While sifting through the tributes to Robin Williams, I found one of his quotes: Youre only given one little spark of madness. You mustnt loose it. It reminded me of the day in 1997 when I was working late at KNBC and Robin Williams was a guest on the Tonight Show. Robin and Billy Crystal were guests on the show to promote Fathers Day. I was watching the live broadcast on closed circuit tv from my desk and the studio was two floors below mine. Earlier in the day, a brush fire had broken out in the Griffith Park area a few miles from NBC Studios. Flames were threatening the power lines near the park so power was cut just when the show was to begin. The studio went dark and it took several minutes to power up the back up generator which was rarely used. Robin and Billy sprang into action with hilarious antics to entertain a restless studio audience while the production crew frantically patched into the backup power. I dont recall the exact routine but I remember Robin standing up on the railing in front of the audience. He was wearing this crazy checker board print suit. The show was taped without further interruption when the power was restored and I remember Jay joking about Robins suit causing the power outage. The show ended about the time my work was completed so I wandered down to the artists entrance to say Hi to Robin but he had already left. Billy remained to talk to fans and I told him I thought their ad libs were brilliant! While Billy signed my poster, he asked me how it looked on tv and I said they didnt skip a beat. He was relieved that they were able to keep the audience occupied. That spark of madness was Robin Williams genius. Sadly, his demons apparently overwhelmed him today. God Bless you, Robin. Thank you for my personal favorites, The Genie and Peter (Pan) Banning.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:23:25 +0000
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