Back in the days when I was first getting started in blogging, I had a great, great, great many people who showed up frequently (and exhaustingly) trying to tell me what to do.
"Don't cover this person," they'd say, "or don't cover that movie or TV show." "That isn't Science Fiction," they'd warn me, "and you're looking stupid if you put Starman alongside Battlestar Galactica." "No one will ever take you seriously if you list ALF along with Alien," they'd insist. "And stop using colorful graphics!"
You name it, and there'd almost always be someone showing up trying to offer me unsolicited advice over what they thought was a largely unsuccessful attempt on my part to say something different or be something different. At first, you do listen, right? You think that these folks wouldn't show up if they didn't care ... and, yet, it didn't take long for me to realize that the nameless knuckleheads were far more intrusive than they were constructive. Besides: you gotta blaze your own trail, am I right? You want to be a pioneer, then you have to live with taking a few arrows to the chest along the way ... and that's how I think of an astonishingly successful entertainer like Bob Newhart.
Back in the days when he first got into the business of making people laugh, no one was approaching material with such a stuffed shirt, starched color mentality; and -- believe it or not -- audiences ate up his observations. Whether he was lampooning life itself or merely throwing out a quip about a hot topic of the day, he had a knack for finding something fresh about whatever he wanted and giving it his own unique and sometimes deadpan spin. It was unreserved comedy delivered with occasional reservation, and -- when it worked as it often did -- it was damn funny.
Of course, I'm not even going to try to convince you that his name will ever be matched up against some other genre heavyweights. As I said, I'm not in the business of blogging for any other reason than to promote my own voice; and I'd like to believe that somehow along the way I learned a thing or two about communicating from the likes of Mr. Newhart. He was a genius worth watching, so the fact that he dipped his toes into the realms of the Fantastic with appearances aboard Elf (2003) -- a holiday staple in this house -- and The Librarian should be good enough for us all.
Our warmest prayers are extended to the family, fans, and friends of Bob Newhart.
May he forever rest in peace.
-- EZ
"Don't cover this person," they'd say, "or don't cover that movie or TV show." "That isn't Science Fiction," they'd warn me, "and you're looking stupid if you put Starman alongside Battlestar Galactica." "No one will ever take you seriously if you list ALF along with Alien," they'd insist. "And stop using colorful graphics!"
You name it, and there'd almost always be someone showing up trying to offer me unsolicited advice over what they thought was a largely unsuccessful attempt on my part to say something different or be something different. At first, you do listen, right? You think that these folks wouldn't show up if they didn't care ... and, yet, it didn't take long for me to realize that the nameless knuckleheads were far more intrusive than they were constructive. Besides: you gotta blaze your own trail, am I right? You want to be a pioneer, then you have to live with taking a few arrows to the chest along the way ... and that's how I think of an astonishingly successful entertainer like Bob Newhart.
Back in the days when he first got into the business of making people laugh, no one was approaching material with such a stuffed shirt, starched color mentality; and -- believe it or not -- audiences ate up his observations. Whether he was lampooning life itself or merely throwing out a quip about a hot topic of the day, he had a knack for finding something fresh about whatever he wanted and giving it his own unique and sometimes deadpan spin. It was unreserved comedy delivered with occasional reservation, and -- when it worked as it often did -- it was damn funny.
Of course, I'm not even going to try to convince you that his name will ever be matched up against some other genre heavyweights. As I said, I'm not in the business of blogging for any other reason than to promote my own voice; and I'd like to believe that somehow along the way I learned a thing or two about communicating from the likes of Mr. Newhart. He was a genius worth watching, so the fact that he dipped his toes into the realms of the Fantastic with appearances aboard Elf (2003) -- a holiday staple in this house -- and The Librarian should be good enough for us all.
Our warmest prayers are extended to the family, fans, and friends of Bob Newhart.
May he forever rest in peace.
-- EZ
RSS Feed