I know this isn’t really directed at me, but…
Isn’t compassion exactly what would make this “painful to watch?” People have this image of Dick Clark as the unaging eternal teenager or whatever. It’s both silly and overstated, and I sure don’t have feel this way, but they have an emotional connection to him and it’s not that hard to understand why watching him as a barely-comprehensible (to my ears) stroke victim would be painful.
My sister had a stroke. Naturally, my first thought was to see if she would accept a job hosting a nationally televised broadcast. She declined, however.
Selfish bitch. :mad:
I think Dick should decide when he’s ready to give it up. I’m sure it was ultimately his decision to appear. Personally, I didn’t see any exploitive intentions, because I truly believe Dick wants to stay vital in his passion and medium.
Motivate you? But it’s not up to you. That’s so patronizing, to say it’s what would motivate you to take him off the air, as if he can’t make the decision and he’s on TV pissing himself or something. Mr. Clark is still of sound mind, and he wanted to do it. Yes, he has trouble talking now, but all things considered, he looked better than last year and I do not remember him fucking up the countdown, so it really wasn’t that bad.
Dick’s an icon, and I for one look forward to watching him every year. I would miss him if he went and I cheered him for being brave enough to do his yearly gig despite his handicap. That’s a great anti-Hollywood message right there-- old people should not be hidden away when they aren’t perfect anymore. I can’t believe people are saying he should be.
People ridicule public figures whether they have had a debilitating stroke or not. I think most people can see the courage in what he’s doing, and those who can’t probably didn’t like him much before anyway. Respect for an elder is also respect for his self-determination and his work, which is important to him. He can still do it, and people like him doing it. What’s the problem?
I think it depends on what you consider “coming off well.” Did he seem like a person who hadn’t had a stroke that affected his speech? No. Did he seem like a ballsy person for whom the show must go on despite setbacks? Yes. Good for him.
Don’t like it? Watch something else next year. Seriously. That’s the only way you can “take him” off the air. Otherwise, it’s up to him, and I’ll watch him as long as he wants to do it.
I thought he died lastyear! We started watching during a crowd scene and saw the “Dick Clark Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” signs. I mentioned how nice it was that they were still doing it in his name. When he appeared on camera, it was shocking. Both in a “he’s not dead”, and a “he looks like he should be” way.
But, he seemed to be enjoying himself.
Ryan Arnold Jackson Seacrest.
I thought he looked and sounded really good. I was pleased to see him. He handled his weight shifts well and looked a lot better then he had. If you feel he looked zombified or frail, meet more people with strokes. I wish everyone recovered so well. The makeup was thick, and you could see he was working, but it was New Years Eve, and he was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. It was nice to see.
That’s why I used the subjunctive mood — you know, the part of the phrase you didn’t quote.
And hacksaws shouldn’t be used to hammer nails. Certain basic qualities are required of people who communicate with other people. If a person can’t talk, he shouldn’t be doing telephone customer service or hosting a TV Show, just as a person who can’t see shouldn’t be driving a car. Bob Barker understood this, and that’s why he stepped aside before embarrassing himself.
Nothing lasts forever, and because new people are born every year, not everyone sees Dick as the icon you and I do. I mean, they can watch the occasional Pyramid re-run and thus see that he has not aged well, but that only exacerbates the impression he makes on them. They do not share our cultural references because they weren’t immersed, as we were, in the times when he reigned supreme.
I realize you think I’m a monster for the way I look at this, but I see things differently. I see pulling out a sideshow for no reason other than squeezing out every drop of usefulness it may have to be disrespectful in the extreme. Let Dick have his dignity, and stop parading him around until you have to prop him up with sticks so he won’t fall down.
ISTM that the toll the stroke has taken on Clark is particularly noticeable and discomfiting because he’d seemed virtually ageless for so long, he practically became a Dorian Gray joke. Now it’s glaringly obvious that he’s an old man with some serious health problems, and it gets our attention in a way that it wouldn’t if it was, say, Abe Vigoda.
I agree he can stay on the air as long as he cares to and as long as a network wants to have him in front of the cameras. If I were advising him, though, I’d gently suggest it was time to pass the torch to that John Seacrest whippersnapper.