Fresno State's pitching coach should be a familiar name to Dodger fans.

http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10874562

Actually, I am pretty sure that stand up moment happened in 1988. It seems to add up. I think George wanting to know the scores was a product of his passion for the game itself, not as much the Dodgers.

The only other possibilities are 1977, 1978, or 1981.

The episode that forever made me a fan was with host Richard Pryor in Decemeber 1975. Pryor performed in sketches (Carlin did not appear in any sketches), most famously the word association skit with Chevy Chase and a Samurai sketch with John Belushi.

Carlin most famous routine is among the topics in this interview on Fresh Air that was recorded in 2004.

http://tinyurl.com/3zagxt

I remember George Carlin's entire story childhood baseball memories because he had an interview with Kiley and Booms (remember that show?) on Fox Sports Radio 8 years ago. That's my reference for my own anecdote in the last thread.

Jon: This man roughed up conventional wisdom in a way that was almost sweet, the way he brought you along for the ride.

True, well said.

Alex Belth and Scott Long are also coming to terms with his passing.

You "come to terms" with your daughter passing in a freak accident, not some comedian you've never met.

It wasn't until much later I got to hear his signature material on CDs: seven dirty words, baseball and football, and all the rest. He seemed more jovial then, and his voice wasn't even gravely yet. I'm glad I got to enjoy his work that spanned so many year.

Imagine. I'm 2 weeks away from boarding an airline flight to NY, and I'm thinking of his long, hilarious routine about the Airport. I will truly miss the genius of George Carlin.

People who go to Las Vegas, you've got to question their intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of moronic.

Thankfully his final HBO special this year "It's Bad for Ya" was a winner. He had some great bits about obsessive parenting that really hit home. Guy was really a genius.

--

Off topic, but both Eric Enders and myself are among many to have contributed to this list o' Westerns:
http://www.thecinematheque.com/00_top5_40_westerns.html

(I could probably pick 5 different films and be just as happy.)

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75a.phtml

My dad is crushed - Tim Russert and George Carlin in 2 weeks.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7163

What to say about Carlin? I remember he seemed more like my friends and I than Belushi, or Cosby, or anybody else. We laughed and riffed off his stuff for days.

And tough guy Walter Brennan as the head of the Clanton family.

1. My Darling Clementine
2. Red River
3. Unforgiven
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Ox Bow Incident

I don't know who that refers to at all.

That is one silly statement.

2. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, my favorite of the cavalry trilogy. Combined with Red River, this film gives Wayne a chance to develop his characters.

3. My Darling Clementine, Henry Fonda does a jig.

4. El Dorado, okay this was basically Rio Bravo with James Caan in the Ricky Nelson role, but I loved the interplay between Mitchum and Wayne.

5. The Man Who Shot Libery Valance, Wayne calls Jimmy Stewart pilgrim.

She was really cute in grease...

I'm probably one of the few people here who is so old that one of his all time favorite movies is still a western. :-) But my all time favorite, Shane, didn't make the cut.

I don't know how I could do a top 5. I always like challenges like that, I just put in what's in my head at the moment. I've recently seen a bunch of these and I was on a Ford kick for the past year. I will have to check out some that I haven't seen. Sometimes I just see what my Tivo's recorded and watch whatever it is, like The Professionals.

Aren't you missing an "only" in there?

But otherwise:

The Shootist
Stagecoach
Butch/Sundance
Fort Apache
My Darling Clementine

I haven't seen Fort Apache since I was a kid, so I don't know if I'd feel the same way today, but I might have watched it a dozen times back then.

Butch gets knocked down mainly because of those annoying ba-ba-ba-ba-ba singers.

8 - I appreciate the compliment on the one line. But I can come to terms with what I'm going to have for lunch today - I'm not sure that line is worth nitpicking.

He expanded upon what Bill Shaiken said in yesterday's LA Times.

Some others I love but was unable to find room for on my list are Bad Day at Black Rock, The Ox-Bow Incident, and The Shootist.

I need to watch My Darling Clementine again. I've only seen it once, a long time ago, and my reaction might be different now. At the time I thought it was the most visually stunning of Ford's films, but story-wise there's no there there.

The other names mentioned don't strike me as being worth sacrificing long term potential in exchange for short term need.

I have to admit I don't think I've seen "My Darling Clementine".

When you pull a gun, kill a man.

Red River
Lonely are the Brave
The Cowboys
The Searchers
Rio Bravo
Cat Ballou
Gunfight at the OK Corral
Broken Arrow
and I really liked the remake of 3:10 to Yuma from last year.

Shame on all of you.

Eric, yeah I really agree on your "Dances" take, the only other movie I liked Costner in was the one where he's an ex-ball player radio talkie that falls in with a widow. I'll definitely check out some of everybody's recommendations. I really need a new TV. :-)

Someone mentioned Outlaw Josie Wales. That one slipped my mind; it's great.

Also I forgot The Wild Bunch.

43 I hadn't thought of Bad Day at Black Rock as a Western because it's set in present day, as it were, but now that you mention it, it really does fit the mold in many other respects. Such a great script, regardless.

And of course, Blazing Saddles speaks for itself.

Just kidding

That music is the soundtrack to my life!

At least when I'm fleeing the law.

One of John Ford's better unheralded westerns is "Sgt. Rutledge," starring Jackie Robinson's UCLA teammate Woody Strode in the leading role.

I grew up watching a lot of westerns since my dad was obsessed with them. "The Searchers" was revered in our house, and when VCRs first came out I remember him spending like $75 on a videotape of it. (Yes, kids, VHS movies used to cost seventy-five bucks.) In fact, I was almost named Ethan instead of Eric but my mother nixed that at the last minute.

66
No, everything I did in sports was under the name of Go Deep and at 49 I don't think I'd be playing in a flag football league as much as I'd like to:)

http://tinyurl.com/524ooh

"So you're Jack Wilson."
"And what does that mean to you, Shane?'
"I've heard about you."
"And what have you heard, Shane?"
"I've heard that you're a low down Yankee liar."
"Prove it."

Let's just hope Quentin Tarantino doesn't read this thread.

Is that all you got?

But when I watched The Searchers, I just thought it was remarkably racist. I could see the appeal outside of that rather major issue, but I just didn't get how I was supposed to get past it. I never revisited it after my first viewing, though I've always suspected I misjudged it.

Eric, what year do you think the song "Black Cowboys" takes place in? What was the channel that showed a Western movie every day?

1. James Caan vs. Ricky Nelson
2. No forced relationship (Angie Dickinson)
3. I liked Dean Martin in his role as the drunk deputy but it just works better with Robert Mitchum as a drunk town marshall.

Now it must be said that the original idea behind Rio Bravo was to counter High Noon's theme of a town not willing to help their marshall (Gary Cooper) in his fight whereas Wayne's friend offers to help and gets killed in Rio Bravo. That element is completely gone in El Dorado.

My final reason on why El Dorado is better, there is a scene where Wayne and Mitchum and company are looking for the men who shot one of the sons of the family whose land the "bad guy" wants and the background music sounds like it is from a "Batman" episode.

The Left-Handed Gun
Hombre
Chato's Land
Valdez is Coming
Bite The Bullet
Hud
Destry Rides Again

No love for Dead Man? (as neo-Westerns go...)

Good questions both, and I have no idea. I've always pictured the song as taking place in the fifties, but I have no concrete reasons for believing that.

The racism of "The Searchers" is a topic that could be discussed endlessly. When I was in college and we watched it in film class, the first question the professor asked afterward was, "Do you think this film is racist, or is it a criticism of racism?" The answers were about evenly split but it seems to me that the obvious answer is "both." Really the only way one can draw the conclusion that the film is blatantly racist is if you believe the film is portraying its protagonist in a positive light. IMO the film's attitude toward the Wayne character is ambivalent at best, and by portraying him as such an oaf, Ford is condemning the character's views on race and his outlook on life in general.

On the other hand, even if you buy that theory, you must still deal with the racism of the scenes involving Look, the Native American wife, which are not so easily explained away.

little Dodger mention in a 1999 interview with The Onion:

O: Well, you more or less hate society anyway, don't you?

GC: Um, I'm very disrespectful of it, and I'm contemptuous of it, but I don't think hate is in me, although we use that word the same way we use love: "Oh, boy, I love ice cream and I hate the Dodgers." But it is a distaste, a contempt, a dissatisfaction, a disillusionment, and a lot of qualities and feelings that come together and appear as anger on stage. I don't experience them as anger; I experience them as a deep distaste.