During more quiet times, the gals were always generous with compliments, jokes, personal attention and — can we talk? — gifts. Joan and Melissa give the best presents. They lavish their coworkers with expensive watches, palm pilots, cell phones and, of course, Joan and Melissa Rivers jewelry that sells on QVC.

"The problem is really with their entourage," adds the TV Guide Channel producer. "They're too many of them and they're too demanding."

When Joan slips into her doting Jewish momma mode, she pours it on. At the apartment building where she lives in New York, she doesn't just give building staffers terrific presents at Christmas, but she writes caring, hand-written notes to them all, even the doormen and superintendent. The guy who plays piano at the fancy parties Joan throws at home insists, "She always makes me feel like I'm one of the guests."

Ditto treatment, to a large degree, at the TV channels where they've worked.

Also the problem was with their impatience. Eight or nine months after Joan and Melissa switched to TVG, I asked the VP who worked with them closest how she was faring and she replied, "Oh, fine. You can imagine all of the uproar that comes with the two of them. You saw it at E! I can handle it. The problem is that they push too much. Say, we all agree that we're going to do something, fine, it's settled and we start getting ready. Then the phone doesn't stop ringing. It's one of them saying, 'Well, when are we starting? What's the problem? Can we hurry up?'"

Current TVG Channel exex probably would've continued to put up with the diva antics if Nielsen ratings were better. While at E!, Joan and Melissa's Oscar show pulled in numbers higher than 3.5.

Their Golden Globes show in 2004 pulled a 2.6 household rating on E!, but they only scored .83 one year later on TVG. E! took a hit, dropping to 2.1 in 2005 with Star Jones as substitute, but the number zoomed above 3 when Ryan Seacrest took over. At their first Oscar outing, Joan and Melissa only scored .9 HH.

"We were disappointed," confesses the TVG producer. "Expectations were certainly higher."

At the most recent Oscarcast, they delivered 1.1 coverage, a 22 percent jump from the previous year, but the number was close to what the countdown show reaped that airs immediately beforehand without them. The problem was that viewership for Joan and Melissa's show actually dropped immediately after the countdown show, indicating that many viewers probably switched to E! However, within 30 minutes, viewership quickly climbed above the eyeballs tuned in to the earlier countdown show.

"That was the killer," says the producer. Apparently, it occurred to highers-up that Joan and Melissa weren't as key as presumed.

However, it's widely acknowledged by exex that Joan and Melissa helped enormously to launch the network's red-carpet shows. Viewership of their first Golden Globes show brought a 117 percent hike over the previous year.

"When is Joan ever going to learn?" asks showbiz journalist Paul Sheehan, a frequent contributor to The Envelope. "TV Guide Channel used her to launch their programming just like Fox used her new talk show to launch the network back in the 1980s. Networks use her, then toss her out. Poor Joan."

Now it's likely that Joan and Melissa will help another network get into red-carpet coverage, which many want to do. Likely candidates: WB, A&E, Bravo and TBS have all shown past interest in expanding awards-show coverage.

Whoever signs her and Melissa up better have thick skins. Being a brass-knuckles comedienne, Joan frequently lambasts her TV employers on air. And then there's the issue of dealing with celebs who aren't fans. Stars like Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Annette Bening and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie routinely dodge them on the red carpet. Helen Mirren spoke to Joan at the last Golden Globes, but noticeably side-stepped her at the last Oscars.

But, of course, they'll probably land a new gig soonest and I have a hunch that their new employer will be as charmed by them, despite all attendant hysteria, as I have been through the years. Underneath all of the bawdy bravado, those girls have class and remarkable heart. Even — surprise! — humility.

My most fond memory of working with them was an encounter I had with Joan early one Saturday morning back in our E! days. While en route to a rehearsal, I didn't see Joan approaching me as I made my way to the elevator through the dark underground parking garage.

She marched up to me and linked her arm with mine, like a grande dame demanding an escort. But also like a friend reaching out for a personal touch.

I was startled at first, looked down (Joan is short), saw her, smiled and proceeded obediently in my escort duty. We made small talk till we got to the elevator. As we waited she hugged my arm close and looked up at me joyously, beaming.

"Aren't we lucky?!" she cried.

Suddenly, inside the great diva I saw a glimpse of the former Joan Molinsky, who once worked at Lord & Taylor department store in New York and struggled heroically for decades to make it as a breakthrough female comic in a male-ruled world. She succeeded in bursts, in brilliant blazes actually, but then suffered set-back after set-back.

"I was insanely persistent," she recalls about the long years she spent doing schtick at Borscht Belt hotels and small, dim Greenwich Village clubs. Finally, she got a plum job — subbing for Johnny Carson on the "Tonight Show" when he took off — and became a sudden superstar. She moved over to Fox and got her own night show that helped to launch the channel, but got canned.

When she launched her own jewelry line, it looked doomed at first, racking up $3 million in losses, but finally it rallied, eventually achieving $500 million in sales. When E! offered her the job hosting red carpets outside award shows — back when no one else was doing it — the pay was lousy ($10,000 per show), her routine ("Who are you wearing?") was widely ridiculed and she was mocked for teaming up with her daughter. Now the carpets outside the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Globes are crowded with copycats, too. Except, for this brief moment, Joan and Melissa Rivers.

"Yes, Joan, we are soooo lucky!" I told her that morning, admiring her, her achievement, her latest rebound, and just Joan, period. I admit I'm a fan. And that I look forward to her next rebound ahead. Long may she and Melissa reign!

Top photo: Joan and Melissa enthroned in a TVG Channel publicity pic. Middle photo: rehearsals for their Golden Globes show in January, 2006. Bottom photo: same scene from the opposite perspective of the room. From left to right: Jay Redack and Tom Perew (Joan's gag writers), Amy Sweet (TV Guide Channel scriptwriter), Sabrina Lott Miller (Melissa's assistant), Nikki Kemezis (TVG Channel producer) and Matt Singerman (TVG VP of programming).