Farewell Farah, Michael and Ed...

They say celebrity deaths come in threes...I don't know if there's any actual evidence backing that assumption, but I was rather creeped out when MacLean Stevenson and Roger Bowen (TV and film portrayers of Henry Blake on MASH) died the same day. This past week saw the departure of three entertainment icons--Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson that represent a bygone era in each of their respective arenas.


Ed McMahon was the quintessential second banana on late night's version of the New York Yankees circa 1920-64... in the three channel era (with grainy independent stations here and there) of network entertainment--The Tonight Show was the center of the primetime universe. And Ed had the hapless vice presidential role-- always enhancing yet never upstaging Johnny Carson, always welcome on the set but always having to move over a seat when a guest dropped in. McMahon shined in his own right ("Star Search" and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes") and received second wind being imitated by Phil Hartman ("YOU ARE CORRECT SIR!")- my favorite Phil as Ed sketch was at McMahon's wedding...YES!


Farah Fawcett was labeled in one of her tributes this past week as "the 70's girl next door"...and I had to pause--not in any zip code I'm familiar with! The original Charlie's Angel had the trademark feathery blond hair and legendary poster--how she never wound up in a James Bond movie I'll never know (cruel injustice had last-season Angel Tanya Roberts in A View to a Kill). She helped singlehandedly destroy "Black Sheep Squadron" (the Robert Conrad WWII drama about pilots in the South Pacific added nurses to keep pace with Charlie's Angels in season two). Plus, Farah was married to the Six Million Dollar Man! She later found happiness with Ryan O'Neal and showed her acting chops in "The Burning Bed"-- a seminal TV movie in the mid-80's that has been the blueprint for 80% of what you see on Lifetime. What's amazing is Fawcett left the show after one season (she guest-starred in a handful of episodes the next three years) and remains the first Angel anyone thinks of (sorry, Shelley Hack).


Peter Pan was the story of a boy who never grew up... Michael Jackson's story is he never had the chance to grow up. There may have been better singers and musicians--but nobody was a better performer. From "I Want You Back" with the Jackson Five to "Black or White" as a solo artist everything he touched shot up the charts...as he came of age when MTV began (and actually played videos). Remember how the channel would promote the next time you could see thriller? Who could forget how his videos were mini-cinematic extravaganzas (and fodder for Weird Al Yankovic)? Unfortunately his private life was a mess. Lawsuits, molestation charges, financial issues, family issues...the "King of Pop" had more than a few skeletons in his closet (and not just the Elephant Man's bones). After bringing so much happiness to his fans, Jackson's own success couldn't bring him the happiness and peace he sought.