ed mcmahon, farrah fawcett, michael jackson, billy mays… this is going to sound weird but the person out of that group that had the most impact on my life was probably the last.
sure ed mcmahon was the oldest and from what i hear, the funniest. he never mattered to me because in my world he was really just the publisher's clearing house guy. his face was the sign of an envelope you really didn't want and tossed out in the trash. ed mcmahon was spam when spam was just called junk mail.
farrah fawcett? yeah, she was hot. 20 years before i started caring about girls being hot. when i did care, she was still good looking despite her age, but what did i care? it sucks she died the way she did, but she didn't register at all on my radar.
then there's old wacko jacko. sure he's one of the best selling artists of all time, but all the good he did was well before my time. and by that i mean, when i was a teenager he had moved on to becoming freaky white lady kid toucher guy. his big hit in the time that i remember him releasing new music is "heal the world." which i only truly remember because i won tickets to see cop and half from local radio station wplj.
would i turn off a michael jackson song? no, probably not. would i make it a point to find one to listen to? no, probably not.
then there's billy mays. billy mays is the guy who sold you just about everything in your house that seemed like a good idea at first but in reality turned out it really wasn't. you'd of thought he was a vampire because you never saw him during the day. he was only ever on those random channels you flipped to because there was nothing to watch on the good channels.
billy mays was the guy screaming at you to buy something that you could use to clean the puke stain you just left on your carpet because you were out drinking all night and didn't make it to the toilet because you couldn't stop watching billy mays…
more recently he's been on his show pitchmen which i must say is pretty damn good. on this show he's basically telling you how to make stupid people buy shit they don't need. and then he sells you shit you don't need. BRILLIANT! there aren't many people on the planet likable enough to annoy you into buying something stupid and feel great about it. just ask the sham-wow guy.
rest in peace billy
our tvs won't be the same
what will we buy now?
He was on the plane that had 2 front tires blown at landing in Tampa yesterday. People got hit by stuff falling and them slamming in the seat in front of them. He was hit on the head. He felt ok, but I bet you he probably had some small internal bleeding in his brain or something. Just like Natasha Richardson died. Felt fine after the accident she had and then died several hours later.
I’m always glad to hear that I’m not the only one who watches infomercials time and time again. I still remember the first time I saw Billy Mays. He spoke with such confidence when he said, “Billy Mays here for OxyClean!” that I genuinely believed he was some major celebrity that I had somehow never heard of before. I searched all over the internet to figure out what show or what movie I remembered him from. The one thing I never did figure out about him was why he didn’t ever shill for whatever sort of beard dye he used.
I do think the Michael Jackson story is really sad. I remember listening to him in grade 3 and watching Captain EO at Disneyland and all that stuff. The one thing that stands out the most about the story for me, though, is Jesse Jackson. He seems to have declared himself an honorary Jackson and started speaking on behalf of the family. The guy bugs me at the best of times, but this just seems like he’s grasping at straws to prove that he’s still relevant.
I’d have to agree. Billy Mays hits me the hardest too. It was such a shock, especially as I had just watched him on an episode of the Tonight Show w/ Conan O’Brien.
He will be missed.
@ ajlouny yeah was discussing that with my grandfather when i got home last night. we couldn’t think of ms. richardson’s name or who she was married to, but the two events seemed pretty similar.
@ kev i think you nailed it with the “billy mays here” thing. who the hell was he? ya didn’t know but you always stopped to watch.
and captain eo…damn. captain eo. i wanna watch that now.
@ frye he was just sorta that guy. amazing how he made himself so well known considering he was never on tv for more than 15 seconds before 3 am…