog and pony show for tv critics and writers and so forth so we were all out there at some fancy event with her and the gals on the show decided hey, let's use the sauna after. and we showed up to use the sauna and again florence showed up, beautifully made up, perfectly done hair and everything, and she was still like looked better in her little towel wrapped around her than most of the women half her age and she just -- she had stories about frank sinatra and johnny

carson. she was really famous back then. she was really famous for a really long time. when you think about it. how many people are household names and like household faces for half a century. she just had a real perspective on things and she was always the same person. nothing ever pushed her up too far or down too far as far as i could tell. she was just mellow, and was enjoying the ride. >> 60 years of a ride in that business. what a career. florence henderson, passing away. jodi applegate, thanks so much. >> thank you, jodi. >> really appreciate your story. >> good morning. >> ah. >> i know. poor jodi applegate we called her, woke her up with this news. so many people waking up to the news this morning that florence henderson has died. it is black friday which means sales. the frenzy did on. retailers hoping the next four weeks leads to huge profits while shoppers trying to get the best bargains. covering this from every angle.

cnn's alison kosik live at a target in jersey city. what do you see? >> this year's big items to get, of course, toys. and but the biggest gift i think to get this year, definitely tvs. target saying that last night when it opened its doors at 6:00 p.m. it sold 3200 tvs every single minute for the first hour of opening. so it shows you even though black friday oepd a day earlier, the importance of the shopping weekend still not lost upon those holiday shopping goers. this year's black friday frenzy kicking off with hundreds, jamming the streets outside macy's flagship store in new york city. early bird shoppers taking over entire departments in search of steep discounts. it's that time of year when all-out chaos ensues over jumbo-sized tvs. and shoppers battle it out over who gets the biggest deals.

this excited crowd caught this excited crowd caught clamoring over electronics at a walmart in columbus, mississippi. even though walmart is trying to reduce the brawls by handing out wristbands to a limited number of customers for hot items and increasing staffing. still, across the country, retailers are welcoming the long lines. ushering in eager bargain hunters and customers are braving inclement weather. shoppers at this best buy in portland standing in the rain for hours. >> i'm soaking wet and i'm still here. >> reporter: foregoing thanksgiving dinner to flood the aisles in search of big ticket items. ready with cash in hand. the national retail federation says holiday sales this year are expected to top $650 billion. a 3.6% increase from 2015. and on cyber monday, at least 36% of consumers plan to nab their deals online.

some of the other top sellers, the life size star wars and ninja turtle items. clothing here seems to be going pretty quickly, as well. my personal favorite, got to get this in is the robotic vacuum. i hate vacuuming myself. how about letting this thing loose in your house and just taking a seat on the couch? that's my idea of cleaning. back to you. >> i'm with you. >> -- mind of its own. then it's -- >> i'm okay with it. joining us now, ceo of the national retail federation matthew shea and cnn chief business correspondent christine romans. vacuums aside, matt, let me just begin with you, if i'm one of those people and i believe in black friday and the deals, what are the top two, three items i really should grab? >> so i think the big things are going to be the categories that they often are, so apparel, is very big. electronics are big.

books. entertainment content, dvds, cds. those are all really big items. another big item is gift cards. lots of people buy gift cards this time of year and lots of people do self-gifting so there's this phenomenon sort of one for me, two for you so you make sure you buy something for yourself -- >> the thing is black friday today is black friday but expanded over many days. andow amazon just is killing it. >> and i just amazon just released its cyber monday deals, 74,000 products on sale. nerve stuff half off and big tvs, samsung 4-k tvs, $499. the 4k big monster 50 inch tvs these are the big item that's what you're seeing allison there at that target flying off the shelves last night selling thousands of these every second. so that's electronics category

that's the big deal this morning. >> so because of all the online consumers and the blurred lines of the friday, would be cyber saturday as you keep saying what's in it for me to actually get out and schlepp to a store, in person, that is so 2016? >> there are plenty of great deals of course. and some deals that you're only going to get if you go to that store at that particular time. the real reason people go is because of the experience. and it's the experience you can't get in a one dimensional way on a tablet or screen. whether you're shopping from a retailer that's a pure play online only retailer to the extent there are any of those left because everyone is building stores now, or if you're a brick and mortar retailer. some things you can only do when you're actually there. you can see it, touch it, feel it and do it with other people. >> half of americans will go shopping over the weekend. half of everybody in this country will go shopping. this is a national holiday, consumerism, spending money -- >> but we have these new choices now, and yeah some people do like the experience and some people do not and you now can go into the storm armed with an

awful lot of information you know you can know where the other sales are where you can buy -- i mean you got macy's, jcpenney, these are the ones with the best deals today according to -- >> how good is a good deal? >> we're looking at some the best deals are -- >> big numbers. >> that's a big number be careful that it is really 65% off the retail price. they haven't maybe crept up the price. there are some really deep discounts there and mostly electronics, we're also seeing lego sets right now for example and a lot of these a lot of these what i call mall retailers lego sets, electric scooters is another thing there are good deals on those right now. >> you're also saying what not to do. on days like today -- >> oh, yeah. don't open a store card today. this is not the day to do that. you're frenzied. maybe you're going to get 20% off but when you look at your credit score these can be a ding to your credit score. they are also just a temptation that you don't need right? don't overspend. there are going to be a lot of end caps and door busters and

1999 women's shoes by five paris of those you're $100 over your budget already. >> you don't need five paris? >> you don't need five pairs. >> do you -- >> be careful, because you want to make sure you can pay this off by the end of january, or you're just hurting yourself. >> even gift cards, people -- >> be careful of there. >> well i think first of all you don't want to lose it, right? but i mean, but gift cards i think there's certainly some fraud that occurs sometimes and so you've got to be very careful about when you buy the card and how you handle it and making sure that you keep track of it and people are well aware that you're walking around with cash. if you lose that or it gets stolen or misplaced you're out of that -- >> there are different places to cash -- to cash those in for cash by the way and sometimes you know, maybe 80 cents on the dollar or even less but make sure if you're going to cash those in for cash you are using a reputable site. >> okay. >> okay. >> happy black friday. >> happy consumerism, everybody.

>> donald trump is doing some shopping of sorts trying to put his entire cabinet together, right? so some people, though, including some really hard-line trump supporters, they don't think that mitt romney is the guy for secretary of state. we have more on president-elect's been busy working holiday next. to truck. it's been touring the country telling folks about our heart healthy idaho potatoes, america's favorite potatoes, and donating to local charities along the way. but now it's finally back home where it belongs. aw man. hey, wait up. where you goin'? here we go again.

won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation.

and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

the donald trump inner circle feuding in public, very publicly, over the contender to be secretary of state. donald trump's former campaign

manager kellyanne conway has added fuel to this fire raising questions about mitt romney's loyalty to the president-elect. want to discuss now with cnn political commentator errol lewis and cnn political analyst josh rogin. josh, lay out what the factions are here? >> right. well basically you've got three factions when it comes to secretary of state. you've got the tower in new york, which is kellyanne conway's part of who really want to see rudy giuliani become secretary of state. they believe that if you were loyal to donald trump from the beginning, you should be reworlded for that. then you've got this d.c. foreign policy establishment. and they're pushing hard for mitt romney and they include the never trumpers, and the never trumpers can be trumpers if they can work for mitt romney. and you've not another small faction in d.c. still pulling for john bolton. they're hoping that rudy and mitt romney will cancel each other out and john bolton will be the last man standing. would be kind of interesting to see who wins. i really don't know. >> the tower versus d.c. versus d.c. >> that's right. >> gotcha. errol so then who does he listen

to? >> there's a couple of other considerations that have to go into this. is it political loyalty based on the campaign and so forth? but what is it this white house wants to accomplish? we have a lot of very specific promises from donald trump from the campaign trail about national security, fighting the war against isis, resetting trade policy and so forth but in between there's everything else and what's that going to look like and is the secretary of state, whoever that person is, going to be sort of the architect of whatever else donald trump wants to do in the world? or is he going to sort of keep that inside the oval office? it's not clear whether he wants a close collaborator, whether he wants somebody out on the road for him all of the time, whether he wants to weed together these various national security and international trade deals that he wants to put together. >> you said keep it in the oval office on a different subject but on the subject of keeping in the oval office what does it say that one of his top advisers has gone to twitter essentially trying to influence his decision? >> you know what it says, which actually might be good for us in the media, is that they're

carrying over from the campaign this unusual habit of trying to talk to the president-elect by going to the media. knowing that he watches television, that he's not likely to necessarily sit through a lot of long meetings or read detailed policy memos that land on his desk, so they take to twitter, they come on television, and they know that it's going to get back to him. >> we love some transparency in our levs but josh rogin there's also a thing to be said about decorum, is there not? >> what it says is romney is the front-runner. that's when the knives come out, they resort to these sort of drastic act beings. i'm for transparency. i'm for leaking. i'm for everybody fighting. >> pro-leak. >> i say tweet away. you know. but they really wouldn't do this if they thought they could influence it in any other way. the idea is just to muddy up the candidates. just to throw dirt on them so that it becomes a problem and trump would say i don't really want that problem in my life. >> can you say -- >> if you're might romney, we believe is in la jolla, ann

romney and his wife tweeted a picture of him on the beach, if you're mitt romney watching this back and forth, what are you thinking? are you thinking, josh, this is the kind of administration i want to join, one that publicly snipes on twitter like this? >> i think mitt romney actually, and i talked to some people close to him, if the president asks you to serve you have an obligation to serve. he also this he represents this whole sort of never trump foreign policy establishment. really wants to have an influence. right? these guys were really depressed when trump won. they're like things are looking up, jim mattis, mitt romney, admiral rogers. you know, even mike flynn, despite his controversy, they look at the trump team and say, oh, forget about what trump said in the campaign it's a whole new day. maybe we will be tough on russia, who knows. maybe all of these things can be negotiated. so they want to be on the inside. mitt romney and all of the people who would go to work with mitt romney are thinking one simple thing, we can do something good here and make this better than it could have been. >> what about the fact that when

you look at these multiple potential picks within the trump cabinet and you do the math, it equals like some $30 billion. i mean certain individuals come with much, much wealth. errol, do you think americans care? do you think they say hey they have all this money, they're successful, i want them to help lead the question. or questions being out of touch? >> we had a mayor here mike bloomberg for twelve years who was the richest person in the city. my sense of it is that if we consider that the average household in america is making something in the range of $50,000 to $60,000, the difference between somebody who's got $100 million and somebody who is a billionaire is really not something detectable. so if it's a bunch of rich folks, you know, whether they're a few hundred million dollars like mitt romney, or whether they're whether billions of dollars like donald trump and again we don't know exactly how many billions, i don't know if it makes a difference. i think it's really going to be more the policy, more the

statements that they hear that they don't like, you know, like so for example, the proepd secretary of education. i think what people are really going to focus on is what she has said and plans to do about public education. not the fact that she's from a very wealthy family. >> traditional partisan divide on that subject. a lot of republicans supporting for a lot of democrats not so pleased. all right josh, errol, great to have you here. >> eight weeks from today, count them with me, 66 days to be precise -- >> and you did the math. >> you're welcome. so what does donald trump need to do before inauguration day to hit the ground running in washington? we'll discuss that. zuccolis. through ancestry, through dna i found out that i was only 16% italian. he was 34% eastern european. so i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors we thought was italian was eastern european. this is my ancestor who i didn't know about. he looks a little bit like me, yes.

ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com

at the marine mammal center, the environment is everything. we want to do our very best for each and every animal, and we want to operate a sustainable facility. and pg&e has been a partner helping us to achieve that. we've helped the marine mammal center go solar, install electric vehicle charging stations, and become more energy efficient. pg&e has allowed us to be the most sustainable organization we can be. any time you help a customer, it's a really good feeling. it's especially so when it's a customer that's doing such good and important work for the environment. together, we're building a better california.

breaking news this morning from france. authorities arrested five men prosecutors say were planning imminent attack under orders from isis. french authorities say the terror suspect's intentions were made clear in encrypted messages coming from isis members in iraq and syria. the arrests were made on sunday in two french cities. investigators say documents were recovered detailing some of the plans. also they found firearms and ammunition. donald trump's team plans to hilt the ground running on day

one when he becomes the nation's 45th president. so what does trump need to do in the next 56 days before inauguration day? let's discuss with cnn political commentator ana navarro, cnn political commentator and host of b.e.t. news marco matte hill, and john phillips who is a donald trump supporter. john phillips we chatted yesterday. hope you enjoyed the turkey and bloody marys. let's get down to business now. what do you think, you know, looking over the course of the next 56 days, what is the biggest next decision for the president-elect? >> well, i think it's really a three-part decision. i think he needs to lay low, it's the holidays, so stay out of the news cycle as much as possible. keep appointing competent people to fill his open cabinet slots. and if the situation were to arise, talk mike pence out of seeing "an american in paris." >> what? >> all right. well done, john phillips. i was waiting to see what number three is. right there. you know, ana navarro what do

you make of at least numbers one and two from john right there? lay low. i don't think donald trump will ever lay low except for the fact that in a way he's not doing press conferences, he's not making public appearances, so he's decided that's going to be part of his transition at least in the beginning. in terms of hiring competent people, ana as you look at the people lined up so far what's your opinion of the transition? >> look, i think he's done more in the last two days to appease nerves than he has in the last two years, frankly. what we saw in the last two days was that he appointed two very skilled, very qualified women to fill important jobs. nikki haley for u.n. ambassador. betsy devos as secretary of education. you may disagree with him on ideology but it is hard to find a character issue to go after these women on. these are -- the first appointments he makes where you don't want to run into the kitchen, grab a necklace of garlic, put it around your neck to ward these people off. these are not scary people.

he's done a good job in the last two appointments. also, he has laid low. he has not been tweeting about "the new york times." he has not been tweeting against "hamilton." he has not been betweening about stupid, petty, vindictive kind of things for the last two days. i think that's a good thing. and yes he needs to appoint good people, good, qualified people. he needs to, you know, take that little twitchy finger of his and lay low. put the twitter away and be presidential. i think he also, at thanksgiving we saw him release a unity video. a thanksgiving message calling for the country's unity. that he needs to do over and over and over and over again because he unleashed a lot of disunity, anger, hostility, division, racial divide. which he now needs to do everything he can to help put back together and make better. >> all right. twitchy twitter fingers aside, marco, i know you were a jill stein guy but do you think the fact that -- >> in a nail biter.

>> sorry about that. there's a recount happening, but stay tuned. you would think, though, that the fact that the trump folks are considering not necessarily never trumpers but the likes of governor haley, no love lost there initially or even a mitt romney in his whole eviscerating trump you're a coward speech back in march and then utah could you think that will allay some concerns from the left? >> well, it won't allay concerns -- there were people who thought the sky was falling when donald trump was elected. and i've always been of the opinion that donald trump was sort of just playing for cheap seats, playing to the white working class, playing to the racist sector to america that he was going to be a certain kind of president and come in and be a far more ordinary republican. for me obviously ordinary republican is not a good thing. he's done pretty much what i thought he would do. on the character issues with the last two appointments, i disaagree with them ideologically but they're not character issues. i think it's frustrating that donald trump has been unavailable to the press largely for the last couple of weeks.

we couldn't get rid of the guy for two years and now that he actually could answer questions and address issues we can't find him. i find that -- >> well he made a lot of news with "the new york times" after that back and forth sitting around that table over there. >> absolutely. but i have some very -- i think the press has some very specific and direct questions around policy now and around these appointments that i'd love for him to answer and go to security briefings so that we could actually find out what's going on. so he could find out rather what's going on. i think all of those things would make people feel better whether you're on the left or the right you want a president who is competent and who has information. i was right by the way. the fact that he hasn't been on twitter for a few days is what reassuring but also kind of scary that the bar is so low that we're congratulating the president for not getting into a twitter war, like's a petulant 7-year-old. it's a really low bar donald trump has set. >> baby steps. baby, steps, marc. >> john philip us, what about the, you know, perceived conflicts of interest? because in that one interview he

did with "the new york times," one thing was clear, which is that it's not clear that he's going to do much to separate himself from his business interests. i mean, do you think he needs to -- to draw a bright, big, bold line? >> well, we still have almost two months before he puts his hand on the bible. so i'm not worried about that. >> but, john, but, but, i -- it's too late in some cases? he's already the president-elect and already there have been conflicts of interest and questions raised with his daughter with meetings with the japanese prime minister, saying his son-in-law is going to negotiate mideast peace, we learned don jr. went to paris and had meetings with syrian dissident groups. there have been lines that are crossed already. >> as of now he's not in charge of the government, he's still the president-elect and he still has two months to go to decide who's going to do what in terms of the cabinet, when you're talking about the government you're talking about the white house, and also, his business. this happens all the time at the state and local level, businessmen get elected to

become big city mayors, they get elected and become governors, they take care of it. it's something their opponents use against them in the primaries. sometimes during the time in between when they're elected and take office but it always gets worked out. >> glad you have confidence. >> john and marc and ana navarro. i thought you're supposed to be at the beach in nicaragua. >> yeah, but instead there was a hurricane and now an earthquake. so rhyme glad i'm sitting here in miami talking to you. >> i'm glad you're with us. thank you all. >> you know what brooke don't let me forget black friday. let's do brunch friday. >> i'm in, ana. >> all right falling in love, getting married, with someone behind bars. what leads some people to prison to find their soul mate? up next, lisa ling, a sneak peek of her final installment of her wonderful series "this is life." so i feed jake purina cat chow naturals indoor, a nutritious formula with no artificial flavors.

made specifically for indoor cats. purina cat chow. nutrition to build better lives.

in a motel room on the outskirts of town, she's preparing for a new beginning. in less than an hour, takita and jerome will be married.

this is the culmination of an over 20-year relationship, one filled with a lot of love, but also a lot of pain. inside this maximum security prison, they will commit their lives together. >> thank you so much. >> that is a preview of the season finale of "this is life" with lisa ling which investigates what drives women to have romantic relationships with prison inmates. joining us now is the host of "this is life" lisa ling. great to have you here. i have always been fascinated i'll admit by this topic as well. are there not enough good men out there? what is going on that women think that this is a good idea? >> well, i think contrary to popular belief that women are sort of waiting in the wings for people like the menendez brothers, for example, a lot of the relationships that women have with prison inmates are relationships that they had with these men before they went to prison. >> oh, okay, well that explains it. i'm talking about the menendez

ones where they become pen pass and fascinated with these guys and strike up a romance. you see that, too. >> i think that based on what i experienced, it seems that there are some women who feel like they can, in some ways, tame the beast. and change these men. but what was really interesting, with both of the couples that we profiled, they communicate with these men constantly. they will talk to their -- their partners multiple times a day. and they have their -- >> how? >> by phone. >> collect calls? >> collect calls. in some cases they are able to video chat. they can send videos in the -- one of the prisons. and to be able to have that undivided attention from these men, who are really not doing much but doting on these women, you know, as i was watching this take place, i thought to myself, you know, they spend more time talking than i spend talking to

my own husband. >> wow. >> and -- and the depth of the conversations they have are -- are actually quite substantial. and i think that in this kind of age of connectedness, we're not really very connected to people. we don't spend a lot of time having one-on-one conversations with people. and for them, to be able to have that undivided attention was something that was significant for them. >> that is a fascinating insight. >> yeah. >> because they truly have like a captive partner. >> you're absolutely right. and both of the women we profiled, and -- one of them had a ph.d. she was a very bright woman. the other one also incredibly bright, they had experienced some -- some difficult childhoods, difficult lives in their younger years, and so to be able to have this captive partner was something that they don't think they'd be able to have outside of this kind of situation. now both of them believe that they will one day be reunited

physically with their partners. but they have taken this risk in many ways to in both cases, marry their partner. one of them is really wanting to marry her partner. but they say that even if they aren't able to physically reunite with them, they still want to stay in niece relationships. >> talk about the physical relationship. i am a little fascinated by how this works, the logistics of this. do they have conjugal visits? >> neither of the couples have conjugal visits. neither of the couples that we followed. and for them it's okay. i mean they say that there's so much more to a relationship than -- than the physical piece. and, you know, there's -- again something to be said for it. i mean i know a lot of women who've been in marriages for a long time who find themselves in that kind of a situation anyway. and so for them, the -- the i guess intellectual and emotional

support that they have from these men is -- is what makes their relationships flourish. >> and do they overlook their crimes? i mean how do you get past some of the crimes? particularly the violent crimes? >> yeah, well in the cases that we profiled, one of them -- one of the men was in for murder. but the more she kind of delved into his story, she -- she believed that he wasn't responsible. so, i mean, the -- the -- the court of law judged otherwise but it's something that she has allowed herself to believe. >> lisa ling, fabulous reporting. great story. thanks so much. >> yeah it's actually a pretty moving story. and the wedding that i -- i attended was as moving as any wedding i've ever experienced. >> oh, my gosh, really compelling stuff. thanks so much for sharing it with us. make sure to watch the season finale of "this is live with lisa ling" sunday night at 10:00 eastern right here on cnn.

>> okay alisyn thank you. alisyn surprised us jumping in for a little. >> great to have her here, though. >> bye. coming up, it's one of the feel-good stories of the holiday season. this grandmother welcomes a stranger into her home after this accidental text inviting him to her thanksgiving dinner. we'll talk to her about this memorable meal. next. try theraflu expressmax,nd flu hold you back now in new caplets. it's the only cold & flu caplet that has a maximum strength formula with a unique warming sensation you instantly feel. theraflu. for a powerful comeback. new expressmax caplets.

this is just an awesome story to get everyone in the holiday spirit. an arizona grandmother invited a teenage stranger to thanksgiving dinner because she accidentally sent him a text message. >> that family, surprise! when she sent that group text to her family, she tiepd in a wrong number leading her to jamal hinton. after realizing the mistake, jamal asked her over the text, can i still get a place, though? and so wanda said of course. that's what grandmas do. joining us is the grandma herself, wanda, good morning. >> good morning. >> so, when it -- so you accidentally typed in jamal's number, and this text, changed your life. how? >> wow. it did in so many ways, because i had no idea what exactly was happening when i was getting all these text messages, and that he had put it on twitter, and all

these fun and you kind remarks from everybody. the kindness that i've received from people sending me comments is just unbelievable. >> that's what thanksgiving is all about, right? opening up your house, seating everyone at your table. making the family that much bigger. tell us what it was like to have this young man -- by the way, he's not your grandson, you know, show up to dinner last night. >> no. oh, it was awesome. i had met him once before, and my first impression was so -- he was so kind, and so nice that i couldn't wait to look forward to seeing him again. so he came to my house with my family. invited his family, but they had other plans, and so i was sorry to not get to meet them, but he was just as nice as could be and we got to eat food, and he told me about his plans for the future, and i am just so excited for him. >> small details that a lot of

people are missing, not only did you invite him, you said hey you want to bring your whole family to my family's thanksgiving, go for it. which is so incredibly generous. how did your family -- how did your family feel about this stranger breaking bread with you? >> oh, they were all awesome about that. they were excited. it's sort of the norm for them because we've always, you know, opened up our doors and hearts to people. all of my grandchildren, i've always invited friends to come over to my house, and i've always met a lot of new people so it was not too much out of the norm for us. >> grandma's texting people again, random people to have them over for thanksgiving. it's happening again. the big question is, you know, given this is the question i ask my thanksgiving guests are what are they going to bring and are you going to help clean up? >> did they do the dishes, as well? >> no, he didn't.

>> but, he was in a hurry, because after he ate with us he needed to get back to his own family. so he had a dual thanksgiving, and so we totally understood that. >> good. >> last question, just after this whole experience and after the crazy reaction to you online, what is your message to others? >> my gosh, kindness. just if you have an opportunity to do something kind for somebody, please, please do. because it's such a good feeling. it's a good feeling to give kindness, and it's a wonderful feeling to receive it, as well. so, that's all i can say about that. >> i think it's such a wonderful message from both of you. you know, to take a mistake and turn it into something truly, truly wonderful. >> totally. >> great day to give thanks. >> wanda, thank you. >> yes, yes. >> thank you so much.

>> that must have been some dinner. >> can you imagine, and the family's like -- she said it. she does it often. >> jamal's going back. >> seconds, thirds. >> all right thousands of unwanted dogs getting a new lease on life thanks to an animal lover with a huge heart. one of the cnn's top ten heroes, next. this one is from

channel islands national park.

coronado. saguaro. you'll see there's one that's an eagle. my number one goal is getting more funds out to parks because some animals and plants are only found in one place in the world, and that's in some national parks. i find that's a great cause, and i want to support it. (avo) the subaru share the love event has donated over four million dollars to help the national parks. get a new subaru, and we'll donate two hundred and fifty dollars more. ♪put a little love in your heart.♪

cnn heroes is brought to you by geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. visit geico.com for a free rate quote. and subaru. love is what makes a subaru a subaru. vote now for the cnn hero of the year at cnnheroes.com and on twitter and facebook messenger. >> all right. so we have one more holiday treat for you. voting is under way for the cnn hero of the year. here's one of this year's top ten heroes, sherry franklin. >> i started dog walking at my local shelter. i noticed that the older dogs just weren't getting adopted, and most of them would end up getting euthanized. you know, dog that was seven years old didn't stand a chance. you ready to come home? i don't think any dog should ever spend its last days alone like that. whee!

it's a cage free, open space. i don't even want to call it a facility, because we've tried to make it very home-like. when an old dog that's been in a shelter gets to muttville, it's like, woo-hoo! you know, they realize that it's a good place, and it's a safe place. >> these old dogs are so amazing. so we're educating people about that. about the fact that old dogs have so much to give. >> oh, thank you. >> i know that once we get them, they're going to have that second chance at a great home, and a great life. and that we're making a difference. >> the whole idea is a whole lot of cute right there. >> cute puppies. i'm missing my pup who has been pup napped by my mother in atlanta. i've had a crazy travel year. he's in atlanta. he's in atlanta. anyway, i'm -- >> long distance relationship. >> it's been fun hanging out

with you. >> normally we're off next to each other. >> lucky us. you can vote for sherri or any of your other favorite heroes go to cnnheroes.com. >> hope you enjoy this long weekend. time now for "newsroom" with carol costello. >> hi, carol. >> hi, guys. thanks so much. "newsroom" starts now. and good morning, i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. millions of us remember her as america's mom. actress florence henderson has died. ♪ here's the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls ♪ all of them >> today, today, generation remembers florence henderson, the favorite tv mom and an icon who celebrated all that 1970s family love.