October 11, 1975: "Saturday Night Live" Premieres

Back row, left to right: Laraine Newman, John Belushi,

Jane Curtin, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd.

Bottom row, left to right: Garrett Morris and Gilda Radner.

October 11, 1975: Saturday Night premieres on NBC, taping from the network's studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. After this 1st season, it was renamed Saturday Night Live. The original cast, known as "the Not Ready for Prime Time Players," includes John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris -- but not, as is commonly believed, Bill Murray, who replaced Chase after the 1st season.

The 1st guest host is George Carlin, who begins his monologue with a whacked-out version of the Lord's Prayer, and goes on to do "Baseball and Football," a routine he will expand on a few times. (This version is from 1990, from the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey.)

Not long before Carlin died, someone took a poll to determine the greatest standup comedians of all time. Carlin came in 2nd. Coming in 1st was Richard Pryor, who, like Carlin, was at the peak of his powers in the mid-Seventies.

A month into SNL's run, Pryor was asked to host the show. But, nervous that he would issue some four-letter words -- they didn't seem as nervous about such language coming from Carlin, creator of the 1972 bit "Seven Words You Can Never Use On Television," none of which he used when he hosted -- they used a 7-second delay, in case they had to bleep anything out. They did have to. Ever since, even SNL hasn't been totally live.

In addition to the preceding, SNL would make stars of Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Norm McDonald, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, Sarah Silverman, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Keenan Thompson, and Kate McKinnon.

Billy Crystal was already a star when he signed on for the 1984-85 season. The next season would be the one and only on the show for Robert Downey Jr., whose true fame was yet to come.

*

October 11, 1975 was, clearly, a Saturday. Earlier that day, Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton were married in their living room in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Despite all odds -- including "self-inflicted wounds," and rooting for rival teams, as Hillary grew up in the Chicago suburbs as a Cubs fan, Bill in Arkansas as a St. Louis Cardinals fan -- they are still together, dividing their time between Washington, D.C. and Westchester County, New York, and now have 3 grandchildren.

Game 1 of the World Series was played at Fenway Park in Boston, with the Boston Red Sox hosting the Cincinnati Reds. Luis Tiant shut down the Big Red Machine, and drove in the 1st run, despite the designated hitter rule preventing him from coming to bat all season long, as the Red Sox won, 6-0. The Sox scored all their runs in the 7th inning. One of the most talked-about World Series was underway with a surprising flourish.

There was college football on this day, including the following games:

* Number 1 Ohio State beat Iowa, 49-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. The Buckeyes won the Big Ten title, but lost the National Championship when they lost the Rose Bowl to UCLA.

* Number 2 Oklahoma beat Number 5 Texas, 24-17 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Sooners won the Big Eight title, then beat Michigan in the Orange Bowl, and won the National Championship.

* Number 3 Southern California beat Washington State, 28-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Trojans were still Number 3 on November 1, but began a 4-game losing streak that day, losing away to California, home to Stanford on the 8th, away to Washington on the 15th. On the 28th, Thanksgiving Day, USC lost to UCLA at the Coliseum. They did rebound to beat Texas A&M in the Liberty Bowl.

* Number 4 Nebraska beat Kansas, 16-0 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers lost to Oklahoma on Thanksgiving Weekend, costing them the Big Eight title, a trip to the Orange Bowl, and a shot at the National Championship. Instead, they went to the Fiesta Bowl, where they had to play Arizona State on their home field, and lost.

* Number 6 Texas A&M beat Texas Tech, 38-9 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock. They beat Texas on Thanksgiving, rose to Number 2 in the rankings, looked headed for the Cotton Bowl and a shot at the National Championship, but a loss to Arkansas cost them, and they ended up playing USC in the Liberty Bowl, and losing. In contrast, Arkansas were unranked on October 11, beating Baylor, 41-3 at Baylor Stadium (later Floyd Casey Stadium) in Waco, Texas. They won the Southwest Conference title, earning them the Cotton Bowl berth, and they beat Georgia.

* Number 7 Alabama beat the University of Washington, 52-0 at Denny Stadium (later Bryant-Denny Stadium) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Crimson Tide would win the Southeastern Conference title.

* Number 8 Michigan beat in-State rivals, Number 15 Michigan State, 16-6 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.

* Number 9 Penn State beat Number 10 West Virginia, 39-0 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Penn State went on to be invited to the Sugar Bowl, but lost to Alabama.

* Number 12 Missouri beat Number 14 Oklahoma State, 41-14 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* Number 15 Notre Dame beat North Carolina, 21-14 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

* Navy beat Syracuse, 10-6 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. But Army lost to Duke, 21-10 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Rutgers lost to Lehigh, 34-20 at Taylor Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Scarlet Knights did not lose again for nearly 2 years, until September 2, 1977, when Penn State beat them at the Meadowlands. Also among New Jersey teams, Princeton beat Cornell, 16-8 at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, New York.

The NBA season started 12 days later; the ABA season, the day after that. There were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 7-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The California Golden Seals beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Making his NHL debut, with the Wings, was Mike Wong, a 20-year-old center from Minneapolis. This was only the 2nd NHL game played by a player of Asian descent, after Chinese-Canadian Larry Kwong played 1 game for the 1948 New York Rangers. Wong would last 4 seasons in the NHL.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 9-5 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Kansas City Scouts beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins, the Buffalo Sabres and the Atlanta Flames were not scheduled.

And there were 4 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Toronto Toros, 7-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Houston Aeros beat the New England Whalers, 5-0 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Cincinnati Stingers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Crusaders, 1-0 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* And the Phoenix Roadrunners beat the San Diego Mariners, 4-2 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena.)

In New Jersey high school football, East Brunswick, which would later be my Alma Mater, lost 13-14 to Colonia of Woodbridge, at home at Jay Doyle Field.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Midlands team Coventry City, 5-0 at Highbury in North London.

August 11, 2014: The Suicide of Robin Williams

August 11, 2014: Robin Williams, one of the greatest comedians and comic actors of all time, commits suicide at his home in the San Francisco suburb of Paradise Cay, California.

He had been born in Chicago on July 21, 1951, and had made his name as a standup comic in San Francisco, and also in Los Angeles, before making it big in 1978 with an appearance on Happy Days as an alien, and following it up with a spinoff sitcom, Mork & Mindy. He made some classic comedy films, and proved himself as a dramatic actor as well. Sometimes, he was able to do both in the same film: The World According to Garp, Moscow On the Hudson, Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, The Birdcage, Good Will Hunting. He even played 2 Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt in the Night at the Museum films, and Dwight D. Eisenhower in The Butler.

But he suffered from depression his whole life. It's been said that all great comedy is a response to suffering. Other comedians have committed suicide, including Freddie Prinze, Richard Jeni, and, possibly, Lenny Bruce. No matter how many people they make laugh, they can't cure the sadness within themselves. It's what leads so many of them to take drugs. Unlike Prinze and Bruce, Robin was able to get clean. But it didn't stop the inner pain.

An autopsy showed that he was afflicted with both Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, the latter described by his widow, Susan Schneider, in the title of an article she wrote as "The Terrorist In My Husband's Brain." I suppose it was too much for him -- or maybe he wanted to spare his family the pain of his decline, thinking it would be less painful for them if he died all at once. We'll never know if that was the right choice.

*

Here's what I wrote at the time, in my original blog, the usually sports-themed Uncle Mike's Musings, and I'll let it stand as the rest of this post:

In the immortal words of Mork from Ork, "Shazbot!"

Robin Williams is dead. He was found at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. It appears to have been a suicide, following decades of struggles with alcohol, drugs and depression. He was 63.

He was one of the funniest men alive, until he wasn't.

He didn't really have a connection to sports. Although the opening montage to Mork & Mindy did show him and Pam Dawber on the goalposts at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field.

And there was the scene from Good Will Hunting, when the characters played by Robin and Matt Damon discussed love and Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

Then there was this riff, imagining if golf had never been invented, and then, instead of 500 years ago, an insane Scotsman were to invent it now.

In his 1st appearance as Mork, on Happy Days, he told Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) that Ork wanted an Earthman. This being late 1950s Milwaukee, Richie was afraid Mork was going to kidnap Hank Aaron of the Braves. And Mork said, "No, we'd have to trade the whole planet for him," before saying it was going to be Richie.

That show was already a generation in the past. And Hank Aaron, thankfully, is still alive. Robin Williams is dead.

Mel Brooks and Tony Bennett were on Johnny Carson's 1st Tonight Show, 52 years ago; they're still alive. Robin Williams was on Carson's last; he's dead.

Too many good people have died this year. As much as anyone, including my father, who died a few weeks ago, Robin Williams made me laugh.

Thank you, you nut.

*

UPDATE: Since then, Hank Aaron and Tony Bennett have died. Robin's family had him cremated, and scattered his ashes over San Francisco Bay.

A 2019 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History was advertised as George Carlin, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff, against Richard Pryor, played by rapper Valin Zamarron, a.k.a. ZEALE. The episode turned into a "battle royale," with Gary Anthony Williams playing Bill Cosby; comedian Jackie Tohn playing Joan Rivers; and "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist playing Robin Williams.

*

August 11, 2014 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Derek Jeter, in his last season, went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Miami Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-6 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers, 7-0 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. How many Rays pitchers does it take to pitch a 3-hit shutout? Apparently, 4: Drew Smyly (7 2/3rds innings), Kirby Yates, Joel Peralta and Grant Balfour.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

* And the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Los Angeles Angels, the San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals were not scheduled.

August 3, 1966: The Death of Lenny Bruce

Yes, he made jokes about the Catholic Church.

No, here, he's not dressing like a priest to make a point.

He's wearing a "Nehru jacket," made popular

by the late Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India.

August 3, 1966: Comedian Lenny Bruce is found dead at his home in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. He was 40 years old.

He was born Leonard Alfred Schneider on October 13, 1925, the same day as Margaret Thatcher. He didn't live to see her rise to power, and God only knows what the "Iron Lady" (or, more accurately, the "Iron" "Lady") would have thought if she knew about this fact.

He was born in Mineola, Long Island, New York, and grew up in nearby Bellmore. While Alan King moved to Long Island after growing up in Brooklyn and becoming famous, Bruce was the 1st Long Island native to make it big in comedy, preceding such names as Eddie Murphy, Joy Behar, Rosie O'Donnell, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin James and Jim Breuer.

He was the 1st comedian to get big by using profanity and "sick humor." Typical of his material: "My wife caught me in bed with her mother. She said, 'You're sick!' I said, 'Why? She's your mother, not mine!'"

Bruce would joke about anything. Especially sex. And religion. Particularly the Catholic Church. In his routine, he called Pope John XXIII "John Baby." That, plus the fact that he was Jewish, pissed off a lot of conservative people in "the establishment."

He was often arrested for obscenity, for using "dirty words" onstage, or for talking about sex onstage. In a rare TV appearance, on The Steve Allen Show on April 5, 1959, he said, "There are words that offend me. Uh, let's see: 'Governor Faubus,' 'segregation' offend me. Uh, 'nighttime television' offends me. Some nighttime television. Uh, the shows that exploit homosexuality, narcotics and prostitution, under the guise of helping these societal problems."

October 13, 1960 was his 35th birthday. Dick Schaap was doing a profile on him for Newsweek magazine. At the same time, Schaap was covering the World Series. He invited Bruce to sit with him in the press box at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh for Game 7. Bruce admitted that he had never been to a baseball game before. It turned out to be one of the greatest games of all time, with Bill Mazeroski hitting a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning, giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a 10-9 win over the New York Yankees, and winning the Series in a major upset. Bruce told Schaap he'd enjoyed the game. But in his memoir, Schaap said that, as far as he knew, Bruce never went to another.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, if "the establishment" decided you needed what we would now call "canceling," it meant you wouldn't get hired. And any place that would hire you might get closed down. It also meant that you could get arrested for using profanity onstage. That was the conservatives closing you down. The conservatives doing the canceling.

Bruce was convicted of obscenity in New York on November 4, 1964. He was sentenced to 4 months in a workhouse. He appealed, and was freed pending that appeal.

That appeal was never heard: On August 3, 1966, at age 40, he was found with a needle in his arm at his home in the Hollywood Hills. It was known that he had a drug problem, but this was a little too convenient for his fans. They came to believe that he was murdered.

In 1972, Julian Barry staged the play Lenny on Broadway. Cliff Gorman won a Tony Award as its star. In 1974, Bob Fosse, better known for his dance-filled musicals, directed a film version. Dustin Hoffman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 2003, Governor George Pataki of New York gave Bruce a posthumous pardon. In 2004, the cable-TV network Comedy Central aired a special on the 100 greatest standup comedians of all time. Bruce was ranked 3rd. Coming in 2nd was George Carlin, who had once been arrested along with Bruce. Carlin called him "a brilliant comedian, who influenced me as much as a man in my moral thinking and attitudes as he did as a comedian." Coming in 1st was Richard Pryor, who had once said that hearing Bruce for the first time "changed my life."

*

August 3, 1966 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 9-0 at the new Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim, and the 5th-oldest stadium in MLB). Mel Stottlemyre pitched a 2-hit shutout, and helped his own cause with a solo home run and an RBI sacrifice fly. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 11-1 at Shea Stadium. Tom Haller hit 2 home runs. Jim Ray Hart hit a home run. Willie Mays went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 7-6 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Veale outpitched Don Sutton. Roberto Clemente hit a home run. 

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Frank Robinson and Boog Powell each hit 2 home runs for the O's, but it wasn't enough.

* A doubleheader was split at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Detroit Tigers won the opener, 3-1. Al Kaline went 0-for-3 with a walk. He then got the nightcap off, and the Chicago White Sox won it, 6-3.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ken Johnson pitched a 5-hit shutout. Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Joe Torre went 1-for-4. Ernie Banks went 1-for-3.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Carl Yastrzemski hit a home run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Pete Rose drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 16th inning.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics, 4-3 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

June 9, 1980: Richard Pryor Sets Himself On Fire

June 9, 1980: Richard Pryor, perhaps the funniest man in the world, does something that isn't funny at all. Oh, sure, there would be jokes about it, including his own. But it wasn't funny.

He gets high on cocaine, and sets himself on fire.

Somehow, he survives.

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was born on December 1, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois. His father was a boxer and a pimp. His mother was a prostitute. Her mother ran the brothel where she worked. His mother abandoned the family when he was 10. His grandmother raised him, and she was violently abusive. He was expelled from school at age 14, and, by his own admission, did not know how to read. These are not insults or generalizations: He joked about them in his act.

In 1958, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. While serving in West Germany -- as was Elvis Presley at the time, but there's no evidence that the two men ever met, then or ever -- he and some other black soldiers were angry that a white soldier was overly amused at the racially charged scenes of the film Imitation of Life. He and the other black soldiers beat and stabbed him, although he survived. As a result, Pryor spent most of his time in the Army in the stockade, and received a dishonorable discharge.

By 1963, he was appearing in New York comedy clubs, with material far less controversial than he would later produce. This would also be the case with his contemporaries, Bill Cosby (black) and George Carlin (white). By 1966, he was appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

In 1967, knowing he still couldn't do so on TV, but could in his nightclub act, he began using profanity, and using "the N-word." He even put it in the title of 3 comedy albums: That (N-word)'s Crazy in 1974 (winner of the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album the next year), Bicentennial (N-word) in 1976, and Super(N-word) in 1982. His best album title was the 1975 follow-up to That (N-word)'s Crazy: Is It Something I Said?

He also went into acting, and worked with Mel Brooks on the screenplay for the Western parody Blazing Saddles. Pryor was supposed to play the lead, Sheriff Bart. But his cocaine habit was out of control at the time, and he became unreliable: The insurance company for the film wouldn't insure him. So it became a starmaking role for Cleavon Little.

Among the actors in Blazing Saddles was Gene Wilder. He and Pryor would make 4 films together: Silver Streak in 1976, Stir Crazy in 1980, See No Evil, Hear No Evil in 1989, and Another You in 1991. For Stir Crazy, directed by (but not starring) Sidney Poitier, he became the 1st black actor to be paid $1 million for a single film.

But he couldn't stop the coke. He already had a heart attack in 1977, only 36 years old. The drug use was one cause. Somehow, he was a functioning performer -- until the night that he wasn't. Late in the evening of June 9, 1980, on a freebasing binge at his home in Los Angeles, he poured 151-proof rum (that's 75.5 percent alcohol) all over himself, and lit himself on fire.

While ablaze, he ran down Parthenia Street, until being subdued by police. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for second- and third-degree burns covering more than half of his body. He spent 6 weeks in recovery at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Los Angeles.

In his 1982 concert film Richard Pryor: Live On the Sunset Strip, he said, "I'll tell you one thing: When that fire hits your ass, that will sober your ass up quick! I was standing there, on fire, and something said, 'Why, that's a pretty blue. You know what? That looks like fire!'"

He continued: "Fire is inspirational. They should use it in the Olympics, 'cause I did the 100-yard dash in 4.3. You know something I found out? When you're on fire and running down the street, people will get out of your way. Except for one old drunk, he’s going, 'Can I get a light? How about it? Just a little off the sleeve. Okay?'"

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "black humor."

He was married 6 times, to 5 different women. This does not include his affairs with actresses Pam Grier, who helped him to beat his drug addiction and taught him to read, and Margot Kidder. He had 7 children, each with a different woman. One of them, Rain Pryor, became an actress. In 2004, a poll chose him as the greatest standup comedian of all time. Finishing 2nd was George Carlin.

Despite a 2019 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History that depicted them opposing each other, they were friends and mutual admirers (who probably used cocaine together before they beat their respective addictions, and both made a lot of jokes about drugs), and even appeared together on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1982. The episode turned into a "battle royale," with "Nice" Peter Shukoff playing Carlin; rapper Valin Zamarron, a.k.a. ZEALE, playing Pryor; comedian Gary Anthony Williams playing Bill Cosby; comedian Jackie Tohn playing Joan Rivers; and "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist playing Robin Williams.

In 1986, Richard was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In 1990, he had a 2nd heart attack while on tour in in Australia. The combination of MS and heart trouble left him in a wheelchair for the last few years of his life. He had another heart attack in Los Angeles on December 10, 2005, and died, at the age of 65. A forensic pathologist determined that his heart disease was caused by drugs -- not cocaine, but tobacco. His widow, Jennifer, said, "At the end, there was a smile on his face."

*

June 9, 1980 was a Monday. Basketball player Udonis Haslem, who helped the Miami Heat win 3 NBA Championships, was born on that day.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 8-7 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). This was a wild one. The Angels led 4-0 after 6 innings, but the Yankees scored 4 in the 7th and 2 in the 8th to take a 6-4 lead. But the Angels took a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the 8th. Reggie Jackson hit a home run to tie it in the 9th, and Bob Watson singled home the winning run in the 10th, to make a winning pitcher of Goose Gossage.

Mike Griffin had started for the Yankees. Joe Lefebvre had also homered for them. Carney Lansford homered for the Angels, and Rod Carew went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-5. Pete Rose went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. George Hendrick won it with a home run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The San Diego Padres and the Cincinnati Reds were tied 6-6, after 11 innings at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, when the umpires called the game due to rain. The Reds scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th, to no avail.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Eddie Murray went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 2-for-3 with a walk, and, not yet the great base thief, was picked off 1st base.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Juan Beníquez won it with a home run in the bottom of the 13th. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-6 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals were rained out at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on June 11. The Royals won the opener, 5-0. Dennis Leonard pitched a 2-hit shutout. The Indians won the nightcap, 8-5. George Brett did not play in either game, but would bat .390 to help the Royals win their 1st Pennant.

* The New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers were rained out at Shea Stadium. The game was made up on the off-day of June 12. The Mets won, 6-5, after they trailed 5-0 after 3 innings. The Dodgers got 3 hits each from Steve Garvey and Dusty Baker, and Baker hit a home run. Elliott Maddox singled home the winning run.

* And the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Montreal Expos and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.

June 4, 1963: “The Nutty Professor” Premieres

Jerry Lewis as Dr. Julius Kelp

June 4, 1963: The Nutty Professor premieres. Not to be confused with the 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor, this film is also a screwball comedy, Jerry Lewis' take on the story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The top of the film's poster showed Lewis, as Dr. Julius Kelp, mixing the chemicals that would change him, and asked, "What does he become? What kind of monster?" The bottom of the poster shows a shadow stalking Stella Stevens as Stella Purdy, and makes her look interested in him, and says, "Well, any scientist who makes a girl like this can't be all mad."

Julius is a college chemistry professor (the movie was filmed at Arizona State University), and a stereotypical nerd: He's funny-looking, he has a funny voice, his lab coat has a front pocket full of pens, he's socially awkward, he's accident-prone, and he's physically weak. He's tired of being bullied. So he plays to his strength, science, and when he drinks the formula he's made, he turns into a handsome, suave, confident man. He names himself Buddy Love.

Jerry Lewis as Buddy Love.

Note the Dean Martin-like hair.

As Buddy, he pursues Stella, one of his students -- thus avoiding what would now be considered a conflict of interest. At a students' hangout, he sings and plays piano, and becomes popular. But Buddy is a narcissist, mean and violent to those he considers his inferiors. And the formula starts to wear off at inopportune times: For example, Buddy sings beautifully, and then Julius' nasal whine breaks through, and he knows he has to flee the scene, or else be exposed.

Julius knows that, as Buddy, he becomes a bad person, but he's addicted to the attention he gets. Finally, while performing at the students' annual dance, the formula slowly wears off, and he can't hide it any longer. He admits his mistakes, and that he has to learn to like himself as he is, and everyone else has to like themselves as they are. Stella tells him she prefers his normal self, and kisses him.

For 10 years, 1946 to 1956, Lewis had teamed in a comedy duo with singer Dean Martin, a man nicknamed "The King of Cool" after his death. But the act broke up because Lewis wanted to do other things. Some people saw the Buddy Love character as a slap at Martin. Even after Frank Sinatra, a friend of both men, got them to reconcile in 1976, Lewis still faced charges that Buddy was based on Dino.

Instead, he insisted the character was based on every obnoxious, self-important, hateful hipster he ever knew, and wished that, instead of simply obnoxious, he'd made the character genuinely evil. As Lewis grew older, he began to care less about his image as a good guy who raised millions for charity, and the dark side of his personality became less a well-kept secret, and more obvious, and people began to see that Buddy Love was the real Jerry Lewis. 

Eddie Murphy remade The Nutty Professor in 1996, as a comedy, though a considerably more lowbrow one, with a sequel in 2000. He altered the good guy's name to Sherman Klump, but kept the bad guy's name as Buddy Love.

Lewis was an executive producer for Murphy's versions, but later expressed regret: "I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around, and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it."

*

June 4, 1963 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that Hockey Hall of Fame goaltenders Jacques Plante and Gump Worsley were traded for each other. I have a separate entry for that event.

All-Pro offensive tackle Jim Lachey and NBA All-Star Xavier McDaniel were born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Steve Barber -- his arm apparently neither sore nor a little stiff -- outpitched Ralph Terry. John "Boog" Powell hit a home run. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. Mickey Mantle had a home run and a single; otherwise, the Yankees got just 3 hits.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington. Tom Cheney pitched a 5-hit shutout to outpitch Earl Wilson. The only run of the game came on a home run by Don Lock in the bottom of the 6th. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 3-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Willie Mays went 1-for-4. Willie McCovey appeared as a pinch-hitter, and struck out.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Jim Perry pitched a 4-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Colt .45s, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. This was a no-frills temporary facility to be used by the expansion franchise in the 1962, '63 and '64 seasons, after which they moved to the Astrodome for the 1965 season, changing their name to the Houston Astros.

Being completely open to the elements, Colt Stadium had problems with heat, mosquitoes, and even snakes, which became a bigger problem when the Astros kept using it as a practice facility after the Astrodome opened, until it was finally demolished in 1971. Sandy Koufax, who did not appear in this game, remarked on the size of the mosquitoes, calling them "twin-engine jobs."

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing while waiting for their stadium in Anaheim to be built. Dan Osinski pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Gary Peters. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the 2nd, when Lee Thomas singled Félix Torres home.

* The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The Reds swept, 7-5 and 10-5. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs, 2 walks, and 3 RBIs, rookie Pete Rose went 5-for-9 with a walk, and Roberto Clemente went 2-for-8.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.

 

 

May 28, 1998: The Death of Phil Hartman

Hartman as Bill McNeal on NewsRadio

May 28, 1998: Phil Hartman is shot and killed by his wife, who then killed herself, at their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, California.

Philip Edward Hartmann (he later dropped the 2nd N) was born on September 24, 1948 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, also the birthplace of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and the adopted hometown of Alexander Graham Bell, the Scotsman credited with inventing the telephone. He grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and became a graphic artist. As with actors John Ritter and Tom Selleck, his 1st appearance on television was as one of the "bachelor" contestants on The Dating Game.

He joined the L.A.-based comedy troupe The Groundlings, where he became a close friend of Paul Reubens, who later developed the character of Pee-wee Herman. He got work as a voiceover artist for cartoons. In 1986, he was hired as a castmember of Saturday Night Live, where his best-known performance came that December 6: As President Ronald Reagan, showing that his friendly but out-of-it persona was a façade, and that the Iran-Contra scandal was actually masking a James Bond-style supervillain, trading money, armaments and illicit goods all over the world.

Hartman as Reagan on SNL

Also among Hartman's fictional characters were the Frankenstein monster, the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer; and Gene, who would host various shows as "Fishing with the Anal-Retentive Sportsman," "Cooking with the Anal-Retentive Chef," "Home Improvement with the Anal-Retentive Carpenter," and so on. His impressions included later First Lady Barbara Bush, later President Bill Clinton, singer Frank Sinatra, talk-show host Phil Donahue, film director Oliver Stone; and actors Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Michael Caine. He said his favorite character to do was Ed McMahon, alongside Dana Carvey's Johnny Carson.

Hartman as Clinton on SNL: "Ah feel yer pain."

Jan Hooks, who played First Lady Hillary Clinton, nicknamed Phil "Glue," because he held the cast together. She particularly credited him with helping her overcome stage fright: Acting for movies and taped TV shows is one thing, but doing it in front of a live studio audience is another, especially when it's being broadcast live. Show creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels backed her opinion up: "He kind of held the show together. He gave to everybody and demanded very little. He was very low-maintenance."

By the 1993-94 season, he was the senior castmember. He said he felt "like an athlete who's watched all his World Series teammates get traded off into other directions... It was hard to watch them leave, because I sort of felt we were all part of the team that saved the show."

By this point, he was back doing cartoon voiceovers, playing actor Troy McClure and various other characters for The Simpsons. In 1995, he joined the cast of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, playing anchor Bill McNeal, occupying much the same role and character as Ted Knight did on The Mary Tyler Moore Show a generation earlier. He was beloved by a new group of castmates.

In 1987, Phil married Brynn Omdahl. It was his 3rd marriage, and they had 2 children. He tried to get her TV and movie parts, but she proved unreliable due to drug use. And she was incredibly jealous, having sent threatening letters to both Hooks, whom she considered married to Phil "on some other level," and his 2nd ex-wife, Lisa Strain.

By 1998, she had been taking the antidepressant Zoloft, and things seemed to be improving. But on May 27, she had dinner with a friend at an Italian restaurant, and they had drinks. Her postmortem toxicology report would also find cocaine in her system. This combined with her medication to produce a bad reaction, and when she got home, she and Phil had a big argument. He went to bed. At around 3:00 AM on May 28, she shot him 3 times.

She then drove to a the house of a friend, Ron Douglas (no relation to Kirk), leaving the children at home. She confessed to Douglas, who didn't believe her. She drove him back to the house, and showed him Phil's body. Douglas called 9-1-1, and Brynn locked herself in the bathroom. The police arrived, and got the children out of the house. Then she shot herself, having just turned 40.

The Simpsons retired all of his characters. So did NewsRadio, whose 1998-99 season premiere showed the characters reflecting on McNeal's recent death. He was succeeded on the show by his close friend and former SNL castmate, Jon Lovitz. But his absence hurt the show, and it only lasted 1 more season. Brynn's sister and her husband raised the Hartman children.

In a tragic irony: Reagan, Mrs. Bush, Clinton, Donahue, Stone, Heston, Caine, McMahon and Kirk Douglas were all older than Hartman; and all outlived him, some by many years. Sinatra, 32 years older, died only 2 weeks before him. To make matters worse, Reagan had survived being shot, and Hartman played Heston mainly as the older version, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.

*

May 28, 1998 was a Thursday. Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were in progress, but no games were played on this day. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals was held at the Marine Midland Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo, and the Washington Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3. Peter Bondra scored the winning goal, 9:37 into overtime.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Yankee Stadium. David Wells was the winning pitcher, while Tim Wakefield and his knuckleball didn't get out of the 4th inning. Darryl Strawberry and Jorge Posada hit home runs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-5 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. The Braves blew a 4-1 lead as the Expos scored 2 runs in the 7th inning, 2 more in the 8th, and 4 in the 9th. The winning pitcher was Maddux -- not Greg of the Braves, but his brother Mike Maddux of the Expos. Greg would win 355 games in the major leagues, the most of any pitcher whose career began after 1942; Mike, just 39.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and Glenallen Hill hit home runs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-7 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers scored 5 runs in the 9th inning to send the game to extra innings, but their closer, Todd Jones, melted down in the top of the 10th, walking 5 batters, including back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Chad Kreuter and Ray Durham.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bobby Abreu hit 2 home runs. Sammy Sosa, on his way to 66 on the season, did not hit a home run. Mark Grace did, part of a 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs day. But it was his error in the top of the 9th that gave the Phils the winning run.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Mark McGwire went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, but did not hit a home run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-7 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds appeared as a pinch-hitter before going into left field, and did not have an official at-bat. However, he had already drawn a walk in the 8th, helping the Giants to close the gap to 7-5.

The expansion D-backs made it 8-5 in the top of the 9th. The Giants made it 8-6 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, but the D-backs' Gregg Olson walked J.T. Snow to load the bases with Bonds coming up. Arizona manager Buck Showalter made a very gutsy move: He ordered Bonds walked intentionally. With the bases loaded, forcing in a run, and making it 8-7. He decided he'd rather face Brent Mayne with the bases loaded and a 1-run lead than Bonds with the bases loaded and a 2-run lead.

And remember: This was early in the season when people went nuts over McGwire's 70 homers and Sosa's 66. It is generally believed that Bonds, jealous for attention, didn't start using steroids until after this season, and hadn't yet become the man capable of hitting 73 home runs in 2001.

The strategy worked: Mayne gave the ball a ride to deep right field, but Brent Brede caught it, and the Diamondbacks won.

* And the New York Mets, the Anaheim Angels, the Florida Marlins, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the Oakland Athletics, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres, were not scheduled.

May 27, 1972: George Carlin Says Seven Words

Warning: If naughty language offends you, don't read this. And ask yourself why the naughty language offends you.

May 27, 1972: Comedian George Carlin gives a performance at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, outside Los Angeles. It is recorded for the album Class Clown, which is released on September 29.

In the 1960s, Carlin specialized in characters and voices, including Al Sleet the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman. He would drop jokes about drugs, including, "This (weather system) is known as a Canadian Low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican High."

But "The Sixties," as a cultural phenomenon, had a big effect on him. Lenny Bruce, who died of a drug overdose (which may not have been self-inflicted) in 1966, had occasionally been arrested for using profanity onstage -- and Carlin had once been arrested along with him. Muhammad Ali was stripped of the Heavyweight Championship of the World because he refused to accept being drafted, and used his religion as his reason.

The one time The Beatles had to apologize for something they did had nothing to do with opposition to the Vietnam War: It was when John Lennon said the band was "more popular than Jesus now." And he was right. In the press conference in which he apologized, he told the truth again: "If I had said that television was more popular than Jesus, I might have gotten away with it." And Jim Morrison of The Doors had been arrested on a charge of exposing himself on stage.

So Carlin changed his act. He switched from suits to casual clothes, grew his hair long, grew a beard, and joked about touchy subjects, like war, drugs, sex and religion -- and about subjects that shouldn't have been touchy, like clothes, hair and language.

In his last appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, in 1971 -- it was the show that was about to be canceled, not Carlin himself -- he went into a long poem about long hair, and said, "So, be like a bear. Be fair with your hair. Show it you care. Wear it to there. Or to there. Or to there, if you dare!" But, on live national television, he wasn't yet willing to say, "Wear your hair to your derriere!" 

The next year, he was ready to go all the way -- on record and onstage, if not on TV. One of the tracks on the Class Clown album was titled "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." Here is how George started the bit:

I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I think is important. They're my work, they're my play, they're my passion.

Words are all we have, really. We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. Then, we assign a word to a thought, and we're stuck with that word for that thought, so be careful with words.

I like to think that the same words that hurt can heal. It is a matter of how you pick them.

There are some people that are not into all the words. There are some that would have you not use certain words. There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are 7
of them you can't say on television. What a ratio that is: 399,993 to 7. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you 7: Bad Words.

That's what they told us they were, remember? "That's a bad word!" No bad words, bad thoughts, bad intentions, and words.

You know the 7, don't you, that you can't say on television? "Shit," "Piss," "Fuck," "Cunt," "Cocksucker," "Motherfucker," and "Tits." Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that'll infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war: "Shit," "Piss," "Fuck," "Cunt," "Cocksucker," "Motherfucker," and "Tits." 

He would vary the bit over the years. Someone pointed out that "Motherfucker" was a derivative of "Fuck," so it should be dropped, in favor of another word. At first, Carlin decided that this fan was right. But after a while, he changed his mind -- not because he now thought the fan was wrong, but because he'd been doing the bit the same way for so long, that he just decided his original Seven Words simply had too good a rhythm to change. Even a comic as foul-mouthed as George Carlin understood the importance of timing.

Of course, the order had nothing to do with which of them was more offensive. I was a kid in the 1970s, and "shit" was the 1st curse-word I knew about, and "fuck" was the 2nd. In the 1st grade, in 1976, another kid in a crowded cafeteria showed me the word "shit" on a piece of paper, and asked me to say it out loud. Being 6 years old, and not knowing any better, I figured "out loud" meant, "really loud." So I said it, really loud. And about 100 people gasped. Oddly, I didn't get in trouble. Today, if a 6-year-old kid shouted the word "Shit!" in a crowded cafeteria, maybe nobody would bat an eye.

Carlin knew what the top two (or bottom two) words were, and he pointed out that they referred to, respectively, the need to get waste product out of the human body, and the desire to have sex in order to reproduce, even if that's not what you're thinking about when you're thinking about sex. He said, "Two of the most powerful and unstoppable forces in the world, and we're not allowed to talk about them? Fuck that shit!"

An aside: When I first got interested in English soccer, I got into the slang used in England's pop culture, and I noticed something: They use "bollocks," meaning testicles, the way we use "shit": Something that's bad is shit or bollocks, but something good can be "the shit" or "the bollocks." Going back to Carlin, that's weird, because "balls" was not one of his original Seven Words.

Nor was any other word we use for that part of the male anatomy: Stones, onions, etc. Nor was any word we use instead of penis: Dick, cock, dong, etc. Nor was "pussy" for vagina -- but "cunt" was, and is. A few years ago, because of its use to insult women, a female writer for The New York Times Magazine wrote an article on the word "cunt," without using it once, titling the article "The Worst Word in the English Language." She contended it was even worse than the word starting with N that is used to insult black people, and that it should never be used. Ever.

In America, sure: You can't use it anymore, not even to insult a man: "See that guy who drives a gas-guzzling SUV and complains about high gas prices? He's the reason they're so high. He's a cunt!" But in Britain, they use it all the time. In his memoir Fever Pitch, novelist Nick Hornby, commenting on the abuse of players in soccer games, was once relieved to realize that a fan had called a black player "merely a cunt, not a black cunt."

Getting back to body parts: There are a lot of euphemisms for "breasts." When the game show Match Game was restarted in 1973, with edgier clues than in its 1962-69 version, the words you could use instead of "breasts" was "bust" and "bosoms." They also allowed a variation on "bosoms": "Bazooms." (Which may have led to another, that I heard Markie Post use on Night Court in the 1980s: "Zoomers.")

But you couldn't use "tits." Carlin liked to say, "'Tits' doesn't even belong on the list." On a 1974 installment of Match Game, "Boobs" was used as an answer, and everybody was shocked. Carlin was stunned: He couldn't understand why "boobs" was allowed on TV, and "tits" wasn't. Why that choice? Why is one okay to use, and not the other? Why not the other way around?

By 1978, the use of "boobs" on Match Game was so common, actress Marcia Wallace, a semi-regular on the show's panel, was able to say, "I have found, on this wonderful show, that if you're stuck for an answer, it's either 'boobs,' or 'Howard Cosell.'"

On a 1980 installment of that show, Betty White pointed out that the sound of the letter K is inherently funny. Carlin caught onto this at least as far back as that 1972 album: "And those Ks, those are aggressive sounds. They just jump out at you, like 'coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer. CoCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer.' It's like an assault on you."

Years later, he would joke about the sounds of names. For example, we admire the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. He was German, but his ancestry, and therefore his surname, were Dutch. Carlin said, "He wouldn't be nearly so famous if his name was Joey Cocksucker, would he?" But, being German, it would have been "Josef Cachsucher."

People who complain about objectionable material on TV and in movies, especially when seen by children, usually cite "sex and violence" -- almost always, in that order. In other words, they object to depictions of sex, or even discussions of sex, more than they do to depictions of violence.

On the album, Carlin said, "People much wiser than I am said, 'I'd rather have my son watch a film with 2 people making love than 2 people trying to kill one another.' I, of course, can agree. It is a great sentence. I wish I knew who said it first."

He went on to talk about words that are okay in some circumstances, but not in others. Like the aforementioned "balls." And "ass": Use it for "donkey," or for stubborn behavior, as in, "You're acting like an ass!" But not for somebody's rear end. Carlin also cited, "You can prick your finger, but don't finger your prick! No, no!"

Which brings me back to Carlin's refusal in 1971 to use "derriere," a French word for "rear end." By 1973, that word was considered safe to use on TV. By 1974, TV shows were using the Yiddish word "tuchis," and its American variations, "tush" and "tushy." By 1978, "butt" was okay.

As far back as a 1978 Christmas-themed episode of M*A*S*H, Father Francis Mulcahy (played by William Christopher) upbraided Captain Ben "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda) not to "speak with the jawbone of an ass," a reference to the Biblical figure Samson using such a jawbone to kill his enemies. 

And there was a 1976 episode when Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan) was wounded in the rear end by sniper fire, but the word "ass" was not used there: You couldn't. Over the course of that show's 11 seasons, they used the words "bucket," "can," "derriere," "rear," "tush," "tushy," "tuchis," "butt," "kiester," "the back of my front" and "the permanent vertical smile" -- but not "ass."

There was an early episode where Hawkeye wondered why some things about the Korean War were getting to him, and others weren't, and Potter's predecessor as the unit's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), said, "Because you're a doctor."

Hawkeye: "What the hell does that mean?" (That expression was allowed.)

Henry: "I don't know. If I knew that, I'd be at the Mayo Clinic. Does this place look like the Mayo Clinic?"

If M*A*S*H were rebooted, and it were on HBO or some other "premium channel," they might do that scene again, but either "this place" or "the Mayo Clinic" would have had the word "fucking" inserted.

In a 1979 episode, and again in the show's finale in 1983, Alda got away with calling somebody, "You son of a bitch!" And was called that by a General earlier in 1983. I can't think of an earlier use of that expression on TV.

In the pilot episode of The Golden Girls in 1985, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) used the word "pee." Since then, that word has been used many, many times. But on her first appearance on Match Game, in 1973, writer and comedian Fannie Flagg used "pee," and was warned by show creator and executive producer Mark Goodson that if she ever used the word again, she would never appear on the show again. She never used it again, and the word accepted on the show was "tinkle."

In a 1994 episode of Mad About You, Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser) said to his cousin, Ira (John Pankow), "You piss people off." As far as I know, this was the first time the word "piss" was used uncensored on prime-time TV, but it was not used as a euphemism for urination. Mad About You was one of many shows to use "ass" for "rear end" once the rules were somewhat relaxed.

In 1990, in the pilot episode of the legal drama The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, series star Sharon Gless considered breast augmentation surgery, saying, "I wonder if I should get my tits done." So, we were down to six words. That show was on CBS, airing at 10:00 PM, so the standards were slightly relaxed. This was also true for a later CBS show, the medical drama Chicago Hope: In 1999, Dr. Jack McNeil (Mark Harmon) used "shit," uncensored. Now, we were down to five.

You still can't say, "fuck" or, "motherfucker" on prime-time TV, which is why, when the Die Hard movies are shown, Bruce Willis' catchphrase is limited to, "Yippie-ki-yay!"

In addition, in TV broadcasts where one of the Classic Seven Words is used, they begin by issuing a warning about the language, and saying, "Viewer discretion is advised."

Back to 1972: On July 21, Carlin performed "Seven Words" at Summerfest in Milwaukee, and was arrested. The case was dismissed in December, when the judge declared that the language was indecent, but that Carlin had the freedom to say it, as long as he caused no disturbance.

In 2004, the cable network Comedy Central conducted a fan poll to name the greatest comedians of all time. Carlin came in 2nd, behind Richard Pryor, who also used words, especially racially-charged ones, to shock people. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine conducted a similar poll, which also ranked Pryor 1st and Carlin 2nd.

Despite a 2019 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History that depicted them opposing each other, they were friends and mutual admirers (who probably used cocaine together before they beat their respective addictions, and both made a lot of jokes about drugs), and even appeared together on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1982.

The ERB episode turned into a "battle royale," with "Nice" Peter Shukoff playing Carlin; rapper Valin Zamarron, a.k.a. ZEALE, playing Pryor; comedian Gary Anthony Williams playing Bill Cosby; comedian Jackie Tohn playing Joan Rivers; and "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist playing Robin Williams.

Pryor died in 2005, Carlin in 2008.

*

May 27, 1972 was a Saturday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Joe Coleman Jr. outpitched Mel Stottlemyre Sr. Al Kaline left the game in the 1st inning due to an injury.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Willie Mays, traded to the Mets a few days earlier, did not play. Which left him better off than Lou Brock and Joe Torre, who both went 0-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski did not play, but Tommy Harper, better known for his speed, hit a home run.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Terry Crowley hit a home run, but Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-5. Willie Stargell appeared as a pinch-hitter, and struck out. For the Phillies, Willie Montañez hit a home run, and Don Money drove in the winning run with a groundout in the top of the 12th inning.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-9 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) Hank Aaron went 0-for-2, but he did draw 3 walks. The Braves did get a home run, from Marty Perez. The Giants got homers from Dave Kingman, Tito Fuentes and Ed Goodson. Sam McDowell outpitched Phil Niekro.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 9-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Jim McGlothlin was the winning pitcher, and helped his own cause with a home run. Joe Morgan also supported him with a homer, Johnny Bench went 3-for-3 with a walk, and Pete Rose went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Texas Rangers, from 1961 to 1971 known as the "new" Washington Senators, beat the Minnesota Twins, from 1901 to 1960 known as the "old" Washington Senators, 16-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-2, and Rod Carew went 0-for-2, before each had to leave the game due to an injury.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 7-3 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.)

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. Mike Andrews, later to become a controversial figure in A's history, hit a home run off Catfish Hunter, and Dick Allen had an RBI single. But Dave Duncan hit a home run off Stan Bahnsen, Bert Campaneris hit one off a rookie named Rich Gossage, and Reggie Jackson went 3-for-4, including 2 doubles, 1 of them for an RBI.