George Carlin's American Dream

Well, this one was really done well, I can remember laughing so hard when my older sisters would play their George Carlin albums, LOL a few of them were given to them by our grandmother unbeknownst to her what exactly those 7 words were about.

He still makes me laugh but what a great tribute to Carlin this show is. First of all, I didn't know all the crap he went through, and he still brought himself and his family through it all together. I forgot he got arrested in Wisconsin too. He reinvented himself atleast 3 times and was fairly successful with each version. An amazing story made me laugh, made me think, and made me remember. A lot of what he was saying is really come to fruition.

Surprisingly it's getting ripped a little bit on social media, it's like the "progressive" left used to be all free speech and now segments are slamming Carlin, a man arrested for saying curse words and drug reform proponent.

www.hbo.com...

George Carlin's American Dream, directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, chronicles the life and work of the legendary comedian.

Carlin’s career spanned half a century during which he headlined 14 HBO comedy specials and appeared on The Tonight Show over 130 times, constantly evolving with the times and staying sharply resonant up until his death in 2008 and beyond. The documentary examines a cultural chameleon who is remembered as one of the most influential stand-up comics of all time.

The two-part documentary tracks Carlin’s rise to fame and opens an intimate window into Carlin’s personal life, including his childhood in New York City, his long struggle with drugs that took its toll on his health, his brushes with the law, his loving relationship with Brenda, his wife of 36 years, and his second marriage to Sally Wade. Intimate interviews with Carlin and Brenda’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, offer unique insight into her family’s story and her parents enduring love and partnership.

Fresh old fashion home made in a can

I love that guy straight unfiltered truth he was

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Watching now. Didn't even know it existed. He's the man

a reply to: putnam6

I love Carlin and would have watched both episodes, but this isn't available in UK






Any other places it might be available to watch please?
Rainbows
Jane

originally posted by: angelchemuel
a reply to: putnam6

I love Carlin and would have watched both episodes, but this isn't available in UK

Any other places it might be available to watch please?
Rainbows
Jane

Im not sure but I thought it was on something called Sky TV in the UK.

Which brings up another thing Carlin would skewer on how many TV stations we have now, how many channels?

a reply to: putnam6

Thank you.
I don't have sky either lol!
Rainbows

Jane

originally posted by: markovian
Fresh old fashion home made in a can

I love that guy straight unfiltered truth he was

Me too, more so that's what my Dad said about Carlin and my Dad was a fairly conservative guy,

I never knew the troubles both he and his wife had with addiction, nor did I know how instrumental his wife was in helping him get established and pushing him, Carlin admitted as such. Hell, I didn't know he teamed up for a while with Jack Burns early on for 2-3 years and Jack Burns was where George refined his dislike for authority and learned more about the establishment. Then he started going solo gigs again, Brenda went with him on the road organizing and booking gigs, basically everything so George could write and reinvent himself. It was about this time he realized he need to be on TV, on John Davidson's variety hour, working occasionally with Richard Pryor.

When he first hit it big they moved to L.A and all things she did for him were being done by hired people now.
Brenda was lost and sunk into alcoholism, and evidently, she wasn't pleasant while inebriated. However bother George and later his daughter stuck it out, cause evidently, George had his moment too. Brenda still went on to become very successful in the entertainment industry, Producing eight of George's HBO comedy specials including "Playin' With Your Head". Brenda (up until her death in 1997) was the CEO of Cablestuff productions.

Even their daughter who once described her being a teenager with her Mom Brenda drunk upstairs while George was tripping himself downstairs on some hits of acid.

a reply to: angelchemuel

a reply to: putnam6

I first clicked on to Carlin in 66 on a plane flight. One of his albums was on the choice of listening menu and I recognized his name so I listened. I followed his career from then on. Watched the first SNL because he was going to be the host. Watched him shift into his hippie period a period many of us dipped into for a while as well.

I lost track of him then when he struggled to find a venue that would allow him the freedom to create as he wanted but was limited to what the media had to offer other than ''funny guy'' situation stuff.

But then he got that first HBO special. HBO was making big strides in getting into the market and used a series of ''comic'' performances by various comics to help them along. Comics that wanted to use the unrestricted microphone that HBO offered to use words that places like ATS still will not allow.

One of the conundrums that Carlin addressed was how is it that we can use the word ''crap'' yet not be able to use the word ''#''. See? We can avoid the censors by saying ''ship'' or ''$hit'' but we can't say #. I think he would have a laugh at that were he to still be alive and happen across this place.

His specials went on and he got more and more intense in not only finding an audience to appeal to but in his own drive to be a truth teller. He approached humor in that way, with humor as a palatable dagger of truth slipped between the ribs of a closed minded society. His audiences dwindled again as his frantic warnings found less and less people that were willing to follow him down the path he had found to the inevitable conclusion bout humanity.

I was sorry to see him leave. His voice, as a senor philosopher, as a fabled story teller could be of great value to us in these last few years. The way he would skewer Biden would far outreach even the best of skewers here on ATS.

But Trump? I think Trump would have spun him into slouching around the stage barking like a dog. His daughter had a few comments about that in an interview leading up to this two part special.

The far right would like to say that they're the minority now, but [George Carlin] would roll his eyes, because we know where all the wealth and the power is. That was the core, the deepest, deepest core of my father’s moral center from day one of his life,

“It just always shocks me when these Trumpers wanna claim him.”

And if that doesn't ring true from his own daughter, maybe this video can offer a stronger indication of the manner in which Carlin would think of Trump

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Definitely, Carlin would have skewered them both, rightfully so. Hell, watch his shows he wasn't far off on a lot of issues still around today.

As for the golf courses bit, my Dad loved that too. My dad believes those azzhats played golf on the weekend to avoid their families and get drunk mostly.

a reply to: putnam6

I have to admit though that his skewering of almost everything in American culture, hell, humanities future over all became so bleak, matching my own developing observations that I had to pull away from him. I needed to jump back a bit into my own let's say less existential points of view. Less doom focused. I needed to do that to continue living at all.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: putnam6

I have to admit though that his skewering of almost everything in American culture, hell, humanities future over all became so bleak, matching my own developing observations that I had to pull away from him. I needed to jump back a bit into my own let's say less existential points of view. Less doom focused. I needed to do that to continue living at all.

Not gonna lie I thought that myself the last special or 2 I saw when they first came out. I heard later and the TV show explains he had a bad financial manager and didn't pay taxes for 3 years, if handcuffed him, and those later years he was mostly doing those specials to recoup all the penalties and taxes he owed. We got to remember is in the 70's the tax rate was very high, and for some of those years Carlin was bringing in 12 grand a week. He was already cynical and this reaffirmed it and it came out in his shows.

a reply to: putnam6

Yeah, that was new to me as well from that show. I hadn't drawn that conclusion but I think you are right. His own personal situation on a micro level added to his disdain of things in the macro.
All and all though studying him and his evolution offers us a greater glimpse of one of the greatest spokesmen of our time.

One thing I mostly appreciated about him was that he, unlike so many other celebrities, especially today, that succumbed to the pay check of doing commercials for products. Such whores. I recall one night watching the tube to see him doing a commercial. Just once. I don't know as I even saw it a second time. And interviewer asked him about that one commercial and he kind of just pushed it off as a '' had to'' but seemed disappointed in himself.