NBC is tapping into our inner voyeur by beyond tasteless pimping of Friday's Farrah Fawcett May Sweeps two-hour"special" running excerpts on MSNBC along with the requisite handwringing; "Today" show appearances all week by Farrah's long-time insignificant (uh, significant) other - genetically deficient angry alcoholic actor Ryan O'Neal - with whom Farrah had the misfortune to clone a son who is in jail as his mother slips to the Other Side. [photo Fawcett and Joe Namath's infamous Noxema shave cream TV commercial]
Now fat and obscure Ryan O'Neal must feel as though he's been transported in a time machine back to the 1970 tear-jerker"Love Story." Life imitates art...
Ryan as Oliver Barrett IV: "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
Let's call a spade a spade (or is that tasteless these days? I'll email Wanda Sykes). NBC understands and exploits human nature. Let's gape at the Farrah Fawcett car wreck. People just want to see what she looks like now at 86 pounds.
The last thing NBC wanted was for Farrah to exit the planet before the special aired. NYDN: Last month, with reports surfacing that she was near death, Craig Nevius, a producer on the NBC special, said Fawcett's cancer had metastasized and spread to her liver. "She's doing fantastic," he said then. "Her fight goes on. ... She's not going anywhere anytime soon."
Here's the 62-year-old star in August 2008 complaining to the LA Times that she can't get treatment for her 2 1/2 year ordeal because the National Enquirer vultures are offering hospital employees cash for Farrah anal cancer dirt.
Let's call a spade a spade. The Enquirer does what the Enquirer does. "[Any name's] Brave Last Days."
NBC does what NBC does: forks over an "undisclosed amount" for ratings - in this case Farrah Fawcett. Everybody wins!
Is Farrah Fawcett the baby boomers' Marilyn Monroe? As for me, NBC's ghastly bought-and-paid-for death show just makes me feel old and mortal...
Lou Grant hated spunk. I love spunk. I hate NBC for cashing in by reminding us we're all going to die...
NBC does it now and gets ratings. Farrah makes the big exit and everyone gets a piece of the pie. See journalism has come down to ratingzzzz. That poster of Farrah brought many a young man of our generation into their manhood. 'Tis life.
ReplyDeleteI just want to know how much NBC paid for Farrah's video...
ReplyDeleteThere's still time for the Ryan O'Neal-Lee Major steel cage death match. Pay per view. Be there.
ReplyDeleteWon't their paunches get in the way, Jim?
ReplyDeleteMarty, you are making this event (the TV show, not the death) sound tasteless.
ReplyDeleteIt would be, however. absolute tastelessness to simply die quietly in a corner with friends around.
Is this something GM (also facing death) is going to sponsor? An ED ad for all those viewers who first got that feeling when they saw her poster? "Folks, she may not do it for you now but--- we can."
We'll make it a sumo death match, Marty.
ReplyDeletePat: Very funny!
ReplyDeleteThousands of people die the same death as Farrah. I'm sick of these celebrities going on TV and vowing to "lick it."
Pat: Very funny!
ReplyDeleteThousands of people die the same death as Farrah. I'm sick of these celebrities going on salivating TV networks vowing to "lick it."
Pat: Very funny!
ReplyDeleteThousands of people die the same death as Farrah. I'm sick of these celebrities going on salivating TV networks vowing to "lick it."