New Years TV

Watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve with Ryan Seacrest the other night. I didn't see the whole thing, so don't expect some in-depth analysis. Rather, think of it as me...shooting off my mouth.

People like to make fun of Seacrest, but I've always thought he was OK on American Idol. It's been the biggest thing on prime-time for a number of years now, yet he seems not to take it all too seriously, knowing that it's just a combination of two earlier shows, Star Search and The Gong Show, Simon Cowell being the gong. So why did Seacrest seem to me a little awestruck that he was following in the footsteps of Dick Clark and Guy Lombardo? The guy needs to relax. Next year he should have Paula Abdul there. That girl knows how to party. She could drop in on Times Square on that big ball.

In an earlier post, I confessed to being out of touch with the current music scene. Well, I have to partially recant my confession. I actually recognized a few of the songs performed on the show, if not the names of the people actually performing them. Contrast this with my parents, and other kids parents, back in the 1970s. Then, they seemed to recognize such names as Elton John, Kiss, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. They just didn't know what the hell they sang. Just variations of the Beatles, as far as they were concerned. As far as I'm concerned, what I heard New Year's Eve were just variations of the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. People much younger than me, already on their third iPod, and who know vinyl only as the type of upholstery you definitely don't want in your car on a hot, summer day, assure me that what I heard wasn't disco. That's good. At his age John Travolta might fracture his ass in 17 different places imitating the kind of dance moves I saw Wednesday night.

Fergie was there. Now, that's one name I recognize. I see she's no longer a redhead. I wonder if Prince Andrew and the rest of Buckingham Palace knows she's appeared on American TV in a sexy mini dress? I know she's divorced, but she's still the Duchess of something or other.

Finally, there's Dick Clark. Due to a stroke, he slurs his words almost as much as Paula Abdul. You can finally tell he's had plastic surgery. I say "finally" because when I was growing up he was often referred to as "the world's oldest teenager" due to his seeming immunity to the aging process. Actually, he was pushing 50 and looked 10, maybe 15 years younger. Quite an achievement, to be sure, but I doubt if he was carded much. Now he's pushing 80, so, if he hadn't had his stroke, he'd probably look 65. Again an achievement, and I can just imagine some aging baby boomer watching him on TV and saying "Jeez! He looks the same as he did in '62! He really is the world's oldest teenager!"

Speaking of the world's oldest teenager, wasn't that Bill Clinton in Times Square?