The Goodbyes Issue

Comes in threes, I guess ...

Goodbye Jacko - Michael Jackson, American oddity, pop legend, and once-upon-a-time genuine top-notch performer, passed away this past week at age 50.  He was a Thriller in his day, and certainly Off the Wall, but in the end he was just Bad, perhaps Dangerous, not Invincible, and certainly sad.  Despite his personal and professional decline in later years, he will always have a memorable place in music HIStory.

Goodbye Angel - Now matter how hard she tried to ditch the association, Farrah Fawcett will always be remembered as an original Charlie's Angel.  Despite just one  year on the series, Fawcett left an imprint on the 70's like few others.  She was married to 6 million dollar man, Lee Majors, making her almost 70's TV royalty, and later partnered with Ryan O'Neal, another icon of 60's and 70's movies and TV.  Her posters were a must-have for adolescent (and older) males, and hair styles mimicked hers well into the 80's (to the point of utter madness).  Not one to go gently into the night, she spiced up her later career with controversial spreads in Playboy, and even televised her ultimately futile struggle with cancer.  History may not look back on Farrah as a great actress, but it will certainly record her as influential.  And that's not too bad.  Not too bad at all. Go, Angel!

And here's .... Eddie! (Goodbye Mr. McMahon) - One of my earliest TV memories is of watching Johnny Carson on the show 'Who Do You Trust?'.  My toddler sense of humor and wonder was piqued by Johnny's shenanigans, and by his repartee with his supporting host, Ed McMahon.  It was a must-see.  After Ed and Johnny went on to 'Tonight Show' fame, I lost track of the duo until the late 60's, when I was finally 'old enough' to stay up late to watch the show. In the intervening years I was more pre-occupied with 'Mr. Ed' then McMahon.  In the 70's and through the early 80's, however, I was positively glued to the TV at 11:30  - at least for the opening and monologue, and often the whole show.  You never knew what was going to happen, given the flotilla of fading or fringe celebrities who appeared willing to do or say something outrageous (for the time) to regain the spotlight, if even for a few moments.  But those moments counted for a lot on the Tonight Show.  Ed McMahon knew how to stay out of the way of the action, yet knew, somehow, just when to step in and contribute to keep things rolling.  He was indispensable and everyone knew it.  He both set and broke the mold for TV 'second bananas', and there will be no other quite like him.  Hi-Yo!