I Hate To Knock A Legend...

[Daboss94]

But while i was watching the Dick Clark Rockin New Years Eve, i could not understand anything he said...i would have rather seen Dick 100% then see him at all....

What are your feelings towards this?

[lockdown06]

It was hard to watch..

[snl 70s show fan]

i know what you mean it made me really sad i had to change the channel

[Tuesday Weld]

I didn't see it, but I know he's not in good health. :(

[robyrob]

it was sad to see him like that, but it is a good sign that he is doing THAT well already, and of course any Dick Clark is better than Ryan Seacrest...

[Dean Winchester]

I agree, it was hard to see him like that, but at the same time, you can tell he's determined to go back to normal... maybe come New Years Rockin' Eve 2007, he will once again be the Dick Clark we all know and love.

BTW, did anyone see the Los Angeles portion of it too? Did we need to hear Hilary Duff (who makes J. Lo sound like Patti LaBelle) sing so many songs? watching the audience dancing to 3 Doors Down made me think that this is what American Bandstand would look like if it was on today, lol.

[vashti1999]

It's a crime that someone like Dick Clark had a stroke. As vibrant as he's always been, it hurt me to see him like that last night.

maybe come New Years Rockin' Eve 2007, he will once again be the Dick Clark we all know and love.

I doubt it. Physically, it's possible in terms of the strength of his body, but in terms of his speech I don't think he's going to be any better than how we saw him last night.

[Classicshowsgurl15]

I understood some of what he said, it was great to see him back though.

[Daboss94]

i was watching Hilary Duff sing and i saw the people dancing and i said they had to be drunk...those songs had to be one of the worst songs ever....almost as bad as regis philbin singing on his New Years special!!

[Stuck In The '70's]

It was great to see him back but I did feel so sad watching him. I've been watching him on New Years Eve since the early 70's and this is the first time he really ever looked old to me. Still its great that he was able to do the show at all.

[PrettyinPink55]

I agree, it was so hard to watch him like that. :(

[vashti1999]

Legendary New Year's Eve host Dick Clark made a gallant return to Times Square last night, anchoring ABC's Times Square broadcast of the big countdown a year after suffering a major stroke.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world," said Clark, 76, in slightly garbled speech as he took the reins of the show 25 minutes before the crystal ball dropped to ring in 2006. "It's real good to be back with you again this year."

Seated inside at a desk, Clark spoke bravely about the difficulties he's had recovering from the stroke that prevented him from hosting the show on Dec. 31, 2004.

"I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again," he said. "It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there."

TV personality Ryan Seacrest helped host the show, leading to Clark's traditional countdown to midnight and kiss with his wife.

"[This is] the happiest time of all of my life," Clark said.

Clark sat out "New Year's Rockin' Eve" last year for the first time since starting it in 1972.


Dick Clark is the MAN

[Zebra 3]

(...)and of course any Dick Clark is better than Ryan Seacrest...
Osama bin Laden is better than Ryan Seacrest...

[hermione4586]

It was sad to see him like that, but I also think it was a brave and good thing for him to do. You could see that it meant a lot to him and he really wanted to be there. He obviously knows he can't speak all that well, but he wanted to be there. I don't think a lot of other people would have gotten up and did that for the country to see if they were in that condition. I have to commend him for that. :)

[Ireneparalegal]

is there a link to see how Dick did on this? I wasn't home and I had wondered how he was?

[80sTrivia]

I was delighted to see Mr. Clark on New Years Eve. It didn't seem like New Years at all last year without seeing him on television. I've more or less grown up watching him on television, and although it was a shock to hear him speak, I was just happy that he is able to speak at all after his stroke. I know I will be very sad the day he won't be able to host New Years Rockin' Eve again, but I pray that won't be for a long time yet...

[tv star collector]

Here are writer Mark Evanier's thoughts on Mr. Clark:

You Don't Know Dick
Posted at 12:16 PM · Permalink

My pal, TV critic Aaron Barnhart, has a little different view of Dick Clark's return to broadcasting on New Year's Eve. I don't have a strong opinion on this. I said at the time I was unsure which of two views to take of it and there are others I didn't even mess with.

Did it make some people uneasy? Sure. Did it gladden the hearts of others? Yes. Would some folks have preferred not to see it? Of course. Did others tune in just to see how Dick was? You bet.

Let me throw one other thought into the discussion, even though I'm not clear enough on my own feelings to have much of a discussion on it. As I said, I worked with Dick a number of times. I've had no contact with him in over a decade but I doubt this has changed: The guy was and I'll bet still is a workaholic. I don't know whether it's vanity or greed or just some inability to deal with the whole concept of leisure time but the Dick Clark I knew loved to work and lived to work. He would carefully plot his schedule to see how much he could do in a day and if someone came to him with a project or offer, he'd immediately rejuggle that schedule to see if he could fit the new thing in, whatever it was. All of us around him knew the Golden Rule when it came to Dick Clark: He was the most cooperative, professional person you could possibly deal with as long as you didn't waste his time.

Most of the discussions I'm reading about his reemergence, including my own first response, are about the impact Dick's New Year's Eve appearance had on us. The more I think about it, the more I think that may not have been even a significant consideration in his decision to do the show. I think he was just going nuts sitting in a wheelchair in Malibu not working. He may well have needed the goal of doing that broadcast to motivate his therapy in the preceding months. Aaron thinks Dick should refrain from public appearances until such time as he's truly overcome the crippling effects on the stroke, and in one sense -- and for some people -- Aaron is right. But I'd doubt Dick has the patience for that, and if doing the occasional TV show is going to help him get back to being the Dick Clark we know, or anything close to it, I'm fine with that. I see people on my set all the time who haven't had strokes but have a lot less right to be there and who make me a lot less comfortable.