The Passing Of The Torch

Greetings, sportsfans! Bumpers here. Whoa! What a weekend! As you all know, my big pool party was this past Saturday, and a wild time was had by all. I woke up Sunday morning with my shoes on the wrong feet, Daisy Fuentes’ driver’s license in my wallet and a different haircut. I have no idea how any of those things happened, but I do know it was a good time.

It was quite a weekend in the NBA as well. The Sacramento Kings stunned the Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves shocked the TrailBlazers. But the really special event occurred in that Minnesota / Portland game when European star Arvydas Sabonis passed the torch of serviceable foreign center to the rangy Slovenian, Radoslav Nesterovic. And that got me to thinking. I’ve had the good pleasure of witnessing many torch passings in my day, and a few come to mind now.

k.d. lang to Melissa Etheridge – For years, k.d. was the only girl-loving girl playing packed coffee bars on the folk rock circuit. But on March 12, 1997 during a Lilith Fair concert in Seattle, Melissa grabbed the torch from k.d. and gently rocked a mass of butch followers with her harmonious guitar strumming and wild blond hair. Man, chick rock gets me sweaty.

Nick Nolte to Gary Busey – In the ‘80s, when Hollywood needed an angry blond guy with a gravelly voice, they called up Nick Nolte. But after Busey’s brilliant performance as the cunning Angelo Pappas in Point Break, many Hollywood insiders felt the torch had officially been passed. Although Leonard Maltin staunchly argued there was no such torch to begin with.

Warren Littlefield to Garth Ancier – As the head of programming for NBC, Littlefield set the bar high when it came to unfunny comedy with brilliant programming like Suddenly Susan, The Single Guy and Union Square. After receiving the torch from Littlefield in 1999, Ancier certainly had his work cut out for him. But by roaring out of the gate with edgy fare such as The Mike O’Malley Show, Battery Park and God, the Devil and Bob, Ancier assured fans that NBC would be boring them with half-rate comedies for years to come.

And let’s not forget the time that I passed the torch to Rod Stewart in the early ‘70s. But that’s a sexy story for another time.

I’m winkin’ at ya, and thinkin’ of ya.
The Showman