3 Down

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Ever hear the saying, "They always die in Threes."? "They" being the rich and famous. This week three greats are gone. "Greats" of course is a matter of opinion, but from my viewpoint they really were greats, even if the world is divided on the opinion, they were often recognized as greats in their fields. The perpetual sidekick, the "king of pop" and a great actress, one the the original Angels. Yes, I am talking about Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett.

Ed McMahon, was the voice of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, I'm old enough to remember that, but what I really remember him from was the blooper show with Dick Clark, and Star Search. If your old enough to remember Star Search, you remember that it was THE thing to watch on Saturday nights. The new, up and coming comics and singers, acrobats, dancers and who can remember what else. The original version of American Idol. They performed head to head and the winner each week took on a new player the following week, and at the end the one who survived was the winner. Who can remember all of the future stars who crossed that stage? Just like Idol today, even most of the losers went on to great things. Sawyer Brown the great country band, a 5 year old LeAnne Rimes. What about Sinbad? These are the three that pop to the top of my own memory, and the TV says that Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake crossed the stage too, before they were Mousekateers. He gave so many people a start over the years of that show, that it is hard to believe that he is still best remembered as the perpetual sidekick to the class clown, and the Peter Pan of Bandsstand. One more thing that he was known for for many years was being the face of and integrity of Publishers Clearing House. He was the guy delivering the big check, when the winner was chosen and presented. You may already be a millionaire!

Michael Jackson, once one of the most amazing artists on the planet. I freely admit that I was a fan at one point, and I grew up on the sounds of Motown, and the Jackson 5 was part of that sound. "1-2-3", Was probably one of the songs that I remember best of the original family group, along with "Never can say good-bye". I also remember the Saturday morning cartoon of the Jackson 5. Like Scooby-Doo without the stoner and the dog! Yes, the man became the butt of jokes, but it was really a lot of his own doing. With his immense fame came some mind warpage. Who wouldn't get a little freaky when everywhere you went you were a riot waiting to happen. No privacy, no anonymity and never a chance to just walk down a sidewalk without the prying eyes of the tabloids and paparazzi scrutinizing your every move. The truth is that he got weirder and weirder as the years went on, but it seems that some of it was pushing to see when someone would stand up and call him on his stuff. It seems that nobody ever did, until he was arrested and charged with child molesting. It's too bad that this will be his legacy for more than a generation. It will take that long before his music once again becomes the focus of the country where he grew up and got his start, and gave him and his whole family a great career. He had real problems to be sure, but he actual work and contribution to the history of music will far outlast his freakazoid lifestyle.


Farrah Fawcett, just her name inspired the plumber jokes, but she was a great actress. She was a pin-up model, and another one noted for her strangeness. Who can forget the infamous Letterman interview when she seemed to be lost in the ozone and floating in her own little world? One of the original Charlie's Angels, she was the postergirl of the 70's. I can't think of a single one of my friends that didn't have that poster someplace where they could stare at it and her OH so perky nipples. We all longed for the day that we could see her nekkid, and then here comes the 90's and none other than Hugh Hefner gets her to show us them boobies! Not once, but twice! And even on a pay-per-view show where she used her nekkid body as a paint brush. Yeah, she lived up to her reputation. But she was also an actress who did things that were worth watching, the battered wife who sets fire to the house with here drunken husband passed out inside, The Burning Bed. She was the mother and wife who goes into stress induced breakdown in Dr. T and the women. A role that she seemed so perfect for that it was amazing. But she was also a mother to a son who wasn't perfect, and the one time wife of the Six Million Dollar Man,

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and the live in lover of Ryan O'Neal. The tumultuous relationship provided years of tabloid fodder for the voracious gossip appetites of the tabloid reading public. Beautiful and talented, but in some ways disturbed, she will be missed by many.

I have never figured out why they seem to go in threes, but if you think about it, it almost always seems that three big names always seem to die at close intervals.This time was less than a week, and 2 in the same day! Usually less than a month apart, but on rare occasions the interval can stretch out to 8 weeks, but as far as I remember you really have to dig to find a time in the last few decades when this wasn't the case. Sometimes the Fame Level is questionable, but it is generally they are on par with each other like this now gone trio. Even with the disparate ages, their level of fame remains on par.

Remember them for the great stuff that they did, and not for the jokes that were told about them. Their contributions were worth more than most of us will ever be able to accomplish, and what they did wrong, well, it doesn't really matter anymore does it?