About this Blog

"In the future everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes." So said the bleached-out, late lamented artist Andy Warhol. Having lived and worked in New York City, Warhol came to fully grasp the hold celebrity has on us. In this very famous sentence, he meant to point out that in a culture fixated on fame, many people will suddenly flash brightly onto the public screen, then--poof--will just as quickly disappear from public view--like shooting stars. Other individuals derive their celebrity from one stellar accomplishment (one hit song, one iconic role, etc.) that they never again match.

This blog is devoted to the one part of our celebrity culture that no one has written much about: temporary/one-shot celebrities.

The pace of modern life has quickened, and now we hear people speaking of someone's 15 seconds of fame. These "celebrities with a lower-case c" who will appear in this blog sometimes come to us from the world of entertainment, sometimes from the world of news. All are fascinating.

The need of our communications media for a continual stream of new material assures that we will have no end of colorful people who go quickly, where celebrity is concerned, from zero to hero (or villain) and back to zero. Now you see 'em, now you don't. What a crazy world, eh?

Temporary celebrities coming from the world of entertainment include one-hit recording artists; TV and movie icons who, although they might have had a great many accomplishments in their career, are remembered for one big role; standouts of reality TV; sports figures remembered for one remarkable accomplishment; and people whose celebrity came from one big role in a commercial or print ad.

News-based temporary celebrities come in many forms: mass/serial killers, other murderers of special note, sex-crime offenders, disgraced figures of government/military/business/media/religion, spies/traitors, hoaxers, femmes/hommes fatale, heroes, whistle blowers, inventors/innovators, and victims.

Celebrity Blogsburg will consider each category in turn.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Iconic TV role: George Wendt

It's the handsome guys who become the really big stars, but chubby, cheerful looking George Wendt made a place for himself on the barstool of TV history as lovable guzzler Norm Peterson on the sitcom "Cheers," from that show's start in 1982 until its end in 1993.

Having earned his college degree in the Dismal Science (economics), Wendt's unlikely next step was to join the comedy troupe Second City, where he remained from 1974 to 1980. He got his role as Norm after having done smaller parts on such shows as "Alice," "Soap," Hart to Hart," and "MASH."

On "Cheers," he played a sort of barstool Everyman, interacting with the other excellent cast members on that show. In 1995, he very briefly had his own program, "The George Wendt Show," which closed after only seven episodes.

More recently he has been on "Seinfeld," "Frasier," and "The Larry Sanders Show."

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