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scarlettina) wrote2012-12-27 07:35 am
scarlettina) wrote2012-12-27 07:35 am
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In Memoriam 2012
It occurred to me yesterday, after writing about Jack Klugman, that I failed to note a number of notable deaths this year. This is by no means a complete list but rather a list of famous people whose deaths I noticed that were of some significance to me somehow. They're also people whose deaths I didn't note at the time. We're seeing a particular generation pass--the entertainers of the 1960s and 1970s--and it does make one pause. Feel free to comment or share those who've passed this year that you noticed in particular.
(It occurs to me, as I review this list, that I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid. A lot.)
Ravi Shankar: The second rock concert I ever attended was George Harrison's Dark Horse tour. I was, I think, around 12 or 13 years old, certainly no more than that. Shankar opened for Harrison and, while I didn't really understand his music, I did understand that I was hearing something different and that Shankar was doing something important. That something was introducing world music to the west, something for which I'm quite glad.
Larry Hagman: The heck with Dallas. My brother and I were children of the Space Age, and a big part of that experience was growing up with Major Nelson and his sexy genie Jeannie. The idea that astronauts had anything like normal lives outside of their space capsules, that this was a job someone could actually do, was a new idea to me, even if it was introduced by a ridiculous, sexist sitcom. Still, there it was. We watched "I Dream of Jeannie" faithfully as geek kids with an interest in science and space; it was, weirdly, a show that continued to foster our interest, and Hagman was the astronaut who came home over and over again. (It was also the first show I can remember watching and waiting for the central couple to kiss. And waiting. And waiting.)
Neil Armstrong: The real deal. I remember watching his first steps on the moon on TV in black and white. I remember thinking, even at such a young age, that his words as he stepped into the regolith were clever and appropriate. He helped demonstrate what we were capable of as Americans, as humans.
Phyllis Diller: Though her comedy was never really to my taste, I remember her braying laugh and her crazy looks on everything from The Tonight Show to Hollywood Squares to all the talk shows that aired in my youth. She broke a lot of ground for the women comics who followed her.
Helen Gurly Brown: Editor of Cosmo for something like 30 years, she changed the appearance and content of women's magazines. For better (or worse, depending upon your perspective) she made many of them what they are today--more about what women wanted and how they could have it than about what men thought women ought to be. I can't help but be grateful for her contributions to the women's revolution.
Sherman Hemsley: George Jefferson--another break-out television character who helped to change things in the media. But I thought Hemsley was terrific no matter what he appeared in. One of my favorite episodes of the '80s Twilight Zone starred him and Ron Glass, an 8-minute vignette that still makes me smile. (And you can see it on YouTube.)
Sally Ride: The first American woman in space. We are strong. We are invincible. We are Woman.
Davy Jones: The first band of which I was ever a fan was The Monkees, and Davy Jones the first pop singer I ever had a crush on. It was a baby crush; I was practically a baby. But it was a rite of passage as surely as discovering The Beatles was a few years later. (I was a child of television--of course I discovered The Monkees first; I had no idea they were take-off on this obscure British band. ::grin::)
Robert Hegyes: Juan Epstein on "Welcome Back Kotter." My brother and I watched the show faithfully, and Juan Epstein, the Puerto Rican Jew (who made much more sense to a kid from New York than he probably did to people outside the tri-state area), was my favorite sweathog. Vinnie Barbarino was kind of a moron. Epstein, somehow, had something else, at least for me.
Other people whose passing I noticed but don't bear quite as much weight for me include Ernest Borgnine, Andy Griffith (everyone wanted an Aunt Bea), Richard Dawson (I watched Family Feud from early on), and Dick Clark (between American Bandstand and Rockin' New Year's Eve, he was ever-present).
(It occurs to me, as I review this list, that I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid. A lot.)
Ravi Shankar: The second rock concert I ever attended was George Harrison's Dark Horse tour. I was, I think, around 12 or 13 years old, certainly no more than that. Shankar opened for Harrison and, while I didn't really understand his music, I did understand that I was hearing something different and that Shankar was doing something important. That something was introducing world music to the west, something for which I'm quite glad.
Larry Hagman: The heck with Dallas. My brother and I were children of the Space Age, and a big part of that experience was growing up with Major Nelson and his sexy genie Jeannie. The idea that astronauts had anything like normal lives outside of their space capsules, that this was a job someone could actually do, was a new idea to me, even if it was introduced by a ridiculous, sexist sitcom. Still, there it was. We watched "I Dream of Jeannie" faithfully as geek kids with an interest in science and space; it was, weirdly, a show that continued to foster our interest, and Hagman was the astronaut who came home over and over again. (It was also the first show I can remember watching and waiting for the central couple to kiss. And waiting. And waiting.)
Neil Armstrong: The real deal. I remember watching his first steps on the moon on TV in black and white. I remember thinking, even at such a young age, that his words as he stepped into the regolith were clever and appropriate. He helped demonstrate what we were capable of as Americans, as humans.
Phyllis Diller: Though her comedy was never really to my taste, I remember her braying laugh and her crazy looks on everything from The Tonight Show to Hollywood Squares to all the talk shows that aired in my youth. She broke a lot of ground for the women comics who followed her.
Helen Gurly Brown: Editor of Cosmo for something like 30 years, she changed the appearance and content of women's magazines. For better (or worse, depending upon your perspective) she made many of them what they are today--more about what women wanted and how they could have it than about what men thought women ought to be. I can't help but be grateful for her contributions to the women's revolution.
Sherman Hemsley: George Jefferson--another break-out television character who helped to change things in the media. But I thought Hemsley was terrific no matter what he appeared in. One of my favorite episodes of the '80s Twilight Zone starred him and Ron Glass, an 8-minute vignette that still makes me smile. (And you can see it on YouTube.)
Sally Ride: The first American woman in space. We are strong. We are invincible. We are Woman.
Davy Jones: The first band of which I was ever a fan was The Monkees, and Davy Jones the first pop singer I ever had a crush on. It was a baby crush; I was practically a baby. But it was a rite of passage as surely as discovering The Beatles was a few years later. (I was a child of television--of course I discovered The Monkees first; I had no idea they were take-off on this obscure British band. ::grin::)
Robert Hegyes: Juan Epstein on "Welcome Back Kotter." My brother and I watched the show faithfully, and Juan Epstein, the Puerto Rican Jew (who made much more sense to a kid from New York than he probably did to people outside the tri-state area), was my favorite sweathog. Vinnie Barbarino was kind of a moron. Epstein, somehow, had something else, at least for me.
Other people whose passing I noticed but don't bear quite as much weight for me include Ernest Borgnine, Andy Griffith (everyone wanted an Aunt Bea), Richard Dawson (I watched Family Feud from early on), and Dick Clark (between American Bandstand and Rockin' New Year's Eve, he was ever-present).
Ray Bradbury
Re: Ray Bradbury
no subject
*chortles* Y'know, I never thought about the fact that some people might have found that puzzling/odd...
no subject
no subject
That's a lot of great people. :(