It was sad to have the day kick off with that announcement on NPR. George was scheduled to perform at the Paramount in the last year but he cancelled due to poor health. His death through heart failure wasn’t a surprise since he had three previous heart attacks. I could be wrong but I do remember a bit he did about him versus Richard Pryor on their shared tragedies (this is a bit of paraphrasing).
“Richard had the first heart attack. Then I had mine. Next time, I had a heart attack and then he had a heart attack. Then he catches on fire, I have another heart attack.”
Back when HBO was relatively new, novel and risque; before stand-up comedy became as ubiquitous as McDonald’s and Starbucks; George Carlin was always a major event. Even when he did the clean stuff I found him amusing as a kid. I think my first time seeing him was as a guest host for Carson. He put in a joke for his opening monologue I always use to quiz the cashier at the express lane; can’t I come through with 66 packages of hot dogs? That is ONE item. I usually get the technical answer of “no,” because the barcode reader has to scan each product for inventory purposes which then would alert the register manager.
I discovered his better material through my mom’s cooler friend Caroline. She’d let me play with her stereo and check out her record collection while I was over. Caroline had a copy of Occupation: Foole which contained more stuff about his upbringing in parochial school in an Irish neighbor. Finally some jokes I could relate to! Many of the elements were dated by a generation yet some things never change in the Catholic Church.
Finally, I want to reveal one clarification about the FCC-Supreme Court matter involving his Seven Words bit. Most of the news stories ignorantly (or willfully) forget to mention how he wasn’t party to the lawsuit; it was the Pacifica station in NYC which played the material in the early Seventies one afternoon. Allegedly, a parent with a child caught this “inappropriate” routine. Instead of just changing the station, the offended douchebag complained to the FCC, setting the gears in motion to tie this up in court for a few years until the Supreme Court made a mediocre compromise known as the safe harbor times. My Broadcasting Law-History teacher Dr. Grams said it best about the Pacifica Decision (as it is known by); the parent and child were members of a Jesus freak group who sprung a trap on Pacifica hoping to take them off the air. The stations’ enemies were constantly monitoring (and still do), trying to find something to revoke the license. Even to this day, you can tell it’s them and their astroturf operation because their complaint letters are often photocopies.
George will be missed across the generations for his stand-up, his acting, his Simpson appearance as a character (his career also inspired the storyline to Krusty’s comeback in “The Last Temptation of Krust,”) and being a conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine. I only regret not seeing him live. Now I need to find that friend of mine who has the boxed set of his seven key records and see if he’ll let me borrow them for nostalgic reasons.