Millard Fillmore: Ready for his closeup with CBS Sunday Morning?

To sleep, perchance to dream, about my big @cbssunday debut with @Morocca

— Millard Fillmore (@fillmoremillard) February 16, 2014

Millard Fillmore as “Bad President,” by jimmyemery at deviantart. How will Mo Rocca’s story portray Fillmore?

If other news doesn’t interfere, Millard Fillmore is scheduled to get a Presidents Day treatment from reporter and humorist Mo Rocca, on CBS’s “Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood,” on February 16.

What a fine collision!  Fillmore’s story is really pretty good.  Osgood and Sunday Morning are top of the genre.  Rocca is smart, and often funny.  Even if they perform below their par, the segment should be enlightening.

Blogging for the venerable Buffalo News, TV writer and critic Alan Pergament gives more details:

If you’re tired of me telling you how wonderful “CBS Sunday Morning” with Charles Osgood is, better look away now.

Correspondent Mo Rocca — whose chicken wing piece ran on Super Bowl Sunday — is back again this Sunday with a piece on President Millard Fillmore.

Rocca visited the Fillmore home in East Aurora on the same week he was here to sample chicken wings.

According to a CBS spokesperson, Rocca explains in the piece “why Fillmore should be remembered for more than just his unusual name.”

The spokesperson added that University at Buffalo professor Claude Welch is one of the experts that Rocca spoke to “about what made the 13th president stand out.”

“Sunday Morning” airs at 9 a.m. Sundays on Channel 4, the local CBS affiliate.

The timing of the Fillmore piece makes sense since this is President’s Day weekend.

Prof. Welch delivered the annual address at Fillmore’s grave this year, on Fillmore’s birthday, January 7 (delayed a couple of days this year because of cold and snow).

“Sunday Morning” runs from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. on KTVT, Channel 11, in Dallas.  I’ll be ringing bells, and I’ll have to record the show.  Check your local schedule. 

You could do worse on Presidents Day Eve than to learn something more about Fillmore, arguably the man who set up World War II in the Pacific.

That’s something even H. L. Mencken didn’t blame Fillmore for.