My life does not evolve around the flat screen

When actress Mary Tyler Moore died Jan. 25 one of the topics the entertainment media brought up was the popular episode from her 1970-1977 sitcom, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", called “Chuckles Bites the Dust” that aired in October 1975.

The episode involved a fictional character named Chuckles the Clown who, dressed up as Peter Peanut, died during a parade when an elephant tried to “shell him” or I assume eat him. As a result, the staff are hysterical over the clown’s death except Mary, who during the wake herself eventually starts laughing.

I say “assume” because to this day 42 years later, I still haven’t seen the episode. Yes, I can already see you TV fanatic’s jaws dropping equating my not seeing that particular show with that of my never having been to the Vatican or climbed Mount Everest.

It’s not just that Chuckles the Clown episode I have not seen. I still don’t know who shot oil tycoon J.R. Ewing on "Dallas" (1978-1991). I don’t know how "The A-Team" (1983-1987) finally got caught. When the final two-hour episode of "M*A*S*H" titled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” aired on Feb. 28, 1983, I was not among the 125 million viewers who tuned in which, according to IMDB.com, was the most watched television broadcast in American history.

I wasn’t always this out of touch with what aired on “The Boob Tube.” I was there when I learned that six years of the medical drama, "St. Elsewhere" (1982-1988), was all a dream inside the mind of an autistic son.

I was there when Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer were sentenced to a year in prison away from society for being the obnoxious, selfish jerks they were to everyone since season one began on "Seinfeld" (1989-1998).

I shed a tear or two when Det. Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) succumbed to congestive heart failure following a heart transplant in his 2004 farewell episode of "NYPD Blue" (1993-2005) and when the King of Late Night – Johnny Carson bid America farewell on May 22, 1992, handing "The Tonight Show" (1962) over to host, Jay Leno, after almost thirty years.

Such has not been the case in almost the past two decades, perhaps more. These days, a TV series has to work to get my attention, and it has to be something I’ve not seen done before. HBO’s "Westworld" (2016), the sixth season of "American Horror Story" (2011-Present) and "The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" (2016-Present) failed to do that. I tuned out before the first episodes were over.

The shows I do watch are not what I will hear TV fanatics talk about the next day. I watch "Air Disasters" (2011-Present) on the Smithsonian Channel which recreate various aviation crashes, and "A Haunting" (2005-Present) on Destination America where I die laughing at how the actors and actresses cast as the real people who encountered demonic entities and ghosts are so much more attractive than the real ones telling their stories on camera.

So pardon me if I don’t share your enthusiasm during your little Monday afternoon fireside chats on social media talking about the grisly ways the zombies on AMC’s "The Walking Dead" (2010) got killed again and again by some character who wields a baseball bat, discuss what were the best and worst Superbowl ads, or which “Hollyweird” starlet wore the best or worst outfit at the Oscars.

You people may think among many things that working a full-time job, taking classes, trying to figure out which bill collector is going to get their money when payday arrives and struggling to stay on top of my diabetes is not much of a life, but it is a life and, I for one am damn glad it doesn’t exist in front of my new crystal clear, 40-inch 4k flat screen!

©2/15/17

Appreciation: Richard Hatch (1945-2017)

Another beloved sci-fi icon I, and so many others grew up watching, perhaps even met in person at the many Comic-Con conventions he attended the past couple decades is gone.

Actor Richard Hatch, best known as Colonial Warrior Captain Apollo from "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-79) in what ABC considered to be Sunday night’s answer to "Star Wars" (1977) died Feb. 7 at the age of 71 surrounded by family and friends following a battle with cancer.

As a kid, I made sure every Sunday night from the show's debut in September 1978 to its untimely cancellation in April 1979 was reserved to watching Battlestar Galactica."

Everything about the show seemed to have aspects of director/writer George Lucas' vision of "a galaxy far, far away" written all over it. The villains called the Cylons, an army of slow-moving mechanical robots could well be compared to the Empire's stormtroopers in the Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983).

Shades of Harrison Ford's Han Solo could be seen in Dirk Benedict's Starbuck; the cynical colonial warrior for the Galactica who's good with a blaster, always has his mind more on gambling, enjoying a good cigar, wooing the ladies, and figuring out a way out of the colonial military service.

Add Lorne Greene to the cast as the ship's commander who along with his son, Captain Apollo (Hatch) is in charge of protecting and leading the last remnants of the human race (220 ships in all) to safety after having all their home planets destroyed by the Cylon Empire and one might think this is an outer space rendition of "Bonanza" (1959-1973). All this didn't matter to a third grader like me who the year before Galactica debuted was still flying on that "Star Wars" high from the summer of 1977.

Plot and character development meant nothing to me at the time. What I wanted to see was the weekly outer space dogfights between the Colonial Vipers and the Cylon Raiders and the countless explosions that went with them courtesy of special effects coordinator John Dykstra who also worked on Lucas' Star Wars team.

“In my case, 'Battlestar Galactica' was a milestone,” Hatch once said according to the Hollywood Reporter. “It afforded me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams and fantasies. Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains – what more could a man want?”

To Hatch, however, who scored a Golden Globe nomination for his role in 1979, and guest starred in numerous episodes playing radical political figure, Tom Zarek, in the 2004-2009 Syfy channel’s reboot of the series that starred Edward James Olmos, playing Captain Apollo, it seemed meant something more.

“I happen to be one of those rare actors that actually loves very intelligent and well-acted science fiction,” Hatch once said according to brainyquote.com. “I am looking for a character that connects to me on some level. It has to have depth to it and it has to be about something. The story of the character and their relationship with the people and places around them appeal to me and are what I look for.”

The news of Hatch’s death on social media was no different as fans expressed the same shock and sadness they’ve done so many times before after hearing of the losses of other music icons, actors and actresses. The most touching came from friend, Commodore McLeod Chandler, who spent a few hours with the actor at a convention one year and was left with a lasting impression.

“While so many of the other "special persons" had rules and stipulations about even shaking their hand (which usually costs money), Richard (Hatch) was different: he was a person,” Chandler wrote on Facebook. “As people came to see him, he stood to meet them, engaged them directly, always asked for and used their names, was always polite, and never demanded money. But then he did what no one else ever did.”

“He sat down on the floor in front of the table so he could meet the kids. A couple around my age who were fans as kids were bringing their own kids to meet the man that brought so much into their lives. The dad even had a prop warrior flight helmet he wanted signed. Richard did so while sitting on the floor, his legs folded Indian style, with a six-year-old boy wearing the helmet as he signed it and a 3-year-old hanging on his left shoulder.”

Yes, this man who told me that he did the cons for the energy, for the fans, and for the fun of it, sat down on the floor on level with the kids who he felt were going to be the next generation of sci-fi writers, thinkers, actors, and dreamers. He was kind. He was caring. He was inspiring. And he was still human."

And now he is gone.

I am reminded of the words Greene’s Commander Adama spoke during a memorial service for a fallen warrior in one episode that seems appropriate now for Hatch especially given the original series only lasted one season except changing a few words.

“And for only a short while we gathered to honor Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) in duty, so we must honor him in death. Let us remember him not only as a warrior but as a man who lived in pursuit of excellence. Now we return this warrior to the cradle of space.”

©2/8/17

2016 sucked but it had nothing to do with all the talent lost

I admit the day after actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27 last month I posted that meme of the Kardashian clan (i.e. Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kris – too many to list here) that featured the words below that the year 2016 still has four days left for the Grim Reaper to take one if not all of the reality TV show family.

True, the posting was nothing more than wishful thinking but it did prove just how I, and so many others, felt witnessing the losses of so much talent last year. How cruel of a world it is we live in that the Hollywood actors, actresses and music icons we grew up on are all dying and nothing bad has happened to the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus.

For me, the year 2016 was bad but not because of the talent lost. There was a host of reasons why the year sucked so much that when 2017 started at midnight on Jan. 1, the first rule of 2017 in a Facebook meme I saw was “We don’t talk about 2016.”

Last year sucked for me in the form of four stages; the same number of stages one is given when they are handed a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

Stage one for me came with all the negative commentary I had to put up with from Negative Nancys on Facebook who’d use social media to bitch about every major subject (i.e. the presidential election, the Oscars being “too white”, the Black Lives Matter Movement among them) that I and a majority of others didn’t care to read. Those of us who wanted no part of their bitching had already heard enough of it on a daily basis on the news and talk radio.

By the time a loser upset by how the “Boys In Blue” in his pathetic sick mind target African-Americans went on a killing spree in downtown Dallas in early July cold-bloodedly murdering four Dallas police and a DART officer during a Black Lives Matter demonstration, I could not help but wonder how much more tragedy could 2016 offer given there was still barely six months left!

Stages two and three happened on a personal level as I found myself engaging in a continuing battle with diabetes, battling bill collectors, unable to balance a 40 hour work week and college classes, and bed bugs (yes – just like those talking M&Ms on those commercials, the night time pests do exist and it don’t matter how immaculate you keep your house clean!)

A few close friends I knew either battled life-threatening diagnosis or lost the battles all together. A friend I knew in high school lost her only son at age 14 and she and her husband have been coping with the loss ever since as expressed by her grief memes she posts on Facebook. Again, I can’t imagine the pain a parent goes through when it comes to burying and outliving their child.

Another one I knew in high school was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery and chemo done. The problem is while he is done with chemo and surgery and has been doing well since; the surgeons were not able to get the whole tumor. Another friend from grade school lost his wife to lymphoma. And another childhood friend of mine whose parents I had known since the early 1970s lost his father in November to a stroke.

So you will understand why 2016 sucked so much! It felt like I was being pummeled.

While it is said when one is diagnosed with stage four cancer means that you are about to meet your maker soon, for me stage four actually meant hope. In November the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for 108 years. I can’t tell you how much I, and so many die-hard Cub fans needed this win given how bad the year had been going!

For a year that started out with a whimper the good news was 2016 went out with a bang. I lost over 40 pounds, though not considered “healthy” weight loss I still saw it as weight loss regardless. I loved getting comments from family members and social media during Thanksgiving who said because they hadn’t seen me in a while I was almost unrecognizable having lost so much weight. I love the fact all the extra large clothes I have now are too baggy and as soon as I got some money to burn I will have to get a whole new wardrobe.

However, if none of the other negative things occurred, I would not have been bothered too much by all the notable figures, Hollywood and music icons who died during the year.

Truth of the matter is death is a part of life. I predict the number of notables who pass away in 2017 could be more than the ones we lost in 2016.

Like it or not, every day gone is one more day closer to a date with the Grim Reaper for all of us.

If there is a lesson to be learned from losing so many icons in 2016 it is that we should all cherish the time we have with the ones who are still here and appreciate the notable figures who are still around as none of us knows how long we have.

Trouble is I believe NO one will follow such advice. They’ll instead post comments on social media how the minute they hear another idol has died they’ll post how 2017 sucks as much as 2016 did. They’ll post youtube videos recalling the songs, TV shows or movies that person did.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I again see social media users in 2017 post another meme to God asking the Almighty if they offer up the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus to the Heavens, if they can have so-so movie star or music legend back.

©1/18/17

Gone Too Soon: George Michael (1963-2016)

The minute I made a negative comment to a friend’s post on Facebook a few days after social media learned of British popstar George Michael’s death on Christmas Day last month at age 53, I dreaded getting into a pissing contest with her despite the fact I believed I was in the right.

What got me worked up was her post, which said, “Another wasted talent”, that was followed by a news article she added to her post from yahoo.com citing that Michael battled a heroin addiction and was rushed to the hospital multiple times before his passing December 25. The cause of death, despite reports saying it was heart failure, has not been made official and would take several weeks.

I saw her statement as the equivalent of dancing on someone’s grave saying, “Well maybe if George Michael had not gotten into drugs, he’d still be here.” It made me wonder if when finding out someone she knew died prematurely from diabetes, cancer or heart disease and learns that person’s medical condition could have been avoided if only he/she avoided the junk food, watched their diet and exercised, if she says to herself, “Another wasted life.”

I immediately responded to her post citing the popstar’s battles with his sexuality, depression, drug addiction and skirmishes with the law were nothing new listing previous musicians and Hollywood actors whose personal demons got the best of them.

Fans and the music industry were well familiar with the sordid stories. That wasn’t what mourners chose to remember when social media learned of Michael’s death as they laid wreaths, flowers and memorial cards outside his two residences in north London and Goring, England.

Social media users did what they had done so many times since January 2016 after learning of the deaths of music icons David Bowie, The Eagles' Glenn Frey, Prince and Leonard Cohen. They posted Michael’s lyrics to a number of his hit songs and YouTube videos on Facebook and recalled his work as an LGBT rights campaigner and his involvement with HIV/AIDS charities.

I admit George Michael’s passing didn’t hit me immediately the way I was shocked to hear of the losses of Bowie, Frey, Prince and Cohen. I saw the singer/songwriter and record producer as a one-hit wonder whose hit song I was most familiar with was 1984’s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" Michael did along with singing partner, Andrew Ridgeley under their British rock band, Wham!

I was even less impressed with Michael’s 1987 hit, "I Want Your Sex." I equated that song as just another attempt to drum up needless controversy the way Madonna released her erotic coffee table book, "Sex", in October 1992. It’s as if Michael had nothing more to offer in terms of memorable music.

After seeing the number of hit songs he churned out since arriving on the scene in the early years of MTV back in the 80s it suddenly dawned on me the number of songs Michael did that I liked. They included another 1984 WHAM! single, "Careless Whisper", which he also co-wrote with songwriting partner, Ridgeley, both at the age of 17 which was a song he was not the most thrilled with saying in 1991, the hit “was not an integral part” of his emotional development, yet it was the lyrics that struck a chord with fans.

"I'm still a bit puzzled why it's made such an impression on people. Is it because so many people have cheated on their partners? Is that why they connect with it? I have no idea, but it's ironic that this song - which has come to define me in some way - should have been written right at the beginning of my career when I was still so young,” Michael was quoted in a 2009 interview with Bang Issue magazine.

Then there is Aretha Franklin’s 1987 Grammy Award winning song, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)." I didn’t learn, however, until after Michael’s passing that the two did the number as a duet. Those two hits along with so many others like Michael’s slow moving 1988 ballad, "Kissing a Fool," sadly, just as it’s happened so many times before when a Hollywood legend or music icon dies, where I didn’t appreciate the person’s talent until they were gone.

If George Michael was fighting off the demons of drug addiction in his final days, those battles are over now. He is likely somewhere jamming on stage with fellow late musicians Bowie, Cohen, Frey and Prince collaborating on some new song and whatever that is, rest assured it’s not his 1988 hit, "Monkey", which reportedly detailed the singer’s battles with drug addiction.

As for that war of words I was expecting to get into with that friend of mine on Facebook regarding the subject, she posted back saying what I wrote was well said adding it breaks her heart when so much talent is lost due to an addiction.

©1/11/17

Were the untimely deaths of a popular North Texas attorney and a screen legend after losing their daughters the result of "broken heart syndrome", or a possible past medical history of stroke/heart disease?

When North Texas personal injury attorney Brian Loncar, who promoted himself as the “Strong Arm” with his series of TV commercials, was found dead Nov. 28, 2016, inside his Rolls-Royce Wraith, which was parked outside his downtown law firm, Loncar & Associates, the reported cause of death was a heart attack. The Dallas Morning News, however, at the time, say official results were still pending and would take up to two months.

Loncar, 56, died two days after burying his daughter, Grace, 16, a junior at Booker T. Washington High School who killed herself Nov. 25 and had battled depression since she was 11 years old.

When Loncar died, not once did I hear the local media say his heart attack was due to the stress of dealing with the sudden loss of his daughter in what I now know as “broken heart syndrome.”

Such was not the case Dec. 28 when screen legend, actress Debbie Reynolds, 84, died a day after her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, 60, died following a massive heart attack she suffered on a flight from London to Los Angeles Dec. 23.

"She (Debbie Reynolds) missed her daughter (Carrie) and wanted to very much be with her," son, Todd Fisher and brother of Carrie, told Entertainment Tonight. "She had been very strong the last several days. [There was] enormous stress on her, obviously. And this morning she said those words to me and 15 minutes later she had a stroke and virtually left."

The morning after the world learned of Reynolds’ death the media brought up the subject of how she died from broken-heart syndrome.

The Mayo Clinic website describes broken heart syndrome as a temporary heart condition that’s often brought on by stressful situations such as the death of a loved one. Other situations that can often trigger broken heart syndrome include a threatening medical condition, domestic abuse, losing or winning a lot of money, strong arguments, a surprise party, performing publicly, job loss, divorce, asthma attacks, car accidents and major surgeries.

I won’t deny the stories I have heard of elderly couples dying in their 80s or 90s within hours apart, but were they truly a case where when the wife died, the husband couldn’t take the loss and as a result died of a “broken heart?” Is that what gets put on the person’s certificate as the cause of death following an autopsy if the family wishes one?

The problem I have with what reportedly killed Reynolds is I had never heard of this medical condition before, regardless of the fact it exists in the medical books and on medical websites.

What Loncar and Reynolds went through in the days/hours before they died were the same. Both suffered the loss of losing a child but under different circumstances. They are, however, not the only ones who’ve gone through the same tragedy. Many have lived through their losses.

Consider the thousands, perhaps millions of parents who have gone through the pain of burying their sons and daughters who went to fight in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars since 9/11 and never came home alive. Did any of those mothers and fathers die from broken heart syndrome days later? I bet more police officers and military soldiers die by suicide on a weekly basis because of what they’ve gone through on the job and in battles overseas than hearing of a mother or father dying from a “broken heart” as a result of a losing their kid.

I am also not denying how terrible it is for a parent to outlive their child. I can’t imagine the pain of going through that.

Reynolds suffered two strokes in 2015 and recovered according to an ABC News article.

Dr. Holly Andersen director of education for the heart institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and scientific adviser for the Women's Heart Alliance, said Reynolds succumbed to “a cardiovascular event” given the actress’ history of stroke and heart disease among women. I will not be surprised if Loncar’s official cause of death when released is also “a cardiovascular event.”

"It wouldn't be surprising that an 84-year-old woman like Debbie Reynolds had some (arterial) plaque, and with this kind of stress, became more vulnerable and had more of a garden-variety heart attack and sudden death," Andersen said.

I don’t know what Loncar’s medical history was. I do, however, believe Reynolds’ death was likely the result of her previous medical history involving the strokes she suffered than I am accepting that her death was the result of “broken heart syndrome” due to the immense stress of losing her daughter.

I believe when it came to heart disease, both were likely walking time bombs, and it was only a matter of time before they suffered a fatal heart attack or stroke even if Loncar’s daughter had not died by suicide or if Carrie Fisher had survived her massive heart attack.

Thousands, if not millions, of people go through the loss of losing a child. The one and only reason we now know of “broken heart syndrome” was because Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher were “Hollywood Royalty” and famed Texas lawyer Brian Loncar was only known to Dallas residents as the “Strong Arm.”

©1/4/17

Appreciation: Carrie Fisher (1956-2016)

Like Ross Geller, the fictional character David Schwimmer played on "Friends" (1994-2004), whose childhood fantasy was seeing Princess Leia in that skimpy gold bikini outfit collared to slug crime lord, Jabba the Hutt, in "Return of the Jedi" (1983), I too, like so many other young boys in eighth grade who were one year away from starting high school in 1983 and began to realize our male hormones were starting to kick into overtime when it came to our interest in girls looked to actress Carrie Fisher’s feisty rebellious heroine from that “galaxy far, far away” as an 80s sci-fi sex symbol.

Whereas we guys saw Princess Leia, as a result of that infamous costume became a pop-culture icon whose picture, some of us, ok, just me, would have posted up on the inside of my locker door in grade school, young girls looked to her as empowering, especially when she wrapped that steel chain around Jabba’s neck, in a shot according to IMDB.com, was inspired by the garroting scene of henchman, Luca Brasi, in "The Godfather" (1972).

Ironically despite the costume’s immense popularity with fanboys and “fangirls” who’ve walked the floors of yearly sci-fi conventions sporting the same slave girl outfit, Fisher was not crazy about the idea during Jedi’s filming in 1982.

When The Force Awakens premiered last December, she told co-star Daisy Ridley she should fight for her outfit. “Don’t be a slave like I was. You keep fighting for that slave outfit.”

For me and countless fans who grew up watching the Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983) and seeing Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) last year, December 27, 2016, was as comedienne Chelsea Handler tweeted a “Xanax day.” Fisher, who was seen as “Hollywood Royalty” born to parents - singer Eddie Fisher and screen legend Debbie Reynolds, and who was not just an actress but an author and screenwriter in her own right, died almost four days after suffering a massive heart attack during a flight from London to Los Angeles at age 60.

Actor Anthony Daniels who’s starred in all seven Star Wars films as golden droid C3P0 tweeted the same sentiment I, and millions of others who prayed for the actress’ immediate recovery.

“I thought I had got what I wanted under the tree. I didn’t. In spite of so many thoughts and prayers from so many.”

The most heartbreaking tweet from The Hollywood Reporter came from Fisher’s French therapy bulldog, Gary, which showed him looking out the window waiting for “mommy” to come home. “I’ll still be waiting for you…” the dog tweeted.

Seeing that dog with its pink tongue just sticking out as it sat alongside Fisher during a interview last December with Good Morning America’s Amy Robach, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “who would want a dog with its tongue sticking out all the time?”

Fisher, who always liked to invoke humor in her conversations off screen especially when poking fun at herself, told Robach, she brought the dog along with her to the interview because his tongue matched the color of her sweater. Up until the dog saw The Force Awakens, he never had his tongue sticking out which Fisher explained was her pet’s way of expressing how good the seventh installment was.

Like so many Hollywood actors and actresses who have a long list of movies they’ve done over their lifetime, it would always be that one role he/she does that fans would identify them most with. And in Fisher’s case it was Princess Leia and whereas some might hate being known for only just one role, she welcomed it.

“Look, I’ve been Princess Leia for 40 years,” Fisher told GMA’s Robach. “So what, I’m gonna stop now that it’s really ridiculous to be someone named Princess Leia or General Leia? It’s ridiculous. I mean ridiculous in a good way.”

It wasn’t just her role in the Star Wars franchise she was most known for. Since her 20s the actress had battled drug addiction and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her book, "Postcards from the Edge," which she turned into a screenplay, was later made into a film in 1990 starring Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Shirley Maclaine dramatized her personal battles with family life, stardom and addiction. Yet through it all Fisher accepted her illness. Others who suffered from depression looked to Fisher as their spokesperson in a time where today, so-called “normal” people still put a stigma on those who suffer from mental illness.

“I am mentally ill. I can say that. I am not ashamed of that. I survived that. I’m still surviving it but bring it on. Better me than you.”

Writer Greame McMillan wrote in The Hollywood Reporter saying Fisher was “someone we’ve known and loved for most of our lives.”

That’s what makes her passing so devastating and unexpected. I never met Fisher and yet I feel like there was some closeness, a feeling so many fans have felt since 1977 when she graced the big screen at 19. It’s hard to believe she’s gone now. The only comfort is the words Yoda spoke in "Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2005) when it comes to mourning our loss and the losses of so much talent in 2016.

“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not.”

Carrie Fisher is now one with “the Force” somewhere in that other “galaxy far, far away,” alongside her mother, Debbie Reynolds, who passed away from complications of a stroke Dec. 28 the next day at 84. The screen legend was making funeral arrangements for her daughter at the time.

"She (Debbie Reynolds) missed her daughter (Carrie) and wanted to very much be with her," son Todd Fisher told Entertainment Tonight. "She had been very strong the last several days. [There was] enormous stress on her, obviously. And this morning she said those words to me and 15 minutes later she had a stroke and virtually left."

©12/29/16