What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Monday, August 11, 2014

Robin Williams



It was, in my mind, a late summer night 36 years ago- so either I remember wrong or first saw it as a repeat, as IMDB claims it first aired at the end of February.  The Fonz had held off an alien invasion by the power of an upraised thumb.  I was so excited, I ran next door to tell my dad, who also usually watched Happy Days, about it.  I was 16.  Sheltered life, eh?

36 years later, I am sitting at my computer when I get a text from a friend saying, Robin Williams committed suicide.  I could only think to reply, "Shazbot!"

I looked up and down his movie list.  Do you know, I think I have only seen Jack and Jumanji all the way through? (Though I did see his parts as Teddy Roosevelt in the first Museum movie.)  But I faithfully watched Mork and Mindy, and had a poster of him on my bedroom wall.



Yup, that one.  Right next to Barry Manilow, with a magazine pin up of pre-slutty Olivia Newton-John to one side. (that, however is neither MY poster or my wall.)  That was a fun show, an innocent show, until the writers ran out of ideas, got him and Mindy married, him pregnant, and the shark was jumped.

But then they brought in Johnathan Winters, and for a brief shining moment, you got to watch two talents that needed no writers.  I was hoping I could find a YouTube clip, but it would have to be a whole episode.  (Clips of Mork and Exitor you can get, but not JW.  Sigh...)  Trust me, it was a much better "late-season acquisition" than Ted McGinley, who managed to go down with Happy Days AND Married With Children.


I was going to put up a picture of ted, but didn't want to get my blog cancelled.  Here's a fuzzy bunny instead.


In seriousness for a moment,  I have only been depressed to the point of considering suicide once, and if I had done it, I think God would have kicked me straight to hell for the flat stupid excuse I had.  I know that, whatever else, the demands on Robin's time, thoughts, his very soul, were far greater than any I ever had.  A Facebook poster mentioned how hard it must have been to be someone on meds for depression, under demands to always be happy, upbeat, funny.  Making others laugh laughs he wasn't sharing- and feeling sorrows he couldn't share.  All the time, giving of himself, to charities, causes, and friends.  He will be missed.


But listen, I can't see the man wanting to go out on a sad note, so I will give you one good thought to play with as we say goodbye-  wouldn't you have LOVED to see him do a routine with Richard Deacon as Mel Cooley on the old Dick Van Dyke Show?


Just for one skit, photoshop him in?

15 comments:

  1. Wow, CW-looks like I get my news from your blog!

    Very sad.

    This reinforces the fact that all the money in the world does not make one happy.

    RIP, Robin.

    Larry

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    1. Fame is a killer, and money a thief. You always want more, but like sugar, it catches up.

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  2. Hey Chris,

    I don't share this much, but you started... There is a freeway overpass column near the 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa that 13 years ago had my name on it... only I obviously never drove my Mustang into said overpass... but I wanted to... three times...

    Anyway... I can't understand what caused Robin Williams to commit suicide, but I do understand a little of what perhaps led him there...

    RIP Robin...

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    1. A lot of people do, but here's the thing: You have to help yourself; you have to get away from the sources and triggers; and you have to put it in His hands.

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  3. Chris:
    You have managed to say in type what I have mulling over for the last day or so...
    And wasn't it once said that the brighter the personality, the faster they burn?

    Done the severe depression gig as well..thankfully, God didn't let it come to pass, but it wasn't a good thing to be "me"..
    (glad I wasn't agnostic during that time)

    What I came away with was a better sense of PURPOSE, and if I had to sacrifice along the way, the END result would be worth it.
    There are times when we ALL get our hearts "broken", and even if you DO manage to get all the pieces back together, land repair it as close to "new" as it once was, it's like fine china, the CRACKS always remain.
    You just learn to live with them.

    An excellent post and a thoughtful tribute to Robin Williams, brother.

    Stay safe up there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stars all burn out- some nova, some just fade out.

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  4. I was heartbroken when I saw the news. I think you're right, he would want to be remembered with a smile, rather than a tear.

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  5. Behind many smiles there is a deep sadness. It is a tragedy that someone who brought so much laughter to everyone else felt so sad that the thought of remaining in this world was unbearable.

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    1. I was reading an article suggesting that people who have genius-level abilities in one area may have lowered abilities in other brain areas- such as the ability to cope with life. In other words, a tragedy of the fallen state of man. Things we have been cursed with that just aren't possible to understand when they hit you.

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    2. That does seem to be true. One of the many mysteries of the fallen world. The question is how can we help each other? Everyone needs something.

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  6. It's funny how society sees celebrities as "having it all", when the large majority of them use alcohol and rugs to escape it "all".

    I had severe post pardom after Oldest that spiraled down after Youngest was born. I will not say that I tried, but I planned. So I get it to some degree. But here's the thing that always brought me back. I does get better. And there has never been any day that I couldn't find at least one good thing in. Even if that thing was having one day's worth of clean undies.

    *sigh*

    I am sad for his family most of all.

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    1. For me, who only distantly looked at it, it was always the thought that it HAS to get better tomorrow. Just the curiousity to see if it would be the day everything turned around. For you, it's more of looking at that goal ahead, whether sharp or nebulous. This is why I cannot grasp how/why atheists even bother. If the race ends only in the ground, what was the point?

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  7. It is just so sad. You can have all the money in the world, all the support staff and access to the best hospitals, and still see no way out of the pain but one.
    He was a brilliant man and will be truly missed

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