Who is The Oldest Living Legend? Well, the pool of candidates just got a little smaller today with the passing of Shirley Temple. But think about some of the people who are still around. It’s humbling. There’s Yogi Berra, who…
It would be interesting to conduct a quick straw poll to see just what sort of name recognition Patty Hearst gets these days. I suspect that people under, say, age 42 may know the name, but have no idea who…
* * * It’s almost impossible for anyone currently living to appreciate the scope and breadth of Pete Seeger’s life and the legacy it encompasses. He is one of the last public figures whose career began before the bombing of…
Considering he’s just a TV character, some of the crustiest punks I know have had surprisingly strong feelings about Reuben Kincaid. It boils down to family issues and the search for a suitable male role model. Needless to say, these…
By now, the question “Ginger or Maryann?” has been asked a million times in a million drunken places. But when was the last time anybody bended the gender and asked: The Professor or Mr. Howell? Gilligan and the Skipper can…
It’s time to wish Abe Vigoda another Happy New Year! Last January, we commemorated the spate of passings of TV greats in 2012 who were actually older than Abe Vigoda, but somehow slipped under the radar. At the top…
– — – 2012 Has the 21st Century begun yet? That’s a serious question, man. For me, the jury’s still out. There’s no smoking gun to indicate that we’ve moved forward into a new epoch, but as we kick off the…
I would like to take a minute to talk about a man who would have turned 70 today had he lived, a man whose iconic bowl cut and moon pie face conjured up earthenware pots of apple-cinnamon oatmeal in whole…
John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, has died at the age of 91. He was the oldest living Presidential child at the time of his death by a significant margin. The next oldest (LBJ’s daughter) is not even…
(In Part 1 of this essay we explored the rise of the rock star in popular culture as a function of television. Part 2 touched on the ascendance of album rock. In the third and final installation, we look at…