Posted on 12/03/2010 3:53:14 AM PST by SkyPilot
Television has a drinking problem.
And not only because David Hasselhoff’s new reality series on A&E, “The Hasselhoffs,” breezes over his alcoholism as if it were just another quirky passage in a colorful Hollywood career. On the premiere episode on Sunday Mr. Hasselhoff, the former star of “Knight Rider” and “Baywatch,” says that the infamous 2007 YouTube video that showed him lying blind drunk, trying to eat a Wendy’s meal off the floor, was a wake-up call that “led me to quit drinking.” He adds waggishly, “But I’m still addicted to cheeseburgers.”
This reality show isn’t about a reformed alcoholic struggling to stay sober; it’s another goofy Kardashian-ish showcase for an unreformed show-business addict who is willing to put everything, including his two daughters, on display. The blithe way Mr. Hasselhoff finesses his image problem might have been a problem in the past, but nowadays jokes about serious drinking aren’t taboo, they are de rigueur.
People booze it up more wantonly on television than ever before, but there is an element of denial in even the most extreme depictions. In real life drinking is fun until it’s not. Most television shows can’t deal with that kind of contradiction.
"Two and a Half Men" has steadily put the drinking of Charlie (Charlie Sheen, right, with Jon Cryer) in a harsher light.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It has been both a pleasure, and a terrible curse.
We know that soon after Noah stepped from the ark, he built a vinyard, got drunk (naked) and was seen by his sons. One of them had such jest with his father that Noah cursed him. That family was ripped apart - and this was a short time since they were all rescued by God.
Lot's daughters got him drunk, and had incestuous sex with him - producing children.
I have great empathy for anyone who is chained by alcohol. It is a terrible, awful condition - and those who don't really know how terrible it is will probably never know unless they experience it themselves.
The article mentions David Hasselhoff - and how he drags his daughters into this reality show. In a way, that is more pornographic than joking about his alcoholism. Exploitive reality shows (not all of them...such as Top Chef, but the really bad ones) are awful to watch. They are mirrors on the worst souls.
Shows like "Intervention" are the real side of addiction, and I applaud cable networks for airing them.
I grew up around a lot of alcoholics in my extended family. I realized early on from watching them that it wasn't my path in life.
You may be right, I can't stand it and as a result have never managed to watch the whole thing. But to each, his/her own.
Graybeard - Sober, by the grace of God, for the past 29 years..... 30 years if I manage to make it to July 7, 2011.
O.D.A.T.
Anyone that thinks Two and a Half Men is funny is a cretin.
Why?
“Alcohol”
I can make anybody pretty
I can make you believe any lie
I can make you pick a fight
With somebody twice your size
I been known to cause a few break ups
I been known to cause a few births
I can make you new friends
Or get you fired from Work
And since the day I left Milwaukee
Lynchburg and Bordeaux France
Been making the bars lots of big money
And helping white people dance
I got you in trouble in high school
But college, now that was a ball
You had some of the best times
You’ll never remember with me
Alcohol
Alcohol
I got blamed at your wedding reception
For your best man’s embarrassing speech
And also for those
Naked pictures of you at the beach
I’ve influenced kings and world leaders
I helped Hemmingway write like he did
And I’ll bet you a drink or two that I can make you
Put that lampshade on your head
‘Cause since the day I left Milwaukee
Lynchburg and Bordeaux France
Been making a fool out of folks just like you
And helping white people dance
I’m medicine and I am poison
I can help you up or make you fall
You had some of the best times
You’ll never remember with me
Alcohol
Alcohol
The tv shows glorify alcohol addiction the same way they glorify homosexuality. Both lead to a destructive life yet this is what the Liberals want for their children. A day of reckoning is coming.
“God Loves A Drunk” by Richard Thompson
Will there be any bartenders up there in Heaven?
Will the pubs never close, will the glass never drain
No more D.T.’s and no shakes
And no horrors
Very next morning you feel right as rain
O God loves a drunk, the lowest of men
With the dogs in the street and the pigs in the pen
But a drunk’s only trying to get free of his body
And soar like an eagle high up there in heaven
His shouts and his curses are just hymns and praises
To kick-start his mind now and then
O God loves a drunk, come raise up your glasses, amen
Does God really care for your life in the suburbs
A dull little life of dull little things
And bring up the babies to be just like Daddy
And maybe you’ll be there when He gives out wings
But God loves a drunk, although he’s a fool
He wets in his pants and he falls off his stool
He can’t hear the insults and whispers go by him
As he leans in the doorway and sings Sally Racket
Can’t feel the cold rain beat down on his body
And soak through his clothes to the skin
O God loves a drunk, come raise up your glasses, amen
Will there be any pen-pushers up there in Heaven?
Does clerking and wage-slaving win you God’s love
I pity you worms with your semis and pensions
If you think that’ll get you to the kingdom above
But God loves a drunk, although he’s a clown
You can’t help but laugh as he gags and falls down
He don’T give a cuss for what people think of him
He screams at his demons alone in the darkness
He’s staying alive for just one more pint bottle
Won’t you throw him few pennies, friend
God loves a drunk, for ever and ever, amen
“It is a terrible, awful condition - and those
who don’t really know how terrible it is will
probably never know unless they experience it
themselves.”
“I grew up around a lot of alcoholics in my
extended family. I realized early on from
watching them that it wasn’t my path in life”
Well, I saw all that in my family, swore it would never be me but.... Cunning, baffling and powerful.
I see the “Not Fun” part at every meeting. On the other hand, I also see people who are grateful they became alcoholics and then found AA because there they learned how to live life on life’s terms and AA gave them a second chance at life.
Personally, my wife and I sobered up together 23 years ago and count ourselves as “Grateful recovering alcoholics”.
One day at a time.
A man who was drunk on vodka ran head on and killed my oldest brother in a car accident. After seeing what it did to my family, I told myself I would not be that way.
Several members of both sides of my family were alcoholics. What good has it done, drinking alcohol? It loosens the morals and makes the person look stupid. Yet, people depend on it for a good “buzz” and to relax them. There are other ways to relax without alcohol in the system.
I do not put down alcoholics but they should be treated in a way that they do not put others and themselves in harm.
Amen to that - isn’t AA great? :)
“People booze it up more wantonly on television than ever before...”
Again the NY Times offers the exact opposite of reality. TV has joined our cultural nanny obsession against booze in recent years.
A fascinating way to study cultural changes is to look at what was a universal meme for years, even centuries, but then disappears in a relative blink of the eye. In the West, one of the most striking examples has been the Funny Drunk. From Falstaff in Shakespere, all the way down to Otis on the Andy Griffith Show to Foster Brooks, Funny Drunks have been one of our richest comedic veins. Now, within a decade or two, they have utterly disappeared. “Oh, that’s because we’re so much wiser and more responsible now.” The only response to that is “Uh-huh...”
Amen, and sorry for your loss. I bet that even after all these years it still hurts.
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have spoken to many people who express a "gratitude" about their sufferings - but that thankfulness must be clarified within the reference of time and healing. No one wants to suffer - especially like that. However, I have learned that God can use for good what Satan intended for evil.
I was cleaning the house last week, when my wife called me over and asked me to read something. I was kind of busy at the time, so I was a bit annoyed that she wanted me to drop everything at the time, but I went over and read what she asked.
It was written by a mother who once learned her little boy was being picked on at school. Since we have had experience with this, she read the article. The mother demanded to see the principal, who promised to look into it - but told the mother that she could not police every corner of the school and every student all the time. The mother could not stand the thought of her child being ridiculed and hurt. The principal then said that "A child's suffering is always hard, but it isn't unique."
The mother then prayed and thought a lot about those words. Her son endured, and in later years became a physically imposing, but gentle young man. In high school, he was the class defender of the weak. Anyone caught bullying anyone would be confronted by him. He told his mother, "Mom, I know what it is like to feel like these kids do, and I am a better man for it."
The mom wrote an article about suffering. She said God uses it to form our character, and to teach us. She asked, "What kind of person would any child become who never knew hurt, pain, or suffering? I'll tell you - spoiled, uncaring, unsympathetic, and selfish. That's how."
When we are wounded, God can take those wounds, and turn them into beautiful scars (my words).
“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son He receives.” (Heb. 12:6)
Amen.
I think they actually go out of their way to glorify homosexuality even more. At least with booze, there are some shows that show the dark side of it.
To take it even further, can you imagine the mirror show of A&E's "Intervention" for homosexuals?
Can you imagine a show portraying the realities of a homosexual caught up in promiscuity, violence, depression, and sexual debauchery. Can you imagine them showing actual footage of these wretched individuals and the emptiness that homosexuality has brought to their lives?
I know a pastor who got out of homosexuality because Christ saved him from it. To hear his story will make you weep. No one in the media will tell the truth about homosexuality - and if they did - they would be shut down.
It’s laugh track trash about a sexaholic alcoholic. it’s sleazy comedy.
I quit smoking cold turkey and now am limiting myself to 1-2 beers a night.
It’s tough, but you never enjoy all that alcohol at 6 in the morning.
That's so true.
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