Celebrity Death Thread

[Dr. Zoidberg]

RIP Corey Yuen

I've got a bunch of movies on blu-ray which either he was in, directed or both. He was good.

[Bandit]

Those are great mini cookies.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Bandit]

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[pixel]

[Bandit]

That was the greatest moment in television history. Fuck the moon landing.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

RIP Donahue.

Hopefully Dave Meltzer does an obit for him.

[Bandit]

RIP Donahue.

Hopefully Dave Meltzer does an obit for him.

He talked about him on the podcast last night. Apparently Donahue did another wrestling episode with Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, Adrian Adonis and Verne Gagne. So that sounds like it would have been 10 years before the sex scandal show.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

He talked about him on the podcast last night. Apparently Donahue did another wrestling episode with Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, Adrian Adonis and Verne Gagne. So that sounds like it would have been 10 years before the sex scandal show.

Interesting, an AWA episode. Let's see if it's around...it is.

[Bandit]

Hogan was ripping off Superstar Graham so bad, even talking like his voice.

[Bandit]

RIP Donahue.

Hopefully Dave Meltzer does an obit for him.

The death of Phil Donahue at the age of 88 brings back my own memories of being a guest on his talk show in 1992 along with Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino, former announcer Murray Hodgson, Superstar Billy Graham, prelim wrestler Tom Hankins, wrestling talk show host John Arezzi and Barry Orton (Randy’s uncle), a former WWF wrestler.

It was one of the weirdest days of my life. It was such a sordid situation which I’ve talked about and written about many times in the past. His people talked me into doing the show. McMahon was invited to defend himself on the show with the media reports of abuse of male ring boys and steroid issues in the company. We were all under the impression he turned it down but as we were in the studio were told McMahon would be there. He had secretly settled a lawsuit filed by Tom Cole over the weekend, which nobody knew and it was charges in the lawsuit that led to the media coverage in New York and San Diego newspapers.

The Cole case along with the steroid issue after the trial of Dr. George Zahorian were both covered in some newspapers over the prior weeks. Late in the show, McMahon, who was seated next to me after the last commercial break, said, “This was the longest hour of my life.”

I was seated next to McMahon in the middle as a fluke and it was not the plan. The original seating chart had McMahon and Sammartino, the two biggest stars, in the middle, but in the production room before the shows, Sammartino, who had been on Larry King a few days earlier with McMahon, but from separate studios rather than in the same place, when seeing that he was sitting next to McMahon said that after what had happened on the King show, if McMahon lied he didn’t know if he could help himself. While the more sleazy shows that came later that would have been music to their ears, the idea of a confrontation, perhaps even physical with McMahon and Sammartino, two culturally iconic names in New York, where the show was broadcast from. This led to me being seated in the center next to McMahon.

Garrett Gonzales and I did a Wrestling Observer Radio going over that day in a lot of detail with a lot of hindsight regarding things learned after the fact.

Regarding Donahue, I was a big fan of his show and it was almost like a weird dream actually being on his show as I’d never done anything remotely as high profile and it was on live national television. I can only saw Donahue in the limited backstage interaction we had as well as being on the show, was the utmost professional in a very touchy story.

There was a reason he was the best. You have to remember that back then wrestling got almost no mainstream coverage although the ringboy story made many newspapers and there was some coverage the prior year of the trial of Zahorian of distributing steroids to top WWF talent. Donahue understood that while people saw wrestling as “fake” and thus any story involving it much of the public (and his studio audience) was going to take as not serious, that he did not at all try and make light of it.

Given the circumstances at the time he probably couldn’t have done a better job. He was so much of an afternoon institution of television that I was stunned when his show ended. The show ran nationally from 1970 to 1996. Essentially he was a victim of trying to continue to do a straight news show when a lot of the newer talk shows would get more trashy and shocking, some of which were even worked.

The show suffered severe ratings declines and his views on the Persian Gulf War caused key stations to drop him and he retired the show, which was about to be canceled. His viewpoints questioning wars also doomed his MSNBC revival of the show.

This was the Observer story I wrote on the show at the time when I got back. Over the next few weeks in particular, and in some cases, even longer. that we learned a lot more. McMahon and I had a lengthy discussion a few days later on it as well.

But this was the original story, which was part of a much longer story in the March 23, 1992, issue covering the big picture story. But this was from my experience on the show itself at the time.

“This brings us to the Phil Donahue show on Monday. I was asked on Thursday that if they were going to do a show, would I be interested in being a guest. I said I wasn’t the guy for a show on sexual abuse because I hadn’t worked hard enough on the story but said if they wanted to do something on pro wrestling in general or steroids in pro wrestling I’d be interested.

“On Friday, they told me the segment was a definite for Monday and they wanted me on so I agreed. The only names I knew of that were going to be guests were John Arezzi, Bruno Sammartino, Randy Orton and Tom Hankins. Later that day I learned that Billy Graham and David Schultz been invited and that Titan rejected an invitation to send either McMahon or a spokesperson.

“Monday morning I received a phone call telling me that McMahon’s office was furious about the show because they claimed every guest but one wasn’t credible (me supposedly being the one) and they were at a complete loss in regard to Hankins because they knew nothing about him (ie, no dirt for comebacks to throw him off).

“Later that morning I was told McMahon had agreed to appear provided the show agreed to a few stipulations: 1) 12 spots in the studio audience for “plants” (in order to try and sway the crowd live and at home with audience reactions favorable to McMahon); 2) McMahon would get to open the two with a two minute uninterrupted speech; 3) He wouldn’t go on alone and would bring two guests, a doctor (for credibility if steroids came up) and a lawyer (for credibility on legal issues); 4) That David Schultz be bounced from the show. They wouldn’t agree to any of the stipulations, although later compromised and agreed only to the fourth one (note: This is what we were told that day before the show–I’m still do this day not certain if Schultz turned it down or they agreed to this–only this is what I was told backstage by the Donahue people).

“But at that point, it was obvious McMahon would be there because he wouldn’t have made demands unless he had already decided to appear. I didn’t know for sure that McMahon was going to appear until an hour before show time, nor about Murray Hodgson.

“Behind the scenes were fascinating. Hodgson knew nobody but was anxious for the show to get underway. Orton seemed kind of nervous because he wanted to improve on his performance on Friday (editor’s note: Orton was n the Larry King show with McMahon and Sammartino and wasn’t happy how he came across, he, like me, wanted to talk in detail and not be misinterpreted and on King, they wanted quick sound bites). Sammartino was frustrated with McMahon’s lies on Friday and was begging everyone to make sure McMahon wasn’t allowed to sit next to him because he was afraid of his temper. Graham seemed to feel the same way. I was pacing, literally scared out of my mind since I’m not a television personality and almost everyone else was.

“About ten minutes before show time, Donahue came into the Green Room (waiting room for guests) and all the guests present were in one room. The tension was incredible in the room when McMahon walked in. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a room where an aura of mutual hatred so filled the air. I believe I was the only one who even acknowledged McMahon and I don’t think he made eye contact with anyone else in the room, nor visa versa.

“Show time came. McMahon threw the first pitch–the old change-up. Instead of being indignant at the charges, it was a new strategy, remorse, understanding, trying just to. Clearly, going on the offensive against those who were making allegations about his company on Larry King, while it may have been personally satisfying to those who led him to believe he trounced Bruno, was from a corporate standpoint a bad decision. It only heated the issue.

“To diffuse the issue there was only one way to go. McMahon was going to have to do a job on television. Sit back and take the lumps and possibly wind up as a babyface at the end because the intensity of some of the guests would be such that it could turn into overkill. (Editor’s note, we later learned McMahon had set up a scenario where Cole, who he had just settled with, was secretly in the audience and as soon as his name was mentioned, he was going to do the Perry Mason finish–say that everyone was full of it and the McMahons were the only ones that cared. On live TV nationwide, this actually would have been a giant moment in McMahon’s career and killed future stories. The only reason it didn’t happen is because Orton, who had befriended Cole, had suddenly stopped hearing from him and not returned his calls–Orton backstage told everyone he was suspicious and not to bring up anything about Cole’s story. In hindsight both of these stories were huge in how it was supposed to play out in Vince’s eyes and why it didn’t).

“From a television and excitement standpoint, the high point of the show was in the opening segment, McMahon going one-on-one with Hodgson. My feeling in retrospect is that there were two people McMahon personally wasn’t going to lay down for–Hodgson and Graham. I don’t know if Hodgson was honest or not (editor’s note: I do know today that Hodgson was not, as even his own lawyer said he was the most dishonest client he ever had). But he either blitzed McMahon with a well prepared truthful offensive, or simply out-McMahoned McMahon. Hodgson claimed he was fired because he wouldn’t sleep with the Vice President. McMahon claimed he was fired because he was a terrible announcer, and that he couldn’t make the transition from radio-to-television. Hodgson made that statement look ridiculous within 30 seconds as he dismantled McMahon with the poise of a 20-year television veteran that even McMahon couldn’t match. When McMahon claimed Hodgson’s lawyers wanted $160,000 this morning or he’d go on the air, it was clearly last-ditch desperation. When Hodgson denied it and said that ever since he made his charge, McMahon has been trying to buy him out, it resulted is a near standing ovation. (Editor’s note: it was a great line by Hodgson, but it also wasn’t true).

“Orton and Hankins made their charges, both sounding believable with McMahon really not even trying an offensive against either one.

“At that point, the rest of the guests, myself included came on. The show never reached that emotional peak again, although Graham and McMahon got pretty heated at one point. It clearly looked like it was everyone against one person, which would have created some sympathy for McMahon, although the live audience didn’t buy his attempts at sincerity. He was clearly the heel and his lack of honesty was pretty well exposed for the entire nation to see. He may not have been the only heel on the show, though. Still, as a television personality, he weathered the storm very well all things considered. Even when Graham got out of control to the point McMahon started getting some sympathy, the crowd still popped for Graham’s ranting. The show was over too soon. It accomplished very little.

“Donahue was a super host. His producers had done their homework and unlike King, he was active and thought provoking and wasn’t afraid to put anyone on the spot. If there was a negative, I sensed from the audience that the feeling was that no matter how shocking the story, how heinous the situation, that as long as it involved wrestling, to some people, it just didn’t matter because as one girl in the audience said, “it’s (pro wrestling) so sleazy and so gross anyway.”

After the show was over, and after McMahon and his entourage had left, the producer of the show came up to me, looking shocked. He said Tom Cole was in the audience, he spoke with him and he sitting with Linda McMahon and Miss Elizabeth. He said how the McMahons, who had just settled with him on advice from his lawyer days earlier and this had been kept secret, and given him a job, cared about him and said Graham, who had done depositions for his case, was a liar, saying what Graham said was different from his deposition. None of the people involved had ever met Cole, only spoke to him on the phone, so in the crowd nobody would have recognized him. It was quite the afternoon.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

It's nice that Dave wrote a little bit about him

[2dr]

Just a couple of words.

[Bandit]

[Stormwatch]

Just found that Mark Gormley passed away back in May. He was an amateur singer-songwriter from Pensacola who became an internet celebrity back in 2009 thanks to this most awesome video:


https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/20 ... 876865007/

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[ian]

Aww

Seems like yesterday he was stepping on Lego in Australia:



OW! OW! OW! OW!