EDITORS DESK: Damien Le Gallienne 13, May 2013
She was thought to be the most famous psychologist in the USA, and now Dr. Joyce Brothers has died in New York City at the age of 85.
Dr. Brothers was good at what she did — and she did it with dignity and grace and professionalism and class.
She knew her stuff and even when she was put up against cranks like Howard Stern, she never dropped her professional demeanor. Dr. Brothers was always a good sport and she never wavered or sold out. Even late in life, when her career had achieved “camp” or almost cult status, she was too well-respected to be seen as a joke in spite of the fact that she often allowed herself to be the butt of jokes on sitcoms or talk shows.
She was a trained psychologist first and a celebrity second. Dr. Joyce Brothers will never be replaced. It’s not possible.
Before any of us who grew up in the 80s with the crackpots who wandered into our lives on crap talk shows like Oprah and dick head “”Dr. Phil” and that sex-happy midget Dr. Ruth, there was Dr. Joyce Brothers — and guess what? SHE WAS A REAL DOCTOR! —
People in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s and even up until a few months agowe got used to seeing Dr. Joyce Brothers making her cameo appearances on shows like Frasier and Friends and so many game shows and talk shows, it’s impossible to count. She had a radio show and a newspaper column. She did it all long before all the impostors came along and she did it the right way because she was REAL.
Dr. Brothers was always “keeping it real” before anyone had even heard of that expression. She wasn’t using sexually suggestive words to get people to listen to her answers about serious questions on social and psychological issues. She was a true professional — nothing like the bird-brains we’re stuck with today. Dr. Phil isn’t even a doctor of anything. He just calls himself “doctor” — he’s a real dirt bag and if he has the nerve to even mention Joyce Brothers on his stupid stupid stupid show, I am going to rip him a new a-hole.
So, back in the 1950s, Joyce Brothers was a young psychologist who was trying to make a career for herself in New York City, but along the way — trying to make a few bucks — she tried out for a game show called “The $64,000 Question” and she kicked ass.
The subject she chose for her questioning was professional boxing!!!!
Nobody in their right mind would think that this little blond and pretty lady psychologist could ever know a thing about boxing right? Well — they were wrong. She knew a lot about boxing, and for weeks and weeks as she climbed her way to the $64,000 question, the producers tried to get rid of her by making her questions so outrageously difficult — but she got ’em all and she won.
Remember when parrot-faced Ken Jennings kept winning on JEOPARDY? Remember how he thought he was going to be a star? He was wrong, and do you know why? Because he was NOT INTERESTING. He had nothing to offer America.
Dr. Joyce Brothers, however, was an instant hit with the people of the USA and from the day she answered that $64,000 question up until today when she passed away, she was an iconic figure who never faded out of the public conciousness. Some people got it and some people don’t.
People today — the people who are in charge of bringing is professional people — are too stupid to even bring us another Dr. Joyce Brothers. TV producers only want fake losers who drag out people from trailer parks and tattoo parlors and crackhouses. Dr. Joyce Brothers was the REAL THING and these idiots who make TV and radio shows today are morons who don’t understand or recognize QUALITY.
Dr. Joyce Brothers did not invent herself as a celebrity like the other ersatz psychologists to whom she is being compared. She was made into a celebrity because the country liked and trusted her.
Comparing Dr. Brothers to impostors like “Doctor” Phil and others is not only inaccurate , it’s factually incorrect. She was a real psychologist, and she knew her stuff.
She appeared on Game Shows and Talk Shows because the public loved her. She never said or did anything to betray her profession or to turn a buck, and she never tried to lure in viewers or listeners with salacious or lurid stories. Her opinions about modern psychology and social issues were always spot on. Dr. Joyce Brothers was a sincere and dignified professional who also happened to be a celebrity — we’ll never see that again.
She was the epitome of a psychologist. She introduced a nation to the field and told people that it was alright to ask for help. We will miss you Dr. Joyce Brothers.
Damien Le Gallienne EDITOR.
