The spectacle of 84-year-old Jerry Lewis losing his composure during the finale of his 45th national Labor Day Telethon was the kind of reality television that cut right through the canned, faked standard TV fare. It was uncomfortable and unpredictable-- in its own way like Jerry during his sweaty, gassed-back Percodan jag heights of the Sixties and made even more urgent when producers in Los Angeles decided to cut away from the live moment, only to play the historic scene ninety minutes after it occurred.
The question is whether this will turn out to be Jerry Lewis' final telethon. Will Jerry Lewis be back in 2011? In his first-person backstage account for the Las Vegas Sun, John Katsilometes has a poignant and haunting answer from Jerry's wife, Sam:
“Oh, of course. Unless we are...“ She pauses, then says, “...putting him in the ground, he’ll be here.”
