Showing posts with label ed mcmahon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ed mcmahon. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Bad Week


It's been a bad week for some of us.

Milestones are often tough, because they remind us of our own mortality.

Three milestones this week, and the week's not even over!

Let me start at the beginning and work my way backwards (if that makes any sense).

In the late seventies, I abandoned my one true love, country music, for reasons that I've documented in the past, and I won't bore you with now. I switched my radio dial over to the rock station, and I tuned my TV to MTV (when MTV was still actually broadcasting music!)

Sure, I'd been familiar with the Jackson Five. Didn't do a lot for me. But it seemed that one of the "Five" (the main one) had decided to set out on his own. And what a "set out" that proved to be!

I was a young mother, sitting at home, raising the babies, watching TV, cuz there really was no money to do anything except watch TV. I watched music videos, and saw one that really caught my attention:


Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (Official Music Video) - For more of the funniest videos, click here

A short time later, I saw this:



You might not remember this, but this was THE musical event of 1982:


Thriller - Michael Jackson

In 1985, I was overly excited by this video, because it featured so many music icons, and I'm just a sucker for that kind of thing.



It kind of went on from there, with:



And with:


Michael Jackson - Bad (Official Music Video) - Click here for funny video clips

So, I was a true admirer of Michael Jackson. Who wouldn't be? Sure, there was a bunch of weird stuff that came later, but as judgmental as I was at the time, I don't even want to rehash that now.

Working my way forward (by going backwards), I'm led to this:



I'd never been a "Charlie's Angels" fan. Who was, really? Sure, my nephew had the poster on his wall, and I spent a strange night visiting my sister and sleeping in my nephew's bed, with that stupid poster staring down at me, but that was really neither here nor there.

But Ann Rule? I could get on board with that. I was always a big Ann Rule fan, and therefore I'd read her book, "Small Sacrifices" and had been eternally haunted by it.

Well, when Farrah made the TV movie, and so eerily portrayed Diane Downs, I was spellbound. That's what I will remember Farrah for. That and the recent documentary, that I forced myself to watch, because it seem so exploitative. But I'm glad now that I did watch it, because I realized what a courageous and loving person Farrah was (Ryan O'Neal not withstanding).

Oh, and here's the poster (for those who care):

















I'm old enough to remember when she was Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Farrah led a long, yet short life. Her passing makes me feel sad.

Pretty much, from the time that I started to form memories, I remember The Tonight Show.

Johnny Carson was a constant in my life. In the summers, when school was out, I'd stay up and watch The Tonight Show. Johnny was the best late-night TV host there will ever be.

But, you know, every genius needs his foil, and Ed McMahon was Johnny's foil.

Take a look at this:



Who can forget this?



And, of course, Carnac the Magnificent:



So, I guess, three decades. The sixties, seventies, and eighties. All wrapped up in one sad week. How damn often does that happen? Never?

I'm feeling melancholy tonight. It's hard enough to grieve for one person, but three? And I guess what I'm really grieving for is the times that are gone. I can't recapture these times, and I didn't even realize how poignant they were. At the time.

~~~