December 08, 2004
Dick Clark Suffers Stroke
The World's Oldest Teenager takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.
TV impresario Dick Clark suffered a mild stroke on Monday, it was revealed Wednesday. He was said to be on the mend in a hospital--and looking forward to his annual New Year's Rockin' Eve show for ABC.
"The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long, so I'm hopeful to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in bringing in the New Year once again," Clark said in a statement.
Clark has counted in the new year for ABC every year since 1972.
Ashlee Simpson, no stranger to prerecorded material, was to preside over the pretaped concert portion of the latest New Year's Rocking Eve, featuring performances by Kenny G, Los Lonely Boys and Billy Idol, among others.
A fixture on both sides of the camera for nearly 50 years, Clark turned 75 on Nov. 30. He has a number of projects currently in the works, including the Dec. 31 New Year's Eve show and the upcoming Golden Globe Awards telecast for NBC.
Last year Clark announced he'd been coping with diabetes since the mid-'90s. In true Clark form, he turned the diagnosis into a media event, helping promote a diabetes awareness campaign.
Clark is best known as the pop-idol maker of American Bandstand, the long-running dance and music show that earned him the nickname "the World's Oldest Teenager" and served as the Total Request Live touchstone for teenagers of the 1950s through the 1980s.
Last spring, Clark announced plans to revive Bandstand, off the air since 1989, as an American Idol-style competition for dancers. The new show, being hatched with Idol creator Simon Fuller, was being eyed for a summer 2005 launch.
Bandstand is just one part of the Clark empire. He has hosted and/or produced game shows (The $10,000 Pyramid), talk shows (The Other Half), blooper shows (TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes) award shows (the Daytime Emmys, the Globes, the American Music Awards) and movies.
Currently, he is an executive producer on the NBC family drama, American Dreams, which uses archival Bandstand footage and recreates classic live performances with today's singing stars subbing in for the hitmakers of the past.
Posted by MK Magazine at December 8, 2004 05:18 PM