Dexter King
Entertainment Critic
Robin Williams
July 21, 2022 – Today is Robin Williams’ birthday.
He would have been 71.
Can you imagine what a cool grandfather he’d be?
Just as Covid began to shut down the world as we knew it, The Lemonade Stand began as an e-mail in March of 2020. In an effort to navigate the sociological mess confronting us, further complicated by the previous four years of cartoon presidential leadership, the goal was ‘to make better use of our lemons’ by offering some homespun comic relief from our stable of writers.
Comic relief is a concept that is almost synonymous with the comedian/actor/social activist Robin Williams. On his birthday, The Lemonade Stand dedicates this issue to his immense talent and passion, a light in our dark reality whose vision we lost far too soon …
In the fifties, when I grew up on Long Island just outside the mega-experience of New York City, we had a television antenna on our roof which received three network stations. There were maybe ten hours of t.v. per day, if of course you had a television set.
I remember when this girl on my block bragged about having color t.v.. She captured every kid’s imagination because she could watch Bonanza, a feel-good men-in-charge cowboy western which was the first show in color ever broadcast on the airwaves. Believe me, Heide Perlman quickly had all the friends and men-in-charge she wanted.
By the mid-fifties, things began to expand exponentially by antenna, and basically out of nowhere, this hardly noticed yet reliable segment of broadcasting time emerged called late night television … it relied on broad stand-up comedy and interviewing famous guests. And as it expanded throughout the land, sharing ‘good night’ became a hot commodity as late night began to engrave itself as a needed and passive part of the day.
Late night television was true Americana … first of all, it made money out of real estate no one previously wanted. Secondly, signing off at eleven o’clock was simply moved to one o’clock, as we all continued to witness the American flag waving on a flagpole as the national anthem played.
I think the first time I stayed up that late as a child (with a babysitter who was bribing me), I wondered if I should stand up and put my hand over my heart as the music played.
In 1957, Jack Paar replaced Steve Allen on NBC’s The Tonight Show. Paar was an intelligent slightly eccentric figure who unlike Allen didn’t shy away from controversy. By 1962, Paar had worn out his welcome at NBC and this relative unknown called Johnny Carson was hired to replace him.
Johnny Carson became late night television, single-handedly capturing a coveted demographic that advertisers craved. Television watchers increasingly becoming willing to watch Johnny as they fell asleep each night, and little did anyone know at the time, that late-night television would become so fundamental to the American experience.
People in bed with each other, sharing something.
Hopefully shopping. Possibly second base or even a boink
… and no matter where you went in America,
everyone knew who Johnny was.
Johnny seldom gave unconditional support to anyone famous on his show. Although he seemed generous, he really wasn’t. He would give standard icons such as Bob Hope and George Burns their due respect, but the real meat for Carson, this former midwestern unknown, was welcoming an underdog entertainer … or if Carson were lucky that night, cherishing the unscripted and patently unexpected.
By the middle seventies, it became both business and a privilege to be on Late Night with Johnny Carson. Johnny ruled as the master, polite but in control, the pratfalls of life being his stand-up shtick, like his classic look of ‘What me?’ after he told a joke that bombed. And no matter who appeared on his show, in many ways Johnny sat behind his desk bigger than them all.
One notable exception to the rule was Robin Williams. I think Johnny truly loved spending time with this unique and spontaneous talent.
There were times that William’s idol, Santa Barbara’s Jonathan Winters, joined him on the show … acknowledged masters, the elite of comic relief, they clearly possessed an unlimited capacity for creativity … they were lit fuses as soon as they walked on stage, and Carson couldn’t get enough of them.
Following is an early 90’s video montage of mostly Robin Williams doing Johnny, occasionally joined by Jonathan Winters, as well as clips from David Letterman. With Robin Williams especially, Johnny is clearly in heaven as he can’t stop laughing. And without question, Williams shares himself as a brilliant, thoughtful, complex, and creative genius.
Sometimes we forget the interesting acting roles to which Williams gravitated, so I revisited Terry Gilliam’s 1991 Fisher King which Williams did with Jeff Bridges, a movie centering on homelessness and mass shootings – subjects sadly relevant today. In Fisher King, Williams is a survivor of a mass shooting and searches his subsequent insanity for the holy grail.
Or if you want to watch Williams in a feel-good family movie beyond the classic Mrs. Doubtfire, I’d suggest August Rush which offers a Dickens/Oliver Twist touch.
So on his birthday, as we think back about this person who employed so much effort to make us laugh, you may not know this final fact about Robin Williams – further analysis determined that Williams died from a severe case of a disease called Lewy body dementia which has more than 40 symptoms that can randomly appear and disappear.
These symptoms include impaired thinking, fluctuations in attention, problems with movement, visual hallucinations, sleep disorders, behavioral and mood issues, and changes in bodily functions. It often took days to bring him out of its tenacious grip.
During the last months of his life, his wife called him a man on fire. In some ways, he’d always been a man on fire consumed as he was with social issues and the need, the obsession to entertain. Happy birthday, Robin. We miss you.
Be sure to get as far as the discussion about Clarence Thomas’s
nomination as Supreme Court Justice and Williams’
comments on the future of Roe Wade.
Dr. Vanilla / Robin Williams
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
“Man On Fire”
I’m a man on fire
Walking through your street
With one guitar
And two dancing feet
Only one desire
That’s left in me
I want the whole damn world
To come dance with me
Ohhhhhhhh
Come dance with me
Over murder and pain
Come and set you free
Over heartache and shame
I wanna see our bodies burning like the old big sun
I wanna know what we’ve been learning and learning from
Everybody want safety
Everybody want comfort
Everybody want certain
Everybody but me
I’m a man on fire
Walking down your street
With one guitar
And two dancing feet
Only one desire
That’s left in me
I want the whole damn world
To come and dance with me
Yay, yay. Come dance with me
Over heartache and rage
Come set us free
Over panic and strange
I wanna see our bodies burning like the old big sun
I wanna know what we’ve been learning and learning from
Everybody want romance
Everybody want safety
Everybody want comfort
Everybody but me
I’m a man on fire
Walking down your street
With one guitar
And two dancing feet
Only one desire
That’s still in me
I want the whole damn world
To come and dance with me