MAKING WHOOPI

Whoopi Goldberg, the former San Diegan who washed dishes at Golden Hill's Big Kitchen and got her break at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, and now the calming influence on ABC's “The View” (10 a.m. daily), has been bouncing delightfully all over the tube.

The other night, she showed off her Oscar-winning prowess as a 1970s New York City disc jockey, a powerful voice to the black community, on ABC's lively “Life on Mars” (10 p.m. Thursdays).

Then she was on Rachael Ray's talk show (9 a.m. daily on ABC). It was her birthday, and the dreadlocked Goldberg, 53, joked about it (she has a 19-year-old granddaughter) and also how she referees political combatants Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck during the hot “Hot Topics” segment of “The View.”

She was also pitching “Sugar Plum Ballerinas,” the new children's book she co-authored, and chatted about cooking a Thanksgiving turkey just right (“tons of butter”).

In a Q&A with the audience, she said, “('The View') is the perfect job for me at this time of my life. I'm diggin' what I'm doin'.” So are we.

FROM THE 'TOP'

Richard Sweeney, executive chef at the Gaslamp's Confidential Restaurant & Loft and a graduate of the San Diego Culinary Institute, survived the first week of Bravo's “Top Chef: New York” (10 p.m. Wednesdays).

He's a young guy with a sense of humor, self-deprecating and a member of what he called the show's gay “Team Rainbow.”

Of Bravo's reality shows – from “Project Runway” to “Top Design” – “Top Chef” is a little more difficult with which to relate. One can easily appreciate the creative talent of a fashion designer or the tuned eye of an interior decorator. Not so much the culinary fine points of tzatziki.

Sweeney, 27, who said flirtatiously of head judge Tom Colicchio, “He's a real cutie,” earned a harsh comment on his dish from one judge: “The lamb was overcooked and dry.” A lamb chop, so to speak, but Sweeney will slice and dice another week.

MEA CULPA

In last week's “Spirit of 'Brotherhood' ” item, it was noted that the Showtime series had begun its second season. “Brotherhood” (8 p.m. Sundays) is in its third marvelous season.

WORD PLAY

“A stockbroker beaten in the middle of the day. In this economy, this is the kind of thing that could catch on,” detective Anthony Anderson, at the morgue, NBC's “Law & Order.”

“No one walks in L.A.,” teenager Madeleine Martin taking a stroll with her dad, David Duchovny. Responds he, “We always will, we're New Yorkers,” Showtime's “Californication.”

“Just how long do you sit shiva (a period of mourning for Jews),” Jon Stewart to conservative-leaning Fox News' Chris Wallace, the day after Barack Obama was elected president, Comedy Central's “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”

“Sometimes it gets tricky, people yell, 'Tina Feylin!' ” Tina Fey on getting recognized in person for her Sarah Palin impression, CBS' “Late Show With David Letterman.”