Classic Rant #1,283 (September 5, 2014): Many Rivers To Cross

Yes, I am sad today. Sad about how Joan Rivers left this earth.

Although she brought smiles to millions, what happened to her isn't very funny.

She had some type of procedure in a doctor's office related to her vocal chords, she went into cardiac arrest, and certainly, precious time was lost because the office had no means to resuscitate her as a hospital would.

And for the past week, she has been in a vegetative state, and yes, it is a real mitzvah, or blessing, that she is gone. Her quality of life was minimal at this point, and she went quickly.

I feel for Rivers way more than I feel for what happened to Robin Williams.

No matter how gallant the news media made his suicide out to be, he offed himself, ridding himself of his problems, but simply putting them on other people's heads.

Rivers' demise was way different, and really, the only comparison between the two is that television made them both into superstars.

I remember Rivers on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

She was basically a housewife that told jokes, and she was funny as funny can be.

Along with the likes of Stiller and Meara and Alan King, Sullivan basically made their careers, and Rivers was certainly a special person, very talented, who used the Sullivan show as a springboard for even greater fame.

She had many, many ups and downs. She survived her husband's suicide, a long period where she was on the outs with her daughter Melissa, being virtually blacklisted by Johnny Carson, and changes in the entertainment climate that made her type of family-oriented comedy pretty much obsolete.

So she changed with the times, and she survived all of those turmoils with aplomb.

She was pretty much able to reinvent herself, and although I personally did not like her current persona--as a foul mouthed fashion police diva--she won fans of all generations with that very persona.

She, along with Don Rickles, are really the only inter-generational comedians we have, or had now that she is gone, loved by teens and people of her own age--in their 80s--alike.

There really isn't much more to say about Rivers. The funeral will be on Sunday, it will be a Jewish funeral, and you can bet that Hollywood and her people in her hometown of Larchmont will come together to remember one of the most talented people in show business.

In her statement about her mother's death, Melissa said something to the effect that while her mother expected mourning, she did not want it to be long winded, and she wanted everyone to laugh again.

You can just bet that at the funeral, there will be as many laughs as there will be tears.

Goodbye, Joan Rivers, you will certainly be missed.