In the space of a few days, three male public figures that I encountered growing up have surfaced, which has brought back a lot of "when-I-was-younger" memories.
The first was Wil Wheaton, he of Wesley Crusher and Stand by Me fame, who wrote an amazing piece about his first encounter with Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics series (and if you haven't read them, I highly recommend you do so - it's well worth it). It wasn't just about what he thought of the stories and art and lettering (he's enthralled with the lettering), but it was also about the hell of growing up as a child star. I had no idea that the public hated Wesley Crusher. I always liked the character because he was roughly the same age I was when I watched The Next Generation, so I recognized the teenage perspective. Plus, he was cute, in a geeky way. Maybe it was just guys that hated Wesley Crusher.
Then Michael J. Fox did an interview with George Stephanopoulos on This Week. The interview (the menu on the right has the video) was about the ad Fox did that's running in Missouri right now. The effects of Parkinson's disease are stunningly evident in this ad. I kept crossing my arms to hold myself while I watched it. You almost want to hug him to help hold him still. Rush Limbaugh saw the ad, and had the nerve to say on his radio show that he thought it was an act, and that Fox was giving people "false hope" that a cure for Parkinson's was possible. Fox's response to Limbaugh was remarkable - he said he knew he might be criticized for the ad, and that was fine with him. He wasn't going to fight that. People like Limbaugh seem to further the idea that people like Fox should go home, shut the door, close the curtains, and suffer their disease in private, so that no one has to be inconvenienced by seeing it - in effect, turn your back on something that makes you uncomfortable. And as for "false hope," Fox said there's either hope or no hope, and if hope is some sort of character flaw, so be it. His support of stem cell research derives from the idea that if the frozen embryos are going to be thrown away because no one wants them, why not put them to use to research cures for disease rather than treat them as waste? Ironically, Limbaugh declined to appear on This Week to talk about his comments or debate Fox. Interesting.
I remember Family Ties, and the Back to the Future movies, The Secret of My Success, Bright Lights Big City, Teen Wolf, Spin City - all of which span my childhood, teen years, and college days.
And then there's George Stephanopoulos. Dear old George. Clinton's elections were due, in part, to the college-age vote in the mid-90s. College students were largely ignored as a campaign target before Clinton and Rock the Vote. I admit to having little interest in politics until Bill and Hillary and George came along. I first encountered George on the 1994 cover of Time magazine, standing next to the President, who was sitting at his desk, head in hand. The article was about Clinton's advisors screwing up the White House response to Whitewater. I also remember The War Room, and reading George's memoirs. He made politics accessible and interesting with his behind-the-scenes look at it all. And of course, there were the references to him in Friends and the Simpsons, and characters modeled on him in Primary Colors and The American President (Michael J. Fox's character, incidentally).
His interview with Michael J. Fox was great. Fox's Parkinson's tremors didn't seem to bother George, and George even provided some narration about the interview - they had to stop for a minute because Fox was getting warm from the tremors, and needed another dose of meds, and George directly asked Fox about the meds and their effects, both good and bad. One of my favorite interviews that George did was with Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer, who were both on the Supreme Court at the time. He's covered 9/11, Pope John Paul's funeral, and the war in Iraq, and doesn't put his foot in his mouth too often. Still accessible, still asking good questions, still calm when the interviewees get riled, and I still like calling him George. Besides, that's easier to type that Stephanopoulos.
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