KILL YOUR ENTHUSIASM (6)
By:
October 17, 2022
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of favorite killed-off TV characters. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
PHIL HARTMAN | VARIOUS
Phil Hartman’s death has stuck with me since the morning it was breaking news. It’s in the category of “I remember where I was when I learned it” (in the living room, on the couch, watching TV), joining the company of JFK, John Lennon, and Jim Henson. What makes his death stick is not my attachment to him, though, but my reaction, because that has not gone away: an uncomfortable mix of horror and guilty voyeurism.
Shot dead in his sleep? By his wife? How could I not imagine a large bedroom, with a large bed, and a body sprawled across it? More questions followed: What pushed her to this? She had a history of addiction and violence. What made this evening different? What happened before he fell asleep? Had they argued? Did he trust her, or did he succumb to exhaustion? What happened to their children? None of this was my business. None of this was the business of anyone who did not know them. And yet there we were, in a communal tabloid moment, culminating in her suicide and then… more questions.
It had staying power. His murder occurred between the fourth and fifth seasons of the endearingly goofy NewsRadio. As co-anchor Bill McNeal he provided the same bombastic gravitas he brought to Troy McClure, Springfield’s TV pitchman in The Simpsons, and a carousel of characters on Saturday Night Live. McClure was embroidery on a greater tapestry; the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer and other SNL characters were history, but McNeal was as front and center to NewsRadio as the broadcast booth on the set. His self-important blowhard (is that redundant?) served as ballast to the quirkiness of the rest of the newsroom. When the show returned, grief was palpable and real, as the cast confronted the absence of a solid, famously nice-guy colleague. The show used a heart attack to explain McNeal’s departure, but Hartman’s fate hung over the remainder of the run. I cannot watch earlier episodes now without awareness of what awaited.
KILL YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Max Alvarez on LANE PRYCE | Lynn Peril on PETE DUEL | Miranda Mellis on LISA KIMMEL FISHER | Trav SD on COL. HENRY BLAKE | Russ Hodge on DET. BOBBY SIMONE | Kathy Biehl on PHIL HARTMAN| Jack Silbert on MARTY FUNKHOUSER | Catherine Christman on MRS. LANDINGHAM | Kevin J. Walsh on YEOMAN JANICE RAND | Heather Quinlan on DERMOT MORGAN | Adam McGovern on LT. TASHA YAR | Nick Rumaczyk on BEN URICH | Josh Glenn on CHUCKLES THE CLOWN | Bart Beaty on COACH | Krista Margies Kunkle on JOYCE SUMMERS | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on DENNY DUQUETTE | Marc Weidenbaum on SGT. PHIL ESTERHAUS | Michael Campochiaro on GORDON CLARK | Fran Pado on EDITH BUNKER | Mark Kingwell on OMAR LITTLE | Bridget Bartolini on ALEX KAMAL | David Smay on VANESSA IVES | Tom Nealon on JOSS CARTER | Michele Carlo on FREDDIE PRINZE | Crockett Doob on AUNT LOUISE.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!