Welcome back, Bob!

There’s always a resident of the TV tubes that captures our minds and hearts, and I’m not necessarily referring to a character in a series. This time, I’m talking about someone who’s more than a TV host: Robert Osborne.

Mr. Osborne has been a host for the cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) since its birth in 1994. For 17 years, he’s been part of many people’s lives and has introduced us to classic films from different decades with anecdotes and priceless information about them (he has written books about Oscars’ history over the years, so he knows plenty of movie related facts and stories).

Last summer, TCM informed that Mr. Osborne would be taking a 3-month break from his duties at the channel, which turned into a 5-month hiatus, to have “minor surgery, followed by a vacation”. It was never informed what the surgery involved, but in his last appearances, I noticed his voice sounded like there was something wrong. I figured he was sick, which worried me. It even worried my Mom (She’s also a TCM fan and taught me into watching it!).

A couple of months ago, a promo was shown in the channel with Mr. Osborne saying that he would be back on December 1st. Boy, was I happy to hear that! I’ve been counting the days for this! Although his substitutes did a great job introducing the films, it wasn’t the same without Mr. Osborne around. I’ve been watching TCM for a little more than 4 years, and I’ve developed a profound respect and even affection for him. He has become like a relative to me. I’ve been watching him almost every night for 4 years! I always check TCM at 8:00 just to hear what he’ll say about the night’s feature presentation and to see if he’s okay, even if I’m not going to watch the film.

So tonight, he finally returned! I was anxious when the clock hit 9:00 (local timezone right now because of Daylight saving time) and the opening for Feature presentation came on screen. Then, Robert appeared saying his usual greeting: “Hi, I’m Robert Osborne!”. Gosh, how much I missed hearing that! I automatically clapped! He even brought a smile to my face, which was something that I truly needed tonight after a long day.

It was very nice to search his name on Twitter and see lots of fans beautifully tweeting about Mr. Osborne’s return. There was even a hashtag created in his honor: #WelcomeBackBob.

So, #WelcomeBackBob! You were truly missed and you’re a class act. Thank you for bringing film knowledge to all of us who are either revisiting or still learning (like me) about classic films. I wish you all the good health in the world so you can keep visiting us every night.