Year after year, Jerry Lewis bounced between the polarities of smarmy sentimentalism and badgering lunacy as if in a weightless environment
As if deflated by the absence of its larger-than-life host, “The 46th Annual MDA Labor Day Telethon” will fill just six hours (Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight in each time zone), rather than the grueling 21½-hour endurance contest that Jerry Lewis used to churn through with his viewers in tow.
Nigel Lythgoe (“So You Think You Can Dance”),
Nancy O’Dell (“Entertainment Tonight”),
Alison Sweeney (“The Biggest Loser”),
Jann Carl (billed as “an Emmy-winning journalist”).
It may be entertaining. It may spur contributions. But as a media event, this year’s telethon can hardly match the display of wretched excess Jerry Lewis guaranteed, especially in his epic, unbridled prime.
“Jerry is a ferociously contradictory personality, and that’s what makes him fascinating to watch,” says satirist-actor-writer Harry Shearer, a Jerry-watcher for a half-century. He noted just two of Jerry Lewis’ clashing identities: “the inner 9-year-old, set loose” and the would-be deep thinker “who fancies himself something of an autodidact.”
“It all makes for psychodrama of a high order,” Harry Shearer marvels.
Year after year, Jerry Lewis bounced between the polarities of smarmy sentimentalism and badgering lunacy as if in a weightless environment. He put his multiple identities on raw display, each constantly jostling for the spotlight.
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