NEWS & NOTES\Couric back in 'Today' saddle after 2-month maternity leave.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

She might have been a tad rusty, but anyone tuning into NBC's "Today" show Monday saw a rested and ready Katie Couric back behind the desk, returning from a two-month maternity leave. (She gave birth to Caroline Couric Monahan on Jan. 5.)

"I had a few cobwebs up there in the gray matter," Couric sald. "They tell me it's like riding a bike, you never forget. Well, I could have used some training wheels."

Couric said she tuned in regularly during her absence, but confessed she might not have always paid close attention. "I kind of watched it like most Americans, in bits and pieces," she said. "My schedule was such that if the baby was up during the night, often during the program I would fall asleep."

Hey, a new mom's gotta do what a new mom's gotta do.

Move over, Casper: Sabrina is coming to prime time.

The teen-age witch who rose to fame as a character in the popular Archie comic book series will be shifting to a new medium this year - television.

First she'll be the focus of a telefilm on cable's Showtime this spring. Then in the fall comes an ABC series.

Melissa Joan Hart, best known from Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains It All," will star in the title role.

The telemovie, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," will premiere April 7. Production on the series begins in July. The network has ordered 13 episodes.

"It should be a lot of fun - a 'Bewitched' for the '90s," Hart said.

The series, like the film, will be produced by Hartbreak Films, the New Jersey-based production company that Hart - who's currently a sophomore at NYU - operates with her mother, Paula Hart.

Short stuff: Veteran journalist Ken Bode has joined CNN as a part-time political analyst and correspondent for its '96 election coverage.