Conrad will be remembered by different ages of people for different roles.
Some might remember him from his 70s tv show "Baa Baa Black Sheep", others for being the insanely competitive captain on "Battle of the Network Stars" and others for the Eveready Battery commercials where Conrad snarled "I dare you to knock this battery off my shoulder".
However, to me and so many others, Bob Conrad is always going to be James West of "The Wild Wild West" from 1965-1970 on CBS.
WWW was canceled before I turned two, so my fanatical fandom was right after it hit syndication and WWW along with Batman and Star Trek were the three standards of mine as a small only child (at that time).
I've written about the Wild Wild West before in 2012, I've written about Adam West and Leonard Nimoy's passings, so the passing of Robert Conrad completes my early 70s childhood television heroes and with the passing of Glen Campbell, the stars of all the shows that I enjoyed most from that time have passed away.
WWW wasn't always in syndication, but when it was I was usually around watching it.
I remember running home from school to watch it at my grandmother's house, I remember when TNT aired it for a while in the mid-90s and the network FETV currently has it on its station in the afternoon with two episodes.
Robert Conrad's James West ranks near the top of my favorite television characters, but I'm not sure he would have always been a blast to be around.
Conrad was a short person with an attitude that comes out often, most notably from his times on Battle of the Network Stars, and could be seen to have had a bit of a Napoleonic complex.
However, as I age, I'm starting to think unlike West and Nimoy that I might not have been a fan of Robert Conrad as much as I was a fan of "James West".
I didn't go out of my way to find or watch Conrad's other roles and I don't remember watching "Baa Baa Black Sheep", which was his starring television role that was the most successful after WWW, so maybe that indeed was the case.
I saw Conrad in person a few years back when I took Rachel to meet Shirley Jones.
The line for him was long and I wasn't quite up for waiting in the line after working all night, but you could tell that he wasn't in good health.
Conrad seemed in be in a lot of pain (Conrad was convicted of drunk driving in an accident in 2003 that injured him, the other driver passed away two years later, and left Conrad with significant nerve damage that left him partially paralyzed on his right side) and his signature was reported to be not very legible as it was very difficult for Conrad to write.
I've wondered about whether I should have stood in the line that day and to my surprise, I'm OK with that decision.
I'm not sure that I would have wanted to meet him when he was hurting and likely cranky from flying across the country and churning out autographs.
When you watch the clip below from that day, I think it was the right call for me!
Robert Conrad was a part of my youth and now I'm an aging middle termer looking back as the stars of my childhood pass away.
There is one advantage that the stars of television and film have over those of athletics and politics after they step off the stage- television and films that are important to people will never age.
And for giving me James West and the Wild Wild West and it being forever young, I'd like to say-
Thanks, Bob and I promise I won't even try to knock that battery off your shoulder.
No comments:
Post a Comment