I remember that John Houseman line--he must have used that a lot (it's a great line).
― clemenza, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 15:54 (nine years ago) link
There's no accounting for why someone like Winters was able to negotiate his pain and illness, to live into his mid 80s, and Williams was not. I wonder if Jonathan's passing made him feel that much more alone.
I know I've mentioned before that at the Evening at the Met concert, I had to squeeze past Sean & Madonna making out in the aisle on the way out.
(btw Williams was attached to a proposed Harvey Milk biopic several years before Penn did Van Sant's)
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 15:56 (nine years ago) link
It definitely was on in syndication when I was kid, but I don't remember much about mork & mindy, so I don't think I really appreciated until now that the guy's career breakthrough was playing a SPACE ALIEN IN A DREAM on HAPPY DAYS. The show that gave us "jump the shark" as an example of when a show went off the rails. That he was so good playing a space alien on a slice-of-life sitcom that they retconned him from being a dream character to a real character and gave him a spin-off.
I mean, that's pretty impressive.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:01 (nine years ago) link
You know I was just thinking about this, and somehow had missed that Winters had only passed on last year. I wonder along with you, it seems like he was one of the few people Williams felt got him, profoundly (and perhaps vice versa).
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:04 (nine years ago) link
I was pretty young in its heyday but in the post-Star Wars environment it was popular enough for toy makers to create a Mork doll that said "Nanu, Nanu!" when you pulled a string or something; I def remember that.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:05 (nine years ago) link
was just thinking about this while watching this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NqEKvk9F4I and remembered that Winters only passed just last year
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:06 (nine years ago) link
I wonder if Jonathan's passing made him feel that much more alone.
I was thinking this too. They definitely had a deep connection.
― Sporkies Finalist (stevie), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:07 (nine years ago) link
if you never read RW's NY Times piece on Winters:
Jonathan Winters R.I.P.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:14 (nine years ago) link
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 12, 2014 12:05 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
A friend of mine had one of these:
http://www.toynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mork3.jpg
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:27 (nine years ago) link
de la planète Ork
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:29 (nine years ago) link
dans son ouef de l'espace
― SEEMS TO ME (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:35 (nine years ago) link
I had one of those too! I remember picking it up at a garage sale for like a dime.
― Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:36 (nine years ago) link
I've idly thought for years about buying all of the Robin Williams action figures (Mork, Peter Pan, Genie, Jumanji dude, One Hour Photo IIRC, etc.). Because I think he might have the most.
― The Ape In The Outhouse (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:38 (nine years ago) link
Good grief, the Mork action figure. I remember that now. I had the 1981 Mork & Mindy annual, but that was it.
― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:44 (nine years ago) link
i have the jumanji board game
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:46 (nine years ago) link
would play (with some apprehension)
― crüt, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
understandale, didn't work out well for Kirsten Dunst
― Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:51 (nine years ago) link
did the studio merchandise Popeye? Has to stand alone in the Altman oeuvre if so.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:54 (nine years ago) link
it was actually a pretty shitty game -- we had to change the rules to make it more fun/more challenging
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:54 (nine years ago) link
what? you don't have the full line of Macfarlane Nashville figures? got my Bill, Mary and Tom right here on my desk! (xpost)
― Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:56 (nine years ago) link
sometimes i have mine fight with my OC and Stiggs action figures
― Everyone is awful except you. Wait, no, you are also awful. (jjjusten), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:57 (nine years ago) link
and the little breakaway bottle Marty Augustine uses on his gf
(sorry)
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:59 (nine years ago) link
very guilty lols
― Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 16:59 (nine years ago) link
i've got a chris penn 'short cuts' action figure, complete with a bloody rock in hand
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:01 (nine years ago) link
JUMANJI JUMANJI JUMANJI
Wow that the last photo of RW is at a Dairy Queen in lindstrom. My folks had a crappy little cabin on South Center Lake when I was a kid and Lindstrom was the nearest town. Unless that's a new Dairy Queen I've probably been there a million times. I remember passing hazelden in the car and having a weird vague kids understanding of what people did there.
― before you die you see the rink (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:01 (nine years ago) link
xpost I'll trade you my extra squirt-action Huey Lewis figure.
― The Ape In The Outhouse (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:07 (nine years ago) link
McCabe & Mrs. Miller board game
― the one where, as balls alludes (Eazy), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:09 (nine years ago) link
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dq8nXLYEtQ0/hqdefault.jpg
I have this. I remember thinking, even at age seven or whatever - that's supposed to be Robin Williams???
― Merdeyeux, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:09 (nine years ago) link
I have never talked about my own thoughts of cutting my own life short, and it's hard to even type this given how far away they feel now. But hearing about RW's suicide, especially after having heard the Maron interview a few months ago, have really really knocked me for a loop by reminding me of just how dark things can be, and sad for him for the hell he must have endured.
I hope he has found peace, whatever that might mean for him.
― Survivalist Compound Row (B.L.A.M.), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:10 (nine years ago) link
First time I was in Keene, NH I noticed a large plaque or mural or something on the side of a building commemorating the fact that some of Jumanji had been filmed there.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:11 (nine years ago) link
I still have bottles of Griffin Mill water.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:13 (nine years ago) link
BLAM that is brave of you to posti had a similar spell after seeing a picture of myself at age 5 clutching my popeye record it's overwhelmingthis is not "a celebrity death" to me, this is a high profile suicide and that's always a very jarring ghost
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:20 (nine years ago) link
otm
― SEEMS TO ME (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:24 (nine years ago) link
yup
― crüt, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:24 (nine years ago) link
givin u a hug BLAM
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:26 (nine years ago) link
Yeah the inner voice of depression is just so persuasive and convincing and authoritative and when someone commits suicide it is v chilling to me, like this is what i am running from and have been running from for more than half my life and may always be running from and if you stop running and let it hit you maybe something amazing happens but otoh maybe THIS happens.
― before you die you see the rink (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:30 (nine years ago) link
i don't have much to add except that even in his terrible, saccharine films (and maybe especially in them), he seemed to convey this real desperation at being decent and being himself while surrounded by people who were disconnected from him and often acted cold towards him, like often his characters seemed to be very alone and singular in their world, and they used humor to cover up their sadness at that disconnect. and when he wasn't being a crazy clown or a goofy teacher or mrs doubtfire, in all those roles when the veil fell he had this really incredible sadness about him. like the courtroom scenes in 'mrs doubtfire', his panic at losing his kids was palpable. i don't know if he chose those roles because of that aspect or if it was something natural he conveyed. a little of both i imagine.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:31 (nine years ago) link
Comedian friend of mine R. Buscemi posted this on FB--video is only a minute but amazing.
Six years ago at Beth Stelling's and the Puterbaugh Sisterz's absolutely perfect weekly "Entertaining Julia" show in a Chicago dive bar, Robin Williams sauntered in wearing a sleek little black summer fedora (I believe Jena Friedman had befriended him the night before over at the Lake Shore Theater and told him to come over). He looked great, and we all tried mostly successfully to act normal. The bartender Julia told me later that he gave her a nice sum to keep his glass full of Coke all night, since he was fresh out of rehab and not drinking, and didn't want to be sent drinks. He joined Julia in the photo booth for pix and watched maybe a dozen of us comics file across stage for upwards of two hours as the pub gradually filled to bursting as people texted friends to hustle over. I said hi, as did lots of comics, and he couldn't have been nicer or more complimentary of the city and of people's sets. Then he took the stage and performed for ... well over an hour, I believe. It was late by that time. I couldn't repeat a single joke he told, but I can say this: I've never seen someone wreck a room that hard in my life. It wasn't just that he was famous -- he rode waves of laughter and his own imagination like an astronaut surfing the Milky Way, just a shortish, charming guy with a powerful build ripping laughs like taking a knife to a feather bed, like a downed power line showering sparks and writhing like a snake. I'll never forget it. So ... you know, peace. G'night, Robin. We're sad for you. I am anyway.
http://vimeo.com/977976
― the one where, as balls alludes (Eazy), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:33 (nine years ago) link
I think "Robin Williams sucks" has been prevalent in my circles since the movies got really oppressive, to the point where i defended theEvening at the Met show frequently as "the last time he was funny." The last occasion when I did, to someone with institutional hipster cred maybe a year or two ago, he kinda made a head-whirly gesture and blurted a mock-scared "OK!"
I guess Smoochy, Aristocrats, World's Greatest Dad sort of rehabilitated his chops in my eyes; I skipped all those kids' films he did, and anything where the trailers looked bad. One-Hour Photo was entirely mediocre but I thought the performance was credible.
The guy called his last standup album Weapons of Self-Destruction.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:36 (nine years ago) link
his comic and saccharine bits were already curdling (jack, father's day) but his post-oscar stretch of leading roles - What Dreams May Come, Patch Adams, Jakob The Liar, Bicentennial Man...no wonder he was exiled from coolness
― da croupier, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:39 (nine years ago) link
What Dreams May Come
I've never seen it, but in the last 18 hours I've seen it held up as some people's favorite role of his and also an example of the worst of his worst.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
mentioned yesterday they were hits without realizing that people saw them. Our office manager, a 29-year-old guy, said What Dreams May Come was one of his favorite movies; Jumanji too.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:42 (nine years ago) link
Did anyone else see "The Night Listener"? I remember liking it.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:43 (nine years ago) link
Been curious to see What Dreams... just bc it is Vincent ward and he is kind of a weirdo.
― before you die you see the rink (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:44 (nine years ago) link
Siskel & Ebert loved What Dreams May Come.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:46 (nine years ago) link
that's another role of his where the sadness is palpable even when mixed in with all the wacky afterworld stuff
― sleeve, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:48 (nine years ago) link
I saw What Dreams May Come and "personal favorite/worst of his worst" sums it up pretty well. It's such a ball-tripping absurdity - imagine Orpheus & Eurydice meets The Notebook - but Robin makes it stick despite itself
― da croupier, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:50 (nine years ago) link
grand visions of heaven where you get to take any form you want and ride old-timey bicycles around pools
― da croupier, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:51 (nine years ago) link
more like wet dreams may cum
― ienjoyhotdogs, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:52 (nine years ago) link
man the plot synopsis of that one
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 17:52 (nine years ago) link