On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

With me, nostalgia is a way of life. I love the old days and all the memories of those good times. It’s ironic that Good Times is actually one of the old shows that we watched growing up, and this story is about a few of our beloved TV characters that we have lost recently.

We all watched TV before school, after school and in the evening, after we did our homework, and while we were doing our homework. TV was a huge part of our upbringing. So how does it affect us when one of our old TV friends passes away? Unlike friends and family that we lose, TV characters get to live on like nothing happened. They also get to remain young forever, some in black and white and some in color. However, when we hear that they have died, we all stop, reminisce, and feel as though we have lost a personal friend.

Recently we have experienced a rash of our favorite TV characters passing away. We lost George “Goober” Lindsay, Ernest “McHale” Borgnine, Sherman “George Jefferson” Hemsley, Robert “Epstein” Hegyes, and Ron “Horshack” Palillo. Hegyes and Palillo were two of our favorite “sweatghogs” from Welcome Back Kotter, and Lindsey was from The Andy Griffith Show (as if you didn’t know that). And. of course, we lost a giant of the TV world when Andy Griffith left us.

I watch TV only when I am done with a busy day’s work. I usually end up falling asleep in the recliner then crawling up to bed. I always astound friends by being able to recite large portions of dialog from a number of old TV shows. This is because I love the old shows. I spent many hours in front of the boob tube as a lot of us did. I have actually shed tears watching, of all shows, Leave it to Beaver. It was one particular episode where Wally and Beaver spent all their savings. Ward got mad at them until he found out that the boys had bought him a new hunting jacket.

Watching my old shows definitely puts me into a comfort zone. When I hear that familiar whistling at the beginning of The Andy Griffith Show it is very soothing to me. The same thing happens when I hear the theme songs from The Jeffersons, All in the Family and Green Acres. There is a new channel called METV. It’s channel 21 on RCN. They run episodes of Green Acres, Love American Style, The Honeymooners, and The Bob Newhart Show, to name a few. We also have Nick at Nite that is packed with our old faves. I have the DVR running constantly. These old shows act like a tranquilizer for me, calming me down and putting me into a relaxed mood.

When I worked at Kiss 108 and Oldies 103 I got to meet and be photographed with many of my favorite old TV stars. One day I got to hang around with Larry Storch, who played Corporal Agarn on F Troop. He was such a nice guy that he called my dad up on the phone and said, “Hey Fred…who says I’m dumb?” That was one of Agarn’s signature phrases. I was lucky enough to have also met Jerry Mathers and Ken Osmond (Beaver and Eddie) Stanley Livingston, Barry Livingston and Johnny Whitaker (Ernie and Chip Douglas from My Three Sons, and Jody from Family Affair). I was also lucky enough to have met Chuck Connors from The Rifleman, and Tony Randall and Jack Klugman form The Odd Couple. Check out some of my photos on Facebook if you have the chance. I have often said that meeting my childhood TV idols was the best part of my radio career (along with all the free stuff we got).

When the news of the death of one of my favorite TV stars his me, I feel as though I have lost a friend. And they actually are friends. They came into our homes more often than most family members. All they ever did was entertain us and give us pleasure. Unlike flesh and bone friends and relatives, these characters will live forever inside our TV sets. I have full collections of my favorite shows such as Bob Newhart, F Troop, Hogan’s Heroes and, of course, The Three Stooges.

After losing all the TV stars that have recently passed, it seems that us baby boomers are finally starting to face a lot of realities. One reality is evident when we look in the mirror, walk up stairs, and bend over to pick something up. It’s inevitable. We are getting old. So it stands to reason that everything and everyone around us is also getting old. It stinks. It’s one thing to lose people we know and then grieve, but when we lose fictitious TV characters and it affects us, that is really something. You may say that we can look at old family videos and see our lost loved ones but that doesn’t work for me. I have videos of my brother and sister who I lost, but it hurts too much to watch them. It’s different with TV characters. We also grew up with our TV friends and lots of our earliest memories involve some of these shows.

I can’t do a TV story without mentioning some our favorite local shows from the old days (as I often do). Here they come…Major Mudd, Boomtown, Willie Whistle, Bozo the Clown and Big Brother Bob Emery (my sister and I were actually on that show back when Eisenhower was president).

Even though it is sad to think that a lot of our favorite TV actors and actresses are gone, they will indeed live on forever thanks to TV and DVDs. Come to think of it, it’s a little disturbing to think that a lot of silly videos of me wearing embarrassing costumes and doing outrageously ridiculous things will live on thanks to YouTube. Someone please change the channel!

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Please send me your ideas for articles and stories. You can go to my Facebook page,
email me at jimmydel@ rcn.com or leave a message at 617-623-0554.

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Jimmy is available to host your event, play music, or just spice up any party or function.