I think those skips are just the usual YouTube video crapiness. (In the future, there’ll be a video sharing website where the videos are actually watchable, but probably not in my lifetime.) As I remember it, he didn’t make any mistakes in the countdown.
He always seemed to me like the kind of guy who wouldn’t let himself be on the air unless he knew he looked and sounded good, which is why I can’t understand him being on the show in that state…
He had on alot of makeup, but Carrie Underwood had on so much foundation that I am sure he was just making use of the pancake batter she didn’t use.
His wife came on air to give him a kiss. His wife loves Dick.
Poor Dick. I wept. Maybe it’s good that Elvis died when he did.
Wow, it’s like Peter Boyle’s Frankenstein was doing the New Years countdown. Freakish and sad. Poor Dick Clark.
It’s amazing how formaldehyde’s scent can travel even over cable TV wires.
Well, if they don’t do that, then us people farther west get “Happy New Year!” as early as 9 PM (10 for me, I’m in Mountain time).
I only saw a little bit of him and thought he looked and sounded better than I’d have expected, but not very good. As long as he wants to keep doing it, though, the network’s not going to be able to stop him, I think. I do think it’s more than time for him to retire.
I’m pretty sure Dick Clark’s New Years’ Rockin’ Eve is a Dick Clark Productions production, so I don’t think he will go anywhere unless he can’t or no longer wants to.
I am so going to hell, but when my husband said that DC was going to be on–I asked, “are they dropping him instead of the ball?” Now, that I would stay up to watch…
My thoughts when I saw Dick Clark were echoed by my Straight Dope participant partner - “Damn, I can’t believe I left him off my death pool list.”
I watched him live as well and his countdown was correct and on-time. I can’t imagine why it would be dubbed–it was a slurred but better enunciated than last year.
Either most of you watched another broadcast or else didn’t see last year’s, but I think he’s improved by leaps and bounds. He was highly animated physically–an incredible difference from last year when he was a virtually motionless lump in a chair able to move only one arm and even that not very artfully. His speech was still slurred and you could tell he was struggling, but he managed to get through it and never had to stop and try again. I remember his face as being a bit expressionless–just an unchanging forced smile–but again, that’s an improvement over last year’s loosely sagging features. Is he the same as pre-stroke Dick Clark? No, not at all, but answering the OP, yes, he looked a great deal better than last year. I fully expect to see him for 2009, perhaps even better still.
I believe he called him John, which is his middle name and could be what he actually goes by in real life (but I don’t know that, only guessing).
I would not consider myself to be the least bit sensitive when it comes to humor and nothing in this thread really bothers me. But I would like to point out that living to a ripe old age and remaining active despite what nature throws at you is actually a GOOD thing. If you are young (and hence, you’re going to live forever and with perfect health) this probably hasn’t occured to you yet. But if you are lucky enough to get old, you and your older family members are going to have strokes and heart attacks and this reality will change your way of looking at old and damaged people. So, yeah, zombie-Dick and “Weekend at Bernie’s” and hardy har har. But Clark took a hard hit and fought to get back to some semblance of normalcy. That’s more good than funny. I’m not offended, I’m just sayin’.
A point worth making, and thank you… but a TV personality lives and, ahem, dies by his image on the tube. When you can’t do your shtick very well anymore, when you make people uncomfortable/pitying/mocking and when you already (I presume) have plenty o’ money to keep you comfy to the end of your days, I think it’s probably time to hang it up.
Mr. Clark? Retirement, Line 2.
Not even Johnny the shoeshine boy’s “Secret Formula Youth Cream” can do him any more good.
I didn’t think he looked that bad. Aside from the speach slurring he looked just fine for the 15 minutes or so we were watching. The countdown seemed fine to me, but there’s no way of knowing if it was dubbed in from a previouse recording. I think as long as the man want’s to do it and keep active, more power to him. Rock on Dick!
dick clark productions, actually- for some reason, the official name of the company is uncapitalized.
I thought he was doing extremely well relative to last year. Seemed like marked improvement in his speech and motor functions.
He seemed fine to me, and I applaud his tenacity and hope to see him again next year. I don’t think he should go away because of this minor setback, people shouldn’t be hidden from sight because they make people uncomfortable or remind them of their mortality.
Painful to watch? Do all of you only hang around the Pretties and Beautifuls? Do none of you ever venture to a nursing home, group home or even know OLD PEOPLE?
Have none of you ever been around a stroke victim?
What he went from to what he had to work back to getting to is nothing short of amazing. It takes a buttload of courage to want to go on after being so vital and bigger cojones than you or I will ever have to go on Global TV. Think about that for a moment.
Yeah, his speech is slurred and he messed up names.
Guess what, he had to work harder than ever to re-wire his brain.
He may see Ryan and know it is Ryan, but the brain and mouth are not working together and Kevin comes out. Strokes cause glitches in the circuit board of your brain. ( amongst other bits of neurological mayhem.)
With someone who has had a stroke sometimes they lose their ability to do numbers. Everything else works fine, but the memory chip that does the numbers gets all wonky. For others it might be a verb they cannot spit out, or a noun. Or, if they win the lottery from Hell, they lose the ability to move, speak, or remember, leaving you a shell of a person.
A builder buddy of mine put an addition on a house of an older man. The guy knew all the stuff and could do it, but his 70+ year old body told him not too. So he assisted my friend. My friend said he was fantastic in every way and it wasn’t until he needed to say numbers that he noticed there was something wrong with him. He couldn’t get them out. So he did hand signals and writing. Turns out he had a stroke and that was what was affected. Imagine being a retired engineer and not being able to talk numbers. Everything else got back to normal operating level. Which is amazing, to say the least.
So, to Dick Clark, if you read this: You looked awesome and thanks for the inspiration!
The rest of you, learn some compassion.
Compassion is exactly what would motivate me to take him off the air. Respect for elders is one thing, but setting them up to be mocked and ridiculed is another. No thinking person could have possibly thought he would come across well to a wide audience. Many people in his position retire at the peak of their careers, rather than holding on until they can barely stand and speak. I felt the same way when Arnold Palmer wouldn’t hang it up, as he huffed and puffed his way slowly up the hill to the last green at Augusta, and his hands shook over the putter. There was no golfer whom I admire more, but I’m thrilled he finally put it all behind him.
It’s Dick Clark’s company and he can put himself up for ridicule as much as he damn pleases.
I’m sure he and his people are well aware of what people might say about his appearance - both the good and the bad. Is there any reason to believe that the decision to return to the air was not carefully-considered? Who are we, the public, to “save” Dick from possible criticism? He’s a big boy.
He was on screen for about all of five minutes and seemed in good spirits and mentally sharp, even as his mouth had a hard time keeping up. I don’t recall any countdown issues except for I think one over-long pause. If he still has the power to keep working on the air and wants to up until the minute he keels over, I don’t see why anyone should stop him.