Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon preview

She also exists to do a Geico commercial or two.

 

They showed a bit with Charlie Callas from the 70s. Do you think when Jerry moves to to great beyond they'll just edit him in between some live segments, perhaps a "let's go to the tote board" and some of his bits, to keep the thing going? Honestly, I don't think anyone would notice the difference, the production values aren't much different than they were 30 years ago.

 

If they planned to keep the telethon going past Jerry's final timpani roll, they would have named a host-in-waiting five years ago. I don't see any evidence of that. Until I do, my guess is that they do one more telethon following Jerry's death, with someone like Tom Bergeron hosting, and that will be it.

 

The muscular dystrophy cause will still need bucks. I find it hard to believe the tradition won't carry on in some form.

And Tom Bergeron, the cheezemonger of American (new Hollywood Squares, America's Funniest Videos, the telethon)

 

The Telethon will die when Jerry does. TV stations increasingly have no time for this kind of programming, so a show like that without Jerry and the tradition would have a hard time getting on the air.

 

Jerry is painful to watch

 

If Jerry weren't a train wreck, no one would watch. Apart from Jerry's weirdness, it's like a parade of obsolete acts from Broadway Danny Rose's client list.

In the middle of the night, I saw Herman's Hermits and Three Dog Night in the same hour, plus Japanese dancers and guys who spin plates.

 

They'll keep it going. Labor Day isn't exactly prime time TV real estate and there's a solid tradition, plus as Dooley pointed out, it brings the MDA major money ($65 million in pledges during last year's telethon, though obviously they didn't get all of that).

You know who would be perfect to take over for Jerry when he retires or, more likely, dies? Justin Timberlake. He has the chops and personality to take over, and he'd probably do it in a heartbeat. They'd probably have "best of" clips featuring the first-generation telethon stars (Lewis, McMahon, Sammy, did Dean Martin have a big role in the telethon?), and they might keep the name intact with the caricature of Lewis as the logo.

But I'd be shocked if they dropped the telethon after Jerry Lewis dies. It's not like people are watching and donating just because it's him.

 

I thought Jerry was going to die a couple of times with all the wheezing and heavy breathing he was doing.

 

All true.

And it could possibly be a public relations nightmare to cut something that helps a good amount of people.

 

Raised $60.5 million, down from last year's record $65 million. Pretty impressive given the economy.

 

I remember when it was a big deal on TV around here. The host TV station had its news folks in the station and in small towns around here, and they were all in tuxes and evening gowns. They they started dressing more casually -- khakis and polo shirts -- but still stayed on the air all night. This time around, it didn't even get on the air until 7 a.m. Monday. Not a bit of Sunday's telethon was shown here.