Losses

My brother David and I circa 1970

There have been some notable losses in the pantheon of entertaining greats recently; Betty White, Bob Saget and Dwayne Hickman. I never watched either of Bob Saget's television shows- Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos. At the time I was enmeshed with small children and didn't need more cultural fare that spoke to the perils, pleasures and inanities of family life. But Dwayne Hickman made a huge impression on this child of the 60's. When he broke the fourth wall in Dobie Gillis and spoke to the camera- in the presence of Rodin's "The Thinker", a statue I knew well- I thought the degree of sophistication unparalleled for the wink of the narrator sharing his day to day tribulations of his high school existence.

In that half hour I witnessed an alternate reality of non-conforming with the understanding that I too could go "off script" if needed. Rest in Peace Dwayne Hickman and thank you for taking us all inside Dobie's world of adolescent angst that you created with such humor and grace.