Dick Clark's Memorable Career Moments -- Video
As we say goodbye to the host extraordinaire, we thought it fitting to look back on Dick Clark’s life the way we knew him best: on camera.
The last time many of us saw Clark was during this past Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest on ABC, ringing in 2012 with Seacrest and Lady Gaga. (Something Clark himself wrote about in Entertainment Weekly, to commemorate the special’s 40th anniversary.) Take a look as Clark marveled at the “night to remember” in Time Square after the ball dropped.
Starting at 7:45:
Clark’s influence on pop culture and the youth of the day was so swift and strong that he secured a spot on the classic NBC show This Is Your Life before he even turned 30, almost 52 years before his death. Watch as he’s surprised by host Ralph Edwards:
Of course, Dick Clark would go on to be “America’s Oldest Teenager” thanks to the long-running American Bandstand and his youthful looks. Just about every act that was anything or wanted to be anything passed through Bandstand and talked to Clark. Here he is with the Jackson 5 in 1969:
And here with ABBA in 1975:
Clark was also an excellent straight man to his co-host Ed McMahon on TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes.
One standout Bloopers episode saw Clark, McMahon, and McMahon’s late-night boss Johnny Carson together on stage after Clark and McMahon pulled a practical joke on Carson:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Clark would also carry his finesse over to the land of game shows. Here is his last episode of $100,000 Pyramid, which he hosted from 1973–1988.
Tell us, PopWatchers, what do you think the highlight of Dick Clark’s career was?
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