Michael Jackson. Should have bought Apple stock with this “Thriller” money in 83 and quit the show-biz world forever.
The GoGo’s have had several failed comebacks, yes/no?
For the life of me, I can’t help but wonder why Pat Boone did what he did.
After years of quiet retirement and cameos in movies and TV, he suddenly decided to release another album?
An album of heavy metal songs?
And he decided to dress in what he thought was “heavy metal gear” which, in fact, made him look like the leather biker guy who was one of the Village People?
Most folks never even heard about this. Those who did never would have if Pat hadn’t decided to try and plug his new album on “Space Ghost Coast To Coast.”
It is a sad and pathetic thing to watch a performer be made a fool of by an animated cartoon superhero…
Can I put in “Any 70s band that tours with less than half of its original members”?
First, you meant Mark Hamill.
Secondly, I disagree that he’s been a failure post-Star Wars. He’s done some great work in voice acting (especially as the Joker in Paul Dini’s new Batman cartoons), he was great as The Trickster in the Flash TV series, and I hear his just-finished mockumentary, COmic Book: The Movie, is hilarious (think This is Spinal Tap but with comics).
Mark Hamill, a failure? Pish posh! Anyone who can parody himself with the Muppets deserves credit for being a fun guy.
The all-timer has got to be Kevin Rowland’s (late of Dexy’s Midnight Runners) attempt at a comeback in the mid-90’s. Can you imagine the lead singer of the band who produced the hit single “Come On Eileen” as…a man half-dressed in drag, belting out off-key versions of dreck like “The Greatest Love of All”? Yep, it really happened.
The funny thing was, I remember at the time the British music press was beside itself at the prospect of a Kevin Rowland comeback. After the first concert (even before the album came out) that talk stopped dead in its tracks.
I was on the set for an episode of LIFE WITH LUCY during rehearsal.
It was painful.
It was an episode where Lucy and Gale Gordon were trapped in a treehouse when the ladder fell down.
At one point, Lucy said, “That line is not funny. Get me a writer.”
A terrified young woman appeared and stood and said nothing as Lucy threw out a few lines and Lucy finally decided on one she created. The “writer” duly noted the change and scampered away without ever having said a word.
There were also some child actors and Lucy told an assistant to tell them to shut up (in no uncertain terms).
It was a train wreck to watch, and seeing poor Lucille Ball standing off by herself watching the rehearsal, you could tell she knew this was not going to end well.
**After MASH ** or whatever it was called.
And the TV-ization of Animal House. Blech.
Assuming he ever WANTS to come back. On his Web site, he comes off as so amazingly well-adjusted to non-showbiz life, I can’t see why he’d give it up.
Didn’t Andrew Dice Clay try a comeback as a wacky sitcom Dad? Ah yes, here it is.
I can’t decide if I’m more disturbed that Wil Wheaton has a Website, or that Snooooopy has visited his website. 
I’d have to half disagree with this. The last album did pretty well with critics AND cynical old punks like me. It wasn’t a blockbuster, but it wasn’t remotely a failure. I saw them live and they sonded great, plus, they look better than they did in 1984, 'specially the singer…middle age was very kind to her.
Jon
Ah, In A Metal Mood, truly one of the most bizarre albums of the last decade . . . nay, ever!
Can you honestly say that getting made a fool of by Space Ghost is more sad and pathetic than Pat Boone doing covers of heavy metal songs?
Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses haven’t done well in the comeback department.
Yep, not only that, he wrote his own comic book series with a cousin, and after ROTJ, he was in a number of Broadway plays, including Amadeus. (Did I spell that right?) I believe he chose not to fight being typecast, and instead took smaller jobs, enabling to act, yet still be with his family. He’s an all around nice guy, too.
Mark Hamill is NOT a schmuck!
Wang-Ka, are you sure you weren’t whooshed by the Pat Boone “comeback”? I mean when he unveiled his “metal” look at some awards show (IIRC, the American Music Awards), the man was in all that faux-metalhead clothing but he was still wearing his trademark white buck shoes. Which tells me the image was a deliberate joke. Did he want media attention to plug the new album? Sure, and he got it by playing into his uncool image. Was his whole “introducing metal songs to a new audience” thing silly? Yup. But at least we got the theme song for The Osbournes out of it.
What ever happened with Blondie’s comeback? I remember hearing “Maria” (which I liked) off No Exit on the radio, and seeing the video on TV, but after that it seems like they kind of just went nowhere again. Did they even release a follow up?
I don’t watch awards shows. I barely watch TV at all, aside from movies and the Discovery Channel. My kid was watching Space Ghost one night, and I heard Pat Boone was going to be on it.
Only after that did I find out why.
In the world of sports, one of the worst comebacks ever was Bjorn Borg’s. He retired in 81 or 82, still young and still in his prime. He came back in the 90s I believe, and he was just horrible.
It was more than the run-of-the-mill comeback because he returned playing with his old wood rackets in the age when graphite and modern equipment made Borg’s stuff obsolete. But there he was, slugging away with his feeble racket and still wearing the same kind of headband he had worn in the 70s. Needless to say, he didn’t have any success. It would have been neat to see if he could have competed with different equipment.
He now plays on the senior tour…with a metal racket.
I think Chevy Chase’s talk show qualifies. A shame, too.
MC Hammer retooling his image as Hammer, gangsta rapper.