good morning. air assault. an extraordinary new media blitz for the president as he takes his health care message to five networks in one day. now he's introducing a new voice into the debate -- the first lady. >>house of horrors. a first look inside the home of the man accused of kidnapping jaycee dugard 18 years ago. and check, please. how much would you pay for dinner with sarah palin? find out who spent what for face time with the former governor. today, saturday, september 19th, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on this saturday morning. i'm lester holt.

>> i'm amy robach. nice to have you back. >> nice to have you back. missed a lot of news. busy week. >> we have a lot to get to this morning including the search for a motive in the killing of annie le. >> lab technician ray clark is in custody. authorities say they have strong evidence tying him to the murder. the question is what might the motive have been? we'll get into a theory. and on a lighter note, the life span of leftovers. when are they safe to eat and when do they become a health hazard. you might be surprised how quickly that may happen. coming up, the important information you need to know to keep your food safe. i go behind the scenes of a new sitcom getting a lot of buzz. it's called "community." i sat down with chevy chase and joel mchale. first, president obama is taking his health care reform message to the airwaves this weekend, set to appear on five sunday morning political shows and even on a late-night entertainment show on monday. >> the presidential media blitz includes a stop on "meet the press." moderator david gregory sat down

with the president yesterday and asked him about comments from a former president that stirred up plenty of controversy this week. >> this health care debate, as you well know, can sometimes be about bigger things. and among your harshest critics is the view somehow that government is out of control. >> mm-hmm. >> and in some cases it's gotten very personal. >> right. >> your election to a lot of people was supposed to mark america somehow moving beyond race. >> right. >> and yet this week you had former president jimmy carter saying most, not just a little, but most of this republican opposition against you is motivated by racism. do you agree with that? >> no. look, i said during the campaign, are there some people who still think through the prism of race when it comes to evaluating me and my candidacy? absolutely. sometimes they vote for me for that reason. sometimes they vote against me for that reason. i'm sure that was true during the campaign. i'm sure that's true now. but i think you actually put your finger on what this argument is really about, and

it's an argument that's gone on for the history of this republic, and that is what's the right role of government, how do we balance freedom with our need to look after one another. i talked about this in the joint session speech. this is not a new argument, and it always invokes passions. >> you can see much more of that interview tomorrow morning on "meet the press." here's amy. lester, thank you. the president's new strategy includes deploying a potentially powerful resource -- first lady michelle obama. nbc white house correspondent savannah guthrie has more. >> this current situation is unacceptable. it is unacceptable. >> reporter: for the first time engaining in the health care debate, first lady michelle obama went to the heart of the matter. >> we were terrified. they said get to emergency room right away. >> reporter: show teld us the time daughter sasha became ill as an infant. >> but it is that moment in our

lives that flashes through my head every time we engage in this health insurance conversation. it's that moment in my life, because i think about what on earth would we have done if we had not had insurance? >> reporter: trying to turn the tide of public opinion and get a health care bill across the finish line, the white house is deploying a not-so-credit weapon. >> we can build a better future and maybe affect the world. >> reporter: on the campaign trail, michelle obama was known as the closer, so effective closing the sale for her husband. but though she is a shar regard-trained lawyer and former hospital executive, as first lady, she's focused on noncontroversial issues like healthy eating, avoiding the nitty-gritty of the health care policy debate. the white house is mindful of the disastrous experience of another first lady, hillary clinton still so identified with the issue she was asked about it friday. >> so, we just have to calm down here, take two aspirin, go to

bed, think about it in the morning. but i'm very optimistic. >> you keep your insurance. you keep your doctors. and you're blessed. >> reporter: as she enters the health care battle, some analysts say the first lady must tread carefully. >> if she gets too specific, she invites criticism. and if she can stay above the fray, keep going out there, get in front of the right audiences and stick with the right message, it will be helpful. >> reporter: and in a sign of how the white house is using mrs. obama more often, it is she, not her husband, who will travel to copenhagen next month to make chicago's pitch to get the olympics. for today, savannah guthrie, nbc news, the white house. joe scarborough, host of "morning joe" joins us from washington. good morning. great to see you. >> great to see you, lester. >> one of "the new york times" writers had a great term for what the president is about to do. he called it speed dating, going from network to network. he uses his personality. it clearly works for him.

he has a popularity. but how long can he continue to dip into that well on controversial issues? >> it's the law of diminishing returns. the president gave a great speech last wednesday night. i thought it was his best since january 20th on his inaugural day. but at the same time, he only got a slight bump in most polls, and then, if you look at the -- dug into the polls and looked at the health care, where he stood on the health care, he really didn't move the dial at all there. so, going on five different networks to deliver the same message seems suspect. and he certainly is in danger of overexposure. i know his base doesn't like to hear that, but reagan's base didn't like to hear that either, but it's the truth. you can only go back to the well so much. >> let's talk about the first lady, michelle obama. we just saw in that story she is now becoming a spokesperson for the health care issue, probably a softer sell, making an appeal to women. is that a wise strategy? and more important, do you think it will be an effective strategy? >> well, is it a wise strategy?

i'm not so sure. if the first lady wants to do this, and we should all salute her for doing it, but politically it's going to have no effect at all on the outcome. listen, lester, this comes down to about six or seven democratic senators and one or two republican senators. i think maybe the white house would be more effective just, you know, drive her up to the capitol, having her talk to olympia snowe, having her talk to jay rockefeller, having her talk to claire mccaskill. that's what this all comes down to. they're doing a lot of public pr, but this is just a numbers game. they've got to get to 60 votes in the senate and there's only one way to do that. that's the lbj way. go lobby the individual senators and get their votes. >> lastly, you've heard david gregory ask the president about race, and the president gave a suggestion that, well, maybe, maybe not. was it inevitable with this presidency that every time he would run afoul of critics that the race question would come into play?

>> i suppose so, but for everybody that accuses the white house of playing the race card, you just have to look. time and time again, this president brushes it away. he certainly has as president. when people blamed things on racism, he says no, that's not the case, and i think he's exactly right. when i see the anger out on the trail that i've seen this summer, i go back to 1993 and 1994 when i was running for congress. and, you know, you showed a clip of hillary clinton. ask hillary clinton how angry people were in '93 and '94 when they tried to reform health care. this happens whether a president's white or black. and the only thing jimmy carter did this past week is distract people from health care. >> joe scarborough, thanks very much. nice to have you on a saturday morning. >> great to see you, lester. >> here's amy. now to the latest in the kidnapping case of jaycee dugard, held captive for 18 years. authorities are searching in and around the home of her accused

kidnappers, phillip and nancy garrido, looking for evidence linking them to a pair of unsolved kidnappings. nbc's george lewis has the details. >> reporter: police say the search of the garrido property is intense and very meticulous, and they found at least three frag ms of bone so far. >> we did locate another bone on the exterior of the garrido property, and it's too early to even begin to guess what kind of bone that might be, human or animal. >> reporter: it will take laboratory analysis to figure that out and whether the bones are recent or something left over from nearby native american burial grounds. phillip and nancy garrido have pled not guilty to all the criminal charges in the dugard kidnap case. now police want to know if they might have been involved in other unsolved northern california kidnappings from two decades ago. a car taken from the garrido property matches eyewitness descriptions of the week or vehicles used in those other kidnappin kidnappings. investigators have been using

high-tech ground. penetrating radar and dogs trained to sniff for human bodies. both the dogs and the equipment have indicate there may be something out of ordinary in the back yard. >> we're not going to say exactly where it was because we don't want everybody to try to get to that spot. we can safely say it was on the garrido property. >> reporter: we're getting a new look inside the garrido house after the release of these photos from the county building inspection department. they show what authorities allege were the filthy conditions jaycee dugard and her two children were kept in before they were discovered late last month. this as investigators continue to dig for evidence all around the property. for "today," george lewis, nbc news, los angeles. ten past the hour. time for headlines. >> for that we turn to tamron hall at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning, lester and amy. good morning, everyone. we begin with a high-profile terrorism investigation that stretched from new york city to the rocky mountains.

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has the story. >> reporter: the case burst into public view early this week when police and fbi agents searched four apartments in new york. a man from suburban denver, naj bulla zazi drove a car here last week fearing he could be plotting an attack, they searched everything. agents found a laptop computer that contained directions for making bombs. no explosives were found in the new york searches or in his denver-area apartment in a house he once lived in there. officials say while he denies planning to stage attacks in the u.s., he has admitted attending a terror training camp in pakist pakistan. u.s. officials says he had contact with associates of al qaeda there. agents asked owners of hardware stores to see if zazi bough any of the chemicals found on the

laptop. zazi lives with his parents, immigrants from afghanistan, who's been saying he's no terrorist, but officials now say he's telling a different story. pete williams, nbc news, washington. well, 3 million swine flu vaccines will be made available to the public early next month. the cdc says the vaccine will be in a nasal spray form. the h1n1 virus has affected people in 21 states and 83% of colleges are now reporting cases. and what can $63,000 buy you? how does dinner with sarah and todd palin sound? an alabama woman won the dinner in an ebay auction benefitting a charity for wounded veterans. organizers say the winner has to foot the travel bill to meet up with the palins, likely to take place in alaska. and finally a checkup on one of the things you'll see in the san diego zoo. vets were examining a giant panda cub born just six weeks ago. how cute. everything is a-okay, but this one, he's still nameless.

following chinese tradition, the panda will be named when he is 100 days old. leave him alone. he's tired. how many times has a parent heard that? pediatrician's office. that's the news. a little pain but he's okay. >> i could swear he was saying something. tamron, thanks. >> nbc meteorologist bill karins has a check of the weather. good morning. how do you feel. this is it. last summer weekend. >> it's felt like fall for the last week or so. >> yes, this is the last weekend of summer and a lot of areas it still feels like it. record highs in montana, salt lake city, 89, phoenix, 101 today. the wet weather, thehealready b.

temperatures today will only be in the 60s and lows tonight in the 30s. that's your weekend forecast. lester? bill, thanks. the latest on the trial of american student amanda knox back in an italian courtroom this week to face murder charges after a nearly two-month court break. nbc's keith miller is in perugia, italy, to bring us up to date. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, lester. this murder trial was always going to come down to forensic science. and today the defense attempted to dismantle the prosecution's evidence. amanda knox in the custody of prison guards smiled at her father, who is attending the trial. she, along with her former

boyfriend, raffaele sollecito, are accused of the murder and sexual assault of knox's roommate, meredith kircher. a forensic scientist said a bloody footprint at the scene of the crime did not match the defendant sollecito as the prosecution contends. outside the courtroom, he says the contradiction was not unusual but contends the truth is evident. today, the defense presented more evidence that the alleged murder weapon found in sollecito's apartment could not have inflicted the wounds that led to kircher's death. the prosecutor in the case stands by his theory that knox, her former boyfriend, and rudy guede, who has already been convicted of the crime, killed kircher in a sex game gone wrong. all three claim they are innocent. knox has spent the last 21 months behind bars awaiting justice. >> she's learning how to cope and make the time pass and try to make it as productive as possible.

but you can never get used to prison life. >> reporter: and knox, says her father, feels the pain of losing her freedom. at least knox is not alone. along with her parents, more than half a dozen students from the university of washington have traveled to italy this summer to visit with knox and offer some support. lester? >> keith miller. thanks. still to come on "today," jay leno, race cars and celebrities, behind the scenes of a daring new stunt.

first week on the air, the jay leno show has featured some familiar gags and brand-new ones including something jay is calling his favorite segment. not surprisingly, it has to do with cars. nbc's lee cowen got a peek behind the scenes. >> reporter: jay leno's passion for cars is as legendary as the ones he owns. old or new, he loves them.

so, it's no surprise that on his new show his favorite place isn't his multimillion-dollar studio. it's in the nbc parking lot instead. >> the track is two laps, 2,200 feet. >> reporter: jay built a real racetrack, what he calls the celebrity green car challenge. >> some celebrities crash and burn, there's your 11:00 lead-in right there. leno kills two on tonight's show! >> reporter: his first driver, drew barry more. >> i actually don't have my driver's license right now. >> all right. >> reporter: she had a few prerace hints from a past le mans driver jay hired to run the track. this is jay's idea? >> all jay's idea. that's what he gets for three months off, i guess. >> reporter: the only two electric ones in the world. >> not like playing basketball or playing guitar.

everyone thinks they can drive, especially men. driving is like sex. all men think they're good at it. on your mark, get set, go! there she goes. >> reporter: but drew barrymore turned in a pretty respectable turn in a skirt and heels no less. >> you are the champion right there. >> reporter: just the idea, though, of putting high-priced celebrities in peril made nbc executives a little nervous. >> now, watch out for al gore. >> this is another concept for nbc. now, the cars aren't going to go more like 15 miles an hour, right? no, they're real cars. 80 or 90. that would be dangerous. it's called racing. are they wearing neck braces? no, they're not wearing neck braces. >> reporter: no guts, no glory and on jay's track, no emissions either. ecofriendly entertainment. for "today," lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. still to come on "today," lester visits the set of nbc's new sitcom "community." (announcer) kids and moms are teaming up, saving upc labels

for the sunnyd book spree. 20 upc labels equal 20 free books for your classroom. or, sunnyd will donate to the kids in need foundation. learn more about making classrooms sunnier for kids at sunnyd.com. there's much more ahead on "today." when it comes to leftovers, how old is too old? the tips to stay safe. he's accused of killing yale student annie le. why? ry. my parents all smoked. my grandparents smoked. i've been a long-time smoker. you know, discouragement is a big thing in quitting smoking.

i'm a guy who had given up quitting. what caused me to be interested was, chantix is not a nicotine product and that intrigued me. the doctor said while you're taking it you can continue to smoke during the first week. (announcer) chantix is proven to reduce the urge to smoke. in studies, 44% of chantix users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment, compared to 18% on sugar pill. today i see myself as a jolly old man, (laughing) who doesn't have to smoke. ...who doesn't have to sneak out to take a couple puffs of a cigarette anymore. (announcer) herb quit smoking with chantix and support. talk to your doctor about chantix and a support plan that's right for you. some people have had changes in behavior,

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the urges weren't like they used to be, and that help me quit. (announcer) talk to your doctor to find out if prescription chantix is right for you. (announcer) medication to lower youror to find out bad cholesterol but your good cholesterol and triglycerides are still out of line? then you may not be seeing the whole picture. ask your doctor about trilipix. statin to lower bad cholesterol, along with diet, adding trilipix can lower fatty triglycerides and raise good cholesterol to help improve all three cholesterol numbers. trilipix has not been shown to prevent heart attacks or stroke more than a statin alone. trilipix is not for everyone, including people with liver, gallbladder, or severe kidney disease, or nursing women. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you are pregnant or may become pregnant. blood tests are needed before and during treatment to check for liver problems. contact your doctor if you develop unexplained muscle pain or weakness, as this can be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. this risk may be increased when trilipix is used with a statin.

if you cannot afford your medication, call 1-866-4-trilipix for more information. trilipix. there's more to cholesterol. get the picture. >> live, local, late-breaking this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> i'm lisa robinson at 7:25. >> i'm kate amara. we want to go to the big story. the water break in dundalk. captain roy is overseas. good morning. >> it continues at dundalk and

the surrounding streets to dundalk and logan village. and we have seen bge out here replacing transformers that have exploded. hopefully power can get back to the neighborhood. we can tell you the entourage of county workers just arrived. they're working hard, diligently trying to cleanup this mess. we'll have more for you later on for the flooding. reporting live, sky team 11, captain taylor.

>> sun out. temperatures in the 60's. the big area of high pressure is moving in. the front at the mouth of the bay. all the rain held off to the southwest. it looks like a good day. terrific day. north, northeast at 6:00. high temperature 72 to 77 with low humidity. that is an outstanding combination. enjoy it. >> thanks for joining us. because of changes with nb cnet work programs. we will continue at 8:00. see you in 25 minutes.

we're back on this saturday morning, the 19th day of september, 2009. a look at the people joining us out on the plaza on this last saturday of summer. fall officially begins next week. but as always, it is winter inside the studio and it is freezing here. >> it's the vents. >> cold air right on top of us. i'm amy robach along with lester holt. coming up this half hour, after decades of making us laugh on screens big and small, chevy chase is back on nbc. >> he's part of the ensemble cast of a new sitcom that's getting a lot of buzz, a good response from lots of tf critics. it's called "community." i got a chance to sit down with chevy chase and more of the cast. we'll take you behind the scenes in a few minutes. basically it's about all these folks at a community college. a lot of us have attended. leftovers a great way to stretch your dollar, but what is

the life span of the leftovers and where are they a hazard to your health? what you need to know before you dig into those leftovers. >> all to come. but first, the latest in the case of a yale lab technician accused of murdering graduate student annie le. now that ray clark has been arrested and charged, authorities are focusing on the evidence and a possible motive. nbc has more. >> reporter: at yale university, the research lab at the center of this murder case is open again. one of the animal researchers, ray clark, is charged with killing a co-worker, yale grad student annie le. >> a lot of unresolved issues, so confused feelings are almost natural. and the people are trying their best to get on with work. >> reporter: according to published reports, police matched annie's blood to clark's boot, and they recovered his special pen with green ink at the crime scene, what could be key physical evidence in the

case. >> we are still following the evidence. we have a lot of stuff still going to the lab. it could take us someplace else, an additional suspect, or it may not. and so, i just don't know. but there is no pending arrest warrant. >> reporter: but now another theory is emerging, a fight over mice. clark worked in the basement of the research lab, assisting with animal experiments alongside annie le. in an e-mail to nbc news, a lab co-worker wrote, "ray has always been very controlling over what goes on in the mouse room, often bothering people to the point of damn near harassment." the lab worker told me, "clark was territorial, reprimanding annie just before her disappearance. last thing i knew was annie got a message from him saying her cages were dirty." >> investigators are going through several motives, but this is one of them they are certainly look into. >> reporter: that he was upset with the way he was treating the animals that he would kill her? >> right. >> what might be a simple conflict between you and i and

easily resolved, when you add those stress factors in of long hours, strange hour, that kind of an environment, it might be much more different to resolve or could escalate to something more serious. >> reporter: ray clark is now in a high-security prison, and police say he won't speak with them, so the mystery of a motive still hangs over this campus. new haven, connecticut. >> we turn to nbc's chief legal analyst dan abrams. good morning. >> good morning. >> we focus on motive. it's part of our natural curiosity. is it a big deal for prosecutors as to why he might have killed her? >> certainly don't have to prove it. prosecutors can say, look, we've got the evidence and we don't know the motive and that wouldn't necessarily be a problem. but jurors tend to like to know why, the same reason we're discussing it, the same reason the public is discussing it. they want to know how could this have happened but also why did this happen. it's useful but not necessary. >> from the prosecutor's standpoint, the forensic evidence, assuming they don't learn a motive, forensic

evidence can carry the day. >> right. say there were a number of circumstances here, could have been one of a number of things but the bottom line is, for example, we've got his dna, we've got her dna on his clothing, et cetera. whatever it is they have, they can go into court with that. remember, they also have this very advanced research lab where they've got computer records of who was in which room. they've got cameras. so, they'll have a lot of evidence i think beyond just dna. >> he is not talking to authorities right now. and so, from that standpoint, d does that rob them the ability to compare his statements? we hear cases where you said this and said this later. if he says nothing, does that help him? >> well, prosecutors love the get statements. police love to get statements. and defense attorneys hate it. the minute someone hires a lawyer, one of the first things the defense lawyer will often say is don't talk. don't say anything. why is that? for exactly the reason you just said, which is they don't want to have conflicting statements out there. they don't want to say one thing one time and then witnesses, for

example, at a trial who minor league offer some conflicting testimony, et cetera. look, the bottom line is defendants tend to get themselveses into trouble when they talk. >> but then back to the forensic evidence, then, as a defending attorney, how do you discredit that evidence? do you get some of it tossed out? >> i think there's no question that if it gets to that point that the defense attorneys are going to have some of this evidence suppressed. they're going to say that certain evidence was obtained in a way it shouldn't have been obtained, et cetera. we don't know exactly what the defense might be at this point. a lot of people are asking me, what is the defense going to be? we don't know. there's a whole panoply of options here as to what the defense might be. but it would be very helpful for the defense in a case like this for the defense to be able to point to someone else, to be able to say, wait a second. there's someone else out there who they should have considered, or there were other people who had access to the same area, or there are other explanations here which may -- for example, you often see fingerprints that might not match this defendant.

say someone else was in the lab or -- >> in the lab. >> right. they may say wait a second, what about the fingerprints that don't match my client that were found right next to the crime scene? where is that person? is that going to be the defense? i don't know. but that's the sorts of defense we hear in cases like this. >> dan abrams, thanks very much. >> all right, lester. we're going to switch gears and get another check of the weather. for that, we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins out on the

good morning, the sun is out this morning. 58 on t.v. hill. little cool. we'll have a nice day. forecast is calling for the sunshine to continue. our highs will be in the mid 70's. enjoy. we got a bunch of football fans here. right? nebraska, michigan, college football. college football today, nfl football sunday night. this is probably one of the best games of the season. a lot of people looking forward to it. both teams won last week. we're talking giants visit the brand-new stadium of the dallas cowboys. what a massive arena.

partly cloudy, warm, temperatures in the 80s. what a fantastic game. i know even lester will be watching. right, lester? >> i will be parked in front of the. you know that, bill. thanks very much. next up, are the leftovers in your fridge dangerous to your health? e none of the benefits you earned were ever taken away. today we're continuing that fight by protecting your freedom to choose the doctors and treatments you need. and to have your tax dollars go towards your care-- not insurance company subsidies. you've done your work. and we'll keep doing ours. learn more at aarp.org. or the worry my pipes might leak... compromise what i like to do... like hunting for bargains, not always bathrooms. i take care with vesicare. (announcer) once-daily vesicare can help control your bladder muscle

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this morning on "today investigates," how safe are your leftovers? from soup, to lunch meats to salads. how long can you store them safely, and how soon do they harbor potentially dangerous bacteria? jack, good morning. >> good morning, amy. >> we'll get into specific food groups in a second, but you say there are four general rules for leftovers. what are they? >> these rules all come from basic food science that between the temperatures of 40 degrees and 140 degrees is where bacteria is most likely to grow, called the danger zone. the four rules come out of cry triing to keep food out of the danger zone.

the first rule is to get the leftovers into the fridge fast. what that means, two hours. >> two hours. >> turkey on the counter for hours on end, there's a lot of bacteria that's started growing. >> refrigerate up to four days but freeze for anything longer. >> and decide to freeze at the beginning. refrigerating four days and then freezing is a no-go. >> i've done that before. >> you need to decide at the beginning you're not going to eat it in four days. >> i know the third one, defrost in the fridge, not on the counter. >> because the bacteria will grow on the counter, not on the fridge. and the last one, soup or whatever, bring it to a boil, 165 degrees in the center. >> get it hot. >> get it hot. >> when it's hot and you have to cool it again, do you put it straight into the refrigerator? how do you cool it properly? >> you made a big pot of soup and you're trying to get it in the fridge fast. you put that in, you'll warm up all the food in the fridge. divide it into small containers

that will cool down quickly, then get it in the fridge. within about an hour, if you have them in small container, it will be back at room temperature. >> what about baked goods? you have french bread and pastries. can you leave them on the counter or in the fridge? >> unless you have icing, which is a different issue because of butter or eggs, but bread, muffin, biscuit, the fridge is the worst place to put them because it will make the texture awful. leave them on the counter for a day. >> makes them hard. >> the starches turn awful and they never come back. wrap in plastic, then in foil, can go in the freezer for two months. and then you can take the plastic off and reheat it in the foil and you've got your bread back, your muffins back. >> a great idea. now, when you're talking about meat, it's a very short life span, correct? >> in terms of just texture and flavor, two days and the meat gets really awful. we try to recommend, if it's going into a salad like leftover

steak, try not to heat it again because it will be tough. for turkey, heat it in a pot of simmering water. steam it and it keeps it nice and juszy. >> wine, pretty quickly. it can taste like vinegar if you leave it too long. >> in the freezer, it will stay longer. red wine, four days in the fridge is fine, white wine, you've got a week. so, much better in the fridge than on the counter. and lettuce, this is a tough one to keep it from wilting. >> what we do here is wrap it in paper towels and slip it in a ziploc. believe it or not, this will keep it for a week. >> keep it crunchy? >> crunchy, nice and fresh. >> thank you. coming up next, lester goes behind the scenes of "community." trying to be big like you, dad. you're so good at keeping everyone full and focused with your fiber. but you already are great at doing that. really? sure! you're made with fiber just like me. but best of all, you're the perfect size for smaller kids,

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now to a much-talked about addition to nbc's thursday night comedy lineup. a new sitcom called "community." it stars joel mchale, the quick-witted house of "the soup" as a community college student. the cast features another comic actor who first rose to stardom right here on nbc. >> one hell of a family, huh? we made it. >> he's led us on vacations. kept us up late many a saturday night. >> live in new york, it's saturday night! >> make way. human being coming through. >> now at 65 years old, chevy

chase, one of comedy's leading men, is going back to school. community college. >> my name is pierce hawthorne, and that is hawthorne as in hawthorne whites. i'm the oldest student in the bunch. i'm still not sure why i'm at the college, but we'll figure that out in one of the episodes. >> joel mchale is the star of the show, and he knows full well why his character, jeff, has landed in school. >> it's about a guy who is a lawyer who's been thrown out of law because he had lied about having a college degree. >> lied. >> bachelors from columbia. >> now i can get one from america. >> some of the regular viewers might recall mchale used to occasionally stop by "weekend today" to offer his unique perspective on the day's headlines. lindsay lohan got paid $2 million to do a proactive commercial. >> for 2 million bucks, i will have leprosy and rub anything on my face. >> that sparky commentary is the

basis for his weekly show on e television called "the soup." >> of course anytime randy jackson calls someone a dog, ellen is going to adopt them. i am not giving that up, and i know that you were worried. so, lester, it's going to be okay. i will continue to be a glorified weather man. >> what are you doing? >> pierce! let's discuss this creepiness. >> in "community," mchale and chevy chase are part of an odd assortment of off-beat characters who have ended up in the same study group at the fictional greendale community college. >> you have been sexually harassing me sirs since the very first day of class. >> makes no sense to me. why would harass somebody who turns me off? >> tell me about this show, huge buzz, which is probably a double-edged sword in this business, isn't it? >> yes, it is. it's not going to be as funny as willard and al, but it'll be close. there's a guy trying out for the track team.

he's kind of trucking. >> in fact, many of the tv critics have taken note of the show's snappy, clever writing, and so did chevy chase. >> i am a prominent business leader and a highly sought-after dinner guest. >> who was not looking for a tv comedy when "community" came calling. >> i dreamt of stealing the show away from joel. >> we ended up with a great cast, but what initially drew me, of course, was the writing. >> there are a lot of sitcoms out there. do you find a sameness about them? does this stand out from the pack? >> honestly, i never watched any. i never cared. i found that i would gravitate to discovery or "national geographic" or something like that. >> i want you to look to the person to your left. >> this is joe mchale's first outing as a sitcom regular. >> you remind me of myself at your age. >> i deserve that. >> and he is immediately diving into the deep end of tell vig's comedy pool, the nbc thursday night lineup, which historically

has generated some of the genre's most successful shows. >> to be on that nigh for however long we are, hopefully a long time, is i just feel -- i can't believe it. i'm so glad to be part of the family. >> i hereby pronounce you a community. >> oh, that's nice. >> we miss having joel around here to do those little things with us. >> he's hysterical. >> very funny. th >> one said it could be the next "30 rock," pretty high praise. >> hopefully must-see once again. [house] wow, i feel like a new house

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internet. it's a re-enactment of a famous study in which kids are tempted with marshmallow. >> kids are put in a room with one marshmallow and told not to eat it until the adult comes back. if they wait, they'll get two marshmallows. watch some of these kids struggle. can't hold out. >> there she goes. this is made by a church in dallas, texas, for is sermon, of all things, on temptation. the original study followed these kids to see how they did later in life based on whether they it a the marshmallow or not. >> cute commercial. maybe like how many licks to the center, tootsie pop. lay's potato pip championships. >> can't eat just one. and hand-made upholstery. you choose the style... we custom make it. always with free design service. ♪ hand-made for you at ethan allen. it's more affordable than you think. ethan allen

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tomorrow on "today," an >> live, local, late-breaking this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> welcome to 11 news saturday morning, i'm kate amara. >> i'm lisa robinson. we'll check traffic and weather in a moment, but first the top stories. >> a massive water main broke. the main broke after 4:00 sunday afternoon. about a hundred homes are left with flooded basement.

we will have more in the story in a live team coverage report. anne arundel county said two teens accused of sprays kkk on a predominantly black church bus will be charged with a hate crime. it was parked at st. matthews united methodist church. witnesses saw two white teens running from the bus and the attendance records helped identify the pair. >> hundreds of students that live and learn in southeast baltimore county. the goal is to make sure students have the health care they need. >> let's check on the weather with meteorologist john collins. john? >> on t.v. hill 58 degrees. that is chilly. that is the low. the sun is out.

here is the satellite. clouds in virginia, portions of delmarva, virginia capes. the cool front slipped through. couple of sprinkles on the eastern shore. see the cool stuff on the great lake. here is what the map will look like. unsettled weather off to the southwest. eventually, the high has positions offshore. throw atlantic stuff our way. the stuff from the south gets in, confuses the forecast next week. but this weekend looks great. today's forecast, sunny today. temperatures mid 70's for highs. we start dropping into the 50's. maybe 40's overnight tonight and tomorrow morning. plus, it's a good weekend. the forecast in details is coming up. >> up next wbal-tv 11 news saturday morning dr. hammond has more. >> we have an update on the

water main break in dundalk. larry simms, more coming up. >> a spectacular point of view. talk to the photographer. that is coming up. >> weather and sports. 11 news saturday morning