CBS Sunday Morning's Hail and Farewell... they didn't even have to say his name

Some people accuse me of being a morbid person just because I look forward to the Memoriam portion of the Oscar, SAG, and other award show telecasts. I'm hardly morbid, as demonstrated by my avoidance of the obituary section of my local newspaper. I just believe that you should give those who passed away their props.

In line with that belief, I tuned into CBS's Sunday Morning for their yearly Hail and Farewell segment. Per usual, I recorded the segment and I have to say that I appreciated how they handled this year's segment. Sure, Brittany Murphy was missing from the reel, which is somewhat bothersome, but Sunday Morning is pretty good about showing deaths of significant people from various segments of American life and culture, so I won't quibble too much.

Michael Jackson led the retrospective, but the curious thing is that they never mentioned his name. And I'm pretty sure that his segment was the longest, with more clips of him in his glory, from childhood to pre-accusations. They just showed clips of him performing at various ages. And Charles Osgood touched on all aspects of his public life, without getting vulgar or snarky. And his comment 'But when he was gone, we were reminded, once again, at how it all began - with that extraordinary talent', it was absolutely appropriate and consistent with the way Sunday Morning handles their stories and segments.

This is not to say that MJ was singled out for his downturns. During Ted Kennedy's segment, Osgood didn't mention the accident - they used front pages of newspapers/old news clips, and old footage of Kennedy himself addressing the accident. And like with the MJ segment, the description of Kennedy's life and accomplishments ended on a somewhat upbeat note.

Now, they didn't address the embarrassing Oral Roberts incident in which he told his TV viewing audience to send money or God would kill him - and that was fine with me. It was a grotesque thing to do, but like the others, his accomplishments were at the forefront.

And I do think that Paul Harvey had some cringe-worthy moments too, but I think that Sunday Morning wanted to maintain their usual elegance instead of being obnoxious finger pointers.

But back to MJ - they didn't even have to say his name. I'm pretty sure that they said James Brown's name when he passed. And Marvin Gaye. And Gene Kelly. And Fred Astaire. And Sammy Davis Jr. And both Harold and Fayard Nicholas. The not having to say his name treatment is reserved for the higher tier of legends like Chaplin. If it's within his ability, I bet that thought made MJ smile.