When I was a teenager I watched as much of the telethon as I could. I didn’t know who half the entertainers were, but I didn’t care. I liked seeing the tote board numbers go up, whenever Jerry would turn to Ed McMahon or whoever the sidekick was at that point and yell “ROLL ‘EM!”, the band would break into a fanfare and the dollar amount would pass another million milestone.
}:-)4
Still better than the Crystal Skull.
All things run their course. It was probably getting too hard to get pampered celebrities to show up for five minutes and give a good word.
I miss my localized telethon that raised funds for a disabled child’s camp. It was fun to watch.
45 years of collecting money and no cure, nor any real medications to mitigate the disease. That’s a practical assessment of the situation. I’m not saying that *no* good has come from it, but progress is limited.
It reminds me of the Breast Cancer lobby. They have turned it into a self-sustaining industry.
I have not watched it for years since the days when guys like Sinatra appeared. I didn’t even know they were changing the format. Still, I agree with the writer that it is good to see people get fired up about raising money for charity.
I am so gut-wrenched over the Lewis/MDA split - it only hurts Jerry's kids.
This new format will be a disaster. They are taking a proven moneymaker and trying to know how to do it better, and in the end, will just hurt, not just their cause, but the kids who rely upon the causes support.
It's not just the research that MDA funds, though it is important. More important is the day-to-day assistance in the form of wheelchairs and other devices to help families deal with what this cruel disease does.
Jerry should have been given one last farewell - this is just a slap in the face as far as I'm concerned. I'll help in other ways now, not through MDA-fundraising efforts ever again.
I read yesterday that Jerry Lewis WILL be on the telethon.
This whole thing has really died away. Used to be this time of year home was the only place I could go that didn’t have some sort of “Jerry’s kids” bucket, now I can’t even remember when was the last time I saw one. Used to be a challenge to see how long I could stay awake through the overnight. Of course back then school started the day after Labor Day, so this was the last hurrah of summer. Now school start in August and of course as a working stiff my summer vacation was a week in July, summer doesn’t have much hurrah to get a last of one way or the other.
The whole telethon thing seems to have been killed by cable culture. As our sources of entertainment have spread out there just isn’t the audience for this anymore. That and decade after decade of nothing changing about the various causes the telethons are trying to help. We have moved on.
MDA has no idea of the money and citizen support they are about to lose and never regain.....When I heard about this I knew it was a colossal mistake....