I think it’s great they still send him out there and I was glad to hear him.
It would have been very easy for the network to say “we don’t want this old crip freaking our our viewers anymore, let’s get some fresh face to do it.” Instead they brought back Clark, stroke and all, with the philosophy that it’s his gig and by God he’ll keep doing it until he quits or dies, and to hell with the stroke. Good for them.
Deeply tanned and slurring his words. Time to retire, Dick, please.
I love Dick Clark. I do think it’s hard to watch him. But I respect him too much to see him that way. Especially because my SO and I watch him pretty faithfully on the old *Pyramid *shows that GSN airs every day.
I agree with Tom Tildrum - Ryan and Mr. Clark have a definite vibe together that I enjoy. I just wish that Ryan would be in the studio with Dick and they would count down together or something.
We only watched the last 15 minutes or so - so I’m not sure what the whole show was like, but I will say that I was surprised that J.Lo was singing such an old hit when I did switch the tv on. “Let’s Get Loud”? Really? It was on an album in 1999 - not even in this decade, and even though it got her a 2001 Grammy nomination- it was never even officially released in the US!
I don’t think they can get rid of him. His company owns the whole New Year’s Rockin’ Eve thing, so it’s his decision. The network could get rid of the program, but I don’t think it would help ratings and they would look bad for doing it.
I don’t think we watched him in 2008-09, but I’d say he sounded about the same as the year before or whenever I last saw him. At his age he’s probably unlikely to improve any further. It doesn’t brighten the mood at all but I respect his decision to be an example for other people who’ve had a stroke, and going out in public instead of crawling away for fear of bringing people down.
You’re probably right. He just doesn’t appeal to me. He just doesn’t seem as genuine as Dick Clark, a little bit more…manufactured, I guess. But, I don’t know, maybe that’s just me.
I had mixed feelings seeing him this year. Yeah, it’s his show, and I’m sure nobody’s gonna be the one to tell him he can’t do it anymore. Nor should they, I guess.
And there were some moments during his exchanges with Ryan where you could tell his mind is still sharp, which of course is a good thing. But, my God, he looked and sounded absolutely terrible. It was painful to watch.
While I do have sympathy for him and his condition, and can understand his desire to keep going, you’d think the man has been in show biz long enough to realize that he’s an entertainer who can no longer perform. It may be sad, but I hope he makes the tough decision this year to step down, and I further hope has has many more years to enjoy the fruits of his career.
This.
He has been the face of New Years for quite awhile but everything got quiet when he started the count down and it was painful to watch. As much as I hate to see the iconic things in my life disappear over time I think it’s time. If he has his full mental faculties then he knows it’s better to go out on a high note.
I had the misfortune to be at a house where they had on the Rocking NY Eve special.
Please, for the love of God and all that is holy, don’t let Dick Clark on TV again. It is very nice to remember him and the New Year’s eve specials of the past. It is somewhat horrifying to watch as his insides slowly dissolve, while his outsides retain a glistening, plastic botox sheen.
I swear I could actually see the embalming fluid leaking out of his left ear.
Let the man rest in peace for God’s sake. I don’t care if he is an Icon, or even if he himself begs to go on the air. Don’t subject the rest of us to that. Nobody needs to see the travesty of a resurrected Dick Clark on Dec 31.
Yeah, it was painful to watch. But he suffered a stroke and I’m uncomfortable with the notion that we should shove all such people to the sidelines because they have difficulty expressing themselves, even though they have a fully functioning brain. So, I guess I’d choose to be uncomfortable vs. shutting him down because he’s not media perfect.
Besides, he owns the show, so he gets to call the shots.
Moved Euphonious Polemic’s thread from MPSIMS to Cafe Society and merged it into the existing Dick Clark thread.
twickster, MPSIMS/Cafe Society moderator
I see where you are coming from, but let’s think this through for a moment. Dick Clark’s career was public speaking. That is a skill. A skill people go to school to learn. He was damn good at it. Damn good. All that enunciation and elocution and projection and cadence that we see from news anchors or gameshow hosts; that doesn’t just come naturally. It is a craft that they work on.
Once they lose the ability to do so, they should just hang it up. We wouldn’t say he should do any other job when he is so compromised by stroke.
I realize it is his gig, but the network might want to consider making a Seacrest gig and calling it a day.
And, I do love to see Dick do it…just in a smaller role…basically, like I said, pushing a button or something that releases the light ball. I know folks don’t like to see things change, but change they do. Remember when it was an actual apple up there? Then it started to look goofy and outdated so we have this light ball that drops now? Or did I just make that up?
I have a feeling that the reason Ryan is outside (like Dick used to be before the stroke) and Dick is inside is that the inside part with Dick is pre-recorded. They tape it and re-tape it, etc. until they get enough to use and piece it in there with the live part. I’ve been thinking that since the first time he showed up after the stroke because it seemed so odd to me that all of a sudden they had him isolated, except for his wife there to kiss him on the stroke of midnight. The part of the show from CA with all the groups and guest appearances IS after all pre-recorded.
Speaking as someone who was pretty much friend-less when I arrived in the US in 1960, I depended a lot on television to help me, not only for the entertainment but for learning the American culture as well.
American Bandstand and the kids on the show were a huge part of this 11 year old German kid’s life, and Dick Clark and his easy way with those kids and artists went a long way in teaching me how kids interact and how Americans (generally) interact with each other.
So, for sentimental reasons as well as those mentioned above, it gave me a feeling of “warmth” to see him again on New Year’s Eve.
I have problems with emotions anyway, but I think those tears which filled my eyes that night were happy ones and I was glad to see my friend once again.
Thanks
Quasi
Quasi - I didn’t know you were originally German!
Anyhow - as far as I’m concerned bravo for Dick Clark, and also for Roger Ebert for not hiding their adversities. Yes, it can be painful to watch Dick Clark speak, but it would be tragic to just throw him off the air because he’s no longer “pretty”. The end of life is just as much a part of life as vigorous youth. What’s plastic is not Dick Clark’s stiff visage but the unremitting belief that only the young should be seen and those who are old and less than perfect should simply hide themselves away.
You have a point with that. No one would want a new person to come on and do what he does who’s in the same situation. But the point is, we (some of us) grew up with him doing this and its about him doing it, not how he is performing, as it would be if they put some stranger with a stroke on.
We love Dick!
Ditto here! I’ve long payed particular attention to your posts Quasi as you struck me as being somewhat separated from typical American culture, though you’ve never tipped your hand quite this obviously. I’m going to go out on a limb, English isn’t your first language is it? Please don’t take this disrespectfully as it not intended that way. But I come from German stock myself, as I’m only third generation American. My great-grandfather migrated here in the 1920’s and I remember my own grandmother relating stories about her father vividly though she passed away back in 1996, (he never learned English according to her, she managed to somehow). My parents were both almost completely assimilated, my grandmother on my mother’s side was adopted but learned late in her life that her own mother was Romani in origin, which has always fascinated me.
I’ve never had great knowledge about where my family comes from past about a hundred years ago or so, so this kind of discussion is interesting to me. Sorry about the hijack folks, back to your regularly scheduled thread. 
Hallo! 
Though I don’t mention it that much, yes, I am half-German (American Dad - Army Brat). Got here in 1960 having learned what little English I knew from my Dad and a German-English dictionary.
Please don’t misunderstand. I am proud of my heritage (except for the Hitler years, of course), and I love my German family (still have uncles, aunts, cousins as well as school friends there), but except for a few things (Christmas on the 24th, for example), I’m pretty much “Americanized”, and now ah tawk just lahk y’all do (if you live in the South, that is!;))
As I wrote above, although I didn’t have many American friends (tough being a kid, trying to speak English with that guttural accent), I spent a lot of time in front of the television which helped with my ahem assimilation;))
Dick Clark is just one of many of my American heros.
I became naturalized in 1970 and was proud to serve my new country.
Thanks for asking!
Quasi
It’s not a function of pretty, he can’t act in the capacity of a narrator anymore. It would be no different if he had tried to sing the national anthem. He is incapable of basic communication. They could have limited his verbal input and given him a button to push to start the ball down.
This has been a very difficult year for a lot of Americans and this was painful to watch. It was depressing. I suspect this was a hand-off year given the way it was billed.
Understood, completely, trust me. My friends all know about my heritage, and my fascination with history because of my disconnect with my familial legacy, and they don’t often let me forget about it. I have something of an uncommon interest with Hitler’s Germany as I know that if my great-grandfather had stayed where he was another half dozen or so years my life may have been very different, or I might not have existed at all as I do now, and it weighs somewhat on my mind. 
I’m something of a fan of alternate history books and my friends once caught me reading Harry Turtledove’s novel, In The Presence of Mine Enemies, and had to hear about it for a week afterward. I try not to let them see me reading any book with a swastika on the cover now.
FTR I’m totally going to picture you as “Uter” from the Simpsons now. 
Heh, “assimilated” may have been the wrong word to use as I didn’t mean it negatively at all and I know it has certain connotations in society. I didn’t learn about the complexity of my heritage until I was late into my teens, and I’m somewhat sensitive to the subject. My real name doesn’t leave much to the imagination.
(Don’t even get me started on the ‘G’ word.)
Yes, they finally found the portrait in the attic.