. >> reporter: for more than four decades robert redford's sundance institute has been given independents a leg up. >> my definition of an independent film is a movie that almost doesn't get made. >> reporter: the stars at sundance later on "sunday morning." >>> when it comes to hurling insults at larry david on "curb your enthusiasm," susie essman is famously loud and proud. this morning essman's assignment finds her very much closer to home back in the place where it all began. >> this is arthur avenue. >> i was born a block down. >> if you ask me, and you should, there is no place like the bronx. >> i honestly believe you could make it here, you could make it anywhere. >> reporter: it's big, beautiful, complicated. so move over, manhattan. let's show some love to my hometown. >> this is just amazing. look at these homes. >> i'm susie essman and this is the bronx ahead on "sunday morning." >>> with president trump planning radical changes to the federal work force, mo rocca goes back to the time of mark twain to explore the roots of civil service. >>> seth doane visits with the renowne

it reminded me of "the candidate," the robert redford movie. after elected, he turns and goes, "what now?" now, he has a team, a plan, and has been through it before. the matt gaetz disaster cleared the debris and gave republicans a chance to say, look, we took care of the bad company, but now we have business to do. the terrorist attack, again, gives people like lindsey graham and others more urgency to get this thing done. >> mark, let's talk about january 6th. i am interested in your reflections on where we've come to. we've been playing images from that day in 2021. talking about it through the morning. donald trump is about to be certified, will stand on the steps and be inaugurated january 20th. when you think about that arc of history, what goes through your mind, and how do you think we ended up here? >> what goes through my mind is the 2000 election. bush and al gore, decided by 450 something votes. we had a peaceful transfer of power then. i mean, imagine if an election today were really down to that number of votes. people like al go

when i heard robert redford was in the white house, dad said come over to the office. i said i got to get out of my school uniform. i am not going to meet him in my school uniform. [ laughter ] >> so, there are things like that. they are impressive to a 17- year-old kid. you know, when i look back at it now it is, i kind of laugh at myself and feel, wow, girl. you made some major mistakes but it is okay. but you get judged. the choice is i am going to do what i want to do because you will get judged flow matter what you do. >> that is an excellent stopping point and correlation to what we just watched as well. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> we will turn it over to stacy at this point who has a prepared remark for us. >>> good afternoon, everyone. my task is to provide a brief history of the births and trajectory of the field of first lady studies. spoiler alert. the field is flourishing today. so let's see how we got here. as an academic endeavor, first lady studies began in the early 1980s. when political historian, while researching the 1912 election

. >> robert redford plays the good guy in the movies. but don't tell that to his neighbors in utah. they are still bitter. and redford is the target of their ire. >> the audience grew and grew, and that was showing us that the appetite for celebrity news was big. it was big. >> get ready for lifestyles of the rich and famous, television's most dazzling air of excitement. >> hi. >> i'm robin leach in monaco, the glittering gem of the riviera, and you've got a vip ticket to prince rainier's private party. your sunday newspaper is still delivered with the comics around the news. and that was what i always thought lifestyles was. we were the comic around the news. except we did it as seriously as they did news. finally, in the driving seat of his own career, he burned rubber in a new direction. david hasselhoff, rock idol. >> it was a time where pushing the limits with wealth and ostentatiousness in a lot of cases, was very comfortable. >> one of the earliest stories that we presented to you on lifestyles was about the amazing real estate wizard, donald trump. if he didn't shock and sur