I love to quote Jean Shepherd:

As some here know, I am a shep addict and have over 1000 of his shows. Politically, in the early going at WOR, he was pretty conservative, howling at "Demonstrators" in the early Vietnam War era, but mellowed over the years as he took trips to Washington with people protesting the War and pro-Civil rights Demonstrations.

He once talked about his opinion that the symbol for America shouldn't be the Bald Eagle, but the Cocker Spaniel would be more appropriate: "Please Love Me..." in its eyes...that America just wants to be loved.

Now I disagree wholeheartedly with his context at the time, but when I was listening to the radio show a couple nights ago, I thought about our President, who seems to go over to the Republicans' side with this "Please Love Me" attitude - which another poster had pointed out - and I awakened my wife with my laughing.

As an insomniac, what I do is record/load about 100 shows on an mp3 player, plug in a single ear bud, and use a rechargeable battery to listen all night. If i awaken, and the bud has fallen out of my ear, I replace it, start whichever show from the beginning, and listen. I also do this with CBS Mystery theater, and there are thousands of those shows available. I often go right back to sleep and it can take me 3-4 nights to hear one whole show....or sometimes, if I can't sleep, I listen to 2-3 in a row. It helps...

And don't forget the books, like "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash".

Shep's show was Required Listening in my home.

in my collection...I was sick as a dog, and couldn't make it the night he appeared at my school, so my Mom went up to him after the show and told him that I had listened to him since I was 8 years old and couldn't stop vomiting long enough to get into the car to come over - although I had tried twice - and he stopped being creepy - which he was on a personal basis, got real soft and wrote this whole message out in the flyleaf of the paperback. It's my treasure!

with an ear glued to an AM radio so my parents wouldn't know I was up on a school night. I credit him with saving what passes for sanity when I was miserable, living in Dixie in a sea of Baptists who really didn't think anyone else had a right to be different. I ate it all up: Schwartz, Flick and Bruner, Warren G. Harding High School, the kazoo solos, the warped haiku.

I think Shep probably saved a lot of squirrely, misfit kids. A lot of his shows have held up well, too.

KO is soooooooooooo influenced by Jean Shepherd. Listen for it.

he almost never acknowldedges Shep and as you said, so many of his references and music are shep's. Funny thing is, shep hated the music he used...he deliberately cose 'mediocrity' for the show. Fascinating guy, but extremely strange...the 'new' biography isn't very good, but shines a few new lights....many of us knew more about him from the old days, and the real old days here in Philly before NY.

I checked Olbermann's broadcast work going back some years and encountered transcripts of his pre-Countdown work. Several times he mentioned his enthusiasm for Shepherd's work. Also, in earlier Countdown shows, Olbermann ended the show either with Edward R. Morrow's "Good night and good luck," or with Shepherd's "Keep your knees loose." Subsequently he has concentrated on the Morrow quote, but, he has been using, for his "Oddball" segments, Shepherd's theme song, "Bahn Frei" (very low volume, but there.) In addition, he interviewed the owner of the "Christmas Story House" and at the same time, showed an NBC clip on the subject. He also did a story on the death of the film's director, Bob Clark.

link to his shows for those of you wondering who he was.....


http://www.flicklives.com/

A Christmas Story?

Called The Fourth of July and Other Great disasters and thought it was hysterical. Don't know if I would love it as much now but have never been able to find it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfuDoXXWxQ

better version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK9cIxM4-SU&annotation_id=annotation_162304&feature=iv

I've never found it on netflix or blockbuster. Now I must go watch.

I, mainly, listen to AM radio (sports, talk) or FM (NPR/BBC World Service.)

I once had one that took me to my grade school auditorium, and Shep was way up front doing the show with his back to the audience. I was amazed, b/c I kept saying, "but he died!" but no one would listen to me. when I got up to the front, it was just a kid doing an impersonation...

wow...

Jean Shepherd was a genius--especially on the radio for decades. (He was also very talented as a writer, creator of TV and film, and live performance.) The main Shepherd website, flicklives.com is chock-full of great material about his life and work. For those not aware of this, many hundreds of audios of his complete broadcasts are readily available through the internet (see ebay, for example) at little or no cost.
One of the message-writers comments that the "biography" of Shepherd is not very good. As my book, EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD is the only published book about him, I assume it's mine the writer makes reference to. The writer should be aware that, despite what my publisher and many other say, I never consider my book a "biography." It has bits of biographical material, but, in the main, it's a description and appreciation of Shepherd's creative work in all fields. See my page 14 for my intentions for the book, and see the vast majority of the 35 Customer Reviews on amazon.com. (The few who didn't like it also were expecting a biography--maybe they should have read the book more closely. But then, one can't please everybody!) Many public reviews, including the extensive Associated Press one also liked it a lot. The reviewer for Talkers Magazine says it's a "great book," and that it's "a very important book because it is one of the few thoughtfully researched volumes written about a radio star--ever." Shepherd's third wife, actress Lois Nettleton wrote to me about it, telling me how much she liked it: "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed. Obviously I'm very proud of the book, and it's good to know that most reviewers and others like it a lot.

I've recently completed my second book-length manuscript about Shepherd (Publisher, anyone?). I've discovered much new information and commentaries about him, including my interview with his early romantic interest ("The Vampire Lady"), and excerpts from my 3-hour talk with enthusiastic Shep-fan, Dee Snider of heavy metal's Twisted Sister. Among other subjects, I discuss why Shepherd's Sesame Street animated cartoon, "Cowboy X" (see it on YouTube)is his funny and sad allegory about what he considered the insufficient acclaim accorded him by the Great American Public. Yes, I'm obsessed with the creative world of Jean Parker Shepherd.

EXCELSIOR!

Seltzer bottle.;-)

I can only guess that you googled shep and this post showed up and so you posted here. If I'm wrong about that, then a I apologize...

OK, the reason which I did not find your volume particularly interesting is that in his broadcasts, which amount to a huge volume of free-association, you did not thoroughly address many of his underlying issues, including, but not limited to, his estrangement from his own families, including the fact that not only did he not spend any time with his own children, but his obvious disdain for his real parents which is evident in many of his sidebar comments and his thoroughly impatient responses to his mother in her later years. now many of these stories may be untrue as well, but from an analytical point of view, it would have been helpful to explore his true familial relations in order to better understand the fabricated stories which, as a young person, many of us took to be true.

Now I am not saying that he isn't entitled, a la Jack London, to make up stories and tell them. what is so fascinating about shep is that the lines between truth and fiction were so blurred that it would have been quite fascinating to read about his dealings with those who were involved with him and to transmit, through the pages of your book, exactly what kind of person he really was. My family member who was intimately involved in the booking and accomodation of Shep's presentation to my school which I missed, informed me hat Shep was off-putting, somewhat hostile, not friendly to fans who came up to him: my mom was an exception b/c IMO, she was very pretty and about the right age for him at the time, but he was downright abusive to high school students who asked him questions at the Q and A. Apparrently, he was despised by a variety of folk like the studio engineers and others in the business, and even Barry Farber, whom I used to listen to after shep, would once in a while make a comment about his prickliness.

This is what I was looking for in the book - how this man who captivated thousands of folks over generations was actually a quite different personality than his on-air persona, AND in particular in what manner and quite possibly WHY.

<"you did not thoroughly address many of his underlying issues, including, but not limited to, his estrangement from... "> I said, and indicated in my Shepherd book, that I was not writing a biography. What you were looking for was a speculative interpretation of his inner workings--what I refer to as a psycho-babble-ography. Considering how well Shepherd not only hid but purposely conflated the real and the fictional, and that most all of those who could have given insight into his childhood (and even adult years) are already dead, this kind of speculation would probably not be very definitive (or worthwhile), and would limit the book's interest to those far fewer already-fans who would find this of interest, while excluding all those worthy Americans who might want a good, basic background on this American genius. It was not my interest to produce a guess-work book, especially when what I wrote might well be the only book published about him ever.

I believe that what I did write and include from others who knew him well, suggests some aspects of Shepherd's psychological make-up without presuming to define his psyche. I felt it was necessary to produce, for the permanent record, documentation and description, as well as appreciation of his work. That took 496 pages. One might note that almost all of the psychological interpretation in the book is not mine, but is quotations from others who knew him. I also find it interesting that a professional radio broadcaster/documentary film-maker and Shepherd enthusiast, who posted an amazon.com customer review, comments in it that he tried to write a biography of Shep and gave up because of the inherent difficulty, and then he praises me for what I accomplished. I believe I achieved the goal I sought out. If this were an ideal world, with ideal info and insights, I'd leave it to someone else to attempt to play psychiatrist. Should a book based on that ever see the light of day, I, as a Shep-fanatic, would have to read it, but I might not be likely to believe all its conclusions.

You and I come to the enigmatic Jean Shepherd from different angles and I much appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Cheers.

When I was in junior high a friend of mine turned me on to him. Her parents loved him and had taken her to the Limelight in the
Village to see his show a couple of times. I'd listen to his show, on WOR if I remember correctly, at night, in bed with my transistor radio turned down low so my mom wouldn't know that I was staying up late. Needless to say, she knew but chose to not make a big deal out of it. He did a show at local university, Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck, NJ once and several of us went. Jean recognized Luci from the Limelight and waved and welcomed us. It was so cool. My paperback copy of his book "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" was dogeared and had loose pages.

:shrug:

I've read that the character in Herb Gardner's play, and then movie, was based on Jean Shepherd. I have also read that Shepherd did not appreciate the gesture. Any truth in all of this?

Gardner and Shepherd were close friends. The Jason Robards character has attributes sufficient for Shepherd to be quoted as exclaiming about the play/movie, "They've stolen my life!" Shepherd is said to have said he was going to sue. I believe that what Shepherd found offensive is that the character, a free spirited individualist (as Shepherd felt himself to be), capitulates to society in the end by conforming in order to hold onto his girlfriend and his nephew. Shepherd, at about the time the play/movie was written, was changing his radio style to conform to a larger, school-age audience. Several people who knew Shepherd at that time (very early 1960s), told me in interviews for my book (in the early 2000s), that the situation ended the friendship between them. I had wanted to interview Gardner, but he was already quite ill and an editor at my publisher couldn't get a scheduled meeting for us.

How lucky I was...imagine a 12 year old today listening to Limbaugh or Hannity.

"The Clown".

Other Shep trivia: Donald Fagen's song, The Nightfly, was based on Jean Shepherd and his late night radio show.