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.
It’s a byproduct of technology, segmentation. There was time when everyone watched the same shows, like Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson.....you could go up to a stranger and ask, “Hey, did you see Carson, last night?” and they would say “Yes.” and you could have an interesting conversation just about last night’s Carson....good luck with that nowadays.