Boy, what a week.  First Ed McMahon passes away.  Then Farrah Fawcett.  And still then Michael Jackson.  As I reminisced about the passing of these entertainers, it struck me that there is an entire generation of 20-somethings in America who don't know how much influence these people had on the entertainment world.

One of my friends posted on his Facebook page that he thought it was sick that the media was playing up Jackson's death so much.  Like him or hate him, Jackson shaped an entire generation of pop music and entertainment from the late 1960's to the 1990's.  He became his own enemy, however.  Super-stardom must be a lonely life.

Who, of those of us old enough, can forget Farrah on Charlie's Angels?  She was only on the show for one season, but not too many people seem to know that.  They believe she was on the show for its entire duration.  That's how much influence she had.

And Ed McMahon?  As Conan O'Brien said, McMahon was the other half of the most famous television 2-shot in history.  McMahon and Carson were such great entertainers.  And they didn't need cue cards!  It all came straight off the top of their heads.  That's something that is unheard of in today's age of late night garbage.

Another friend of mine in his 20's didn't even know who Ed McMahon was!  Wow, I must be old.  I think I'll go home tonight and watch some of my Carson Tonight Show DVD box set and remember how much I appreciated my mother allowing me to stay up late enough to see their witty banter every now and then when I was a kid.