When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

01 January 2006

Poor Dick Clark

No longer an eternal teenager, Dick Clark looked and sounded like an old, old man on television last night.

Nearly felled by a stroke in 2004, Clark worked very hard indeed to make it back this far:

Clark, sitting behind a desk with the street scene in the background, sounded hoarse and occasionally was hard to understand, but he said, "I wouldn't have missed this for the world."

"Last year I had a stroke," he explained. "It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there."

I give Dick Clark much respect for courage and persistence, and wish him only the best.

But I hope that he steps down now, having made his point that he's still among the living, and makes the permanent hosting handoff to Ryan Seacrest, who did 95% of the heavy lifting last night anyway.

It can be "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" forever, as far as I'm concerned--his production company owns the night--but he should watch it from his living room next year, like the rest of us. He's earned it.

Dick Clark Returns to TV to Mark New Year - AP via Yahoo! News



Update: Carrie has a slightly harsher take:
Good on ya, Dick, you survived the stroke. But for God's sake, for the rest of us you're a goddamn memento mori, and New Year's Eve is a horrible enough holiday without having to see you and reflect on The Way of All Flesh. Get the hell off my TV screen.

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