The Kennedy Center Honors finally got around to Dick van Dyke today. He’s 95, and they’re lucky he’s lasted this long. It’s kind of cruel how long they made him wait. But at least now, it’s done.
The great folk singer and performer Joan Baez, who’s just turned 80, is also in this new batch of inductees. She should have gotten in a long time ago, too.
The other three inductees this time around are Garth Brooks, violinist Midori, and actress choreographer Debbie Allen, all deserving and very good choices.
The Kennedy Center usually announces the inductees in the early summer, inducts them the first week of December and the show airs just before New Year’s.
But with the pandemic, there is no show, and no big ceremony. This time around the ceremony will be virtual and air in June, after May sweeps, on CBS.
Frankly, Bob Dylan had better induct Joan Baez. He can set aside his eccentricities for two minutes.
The June show will be the first under President Joe Biden. If there were no pandemic, it would also be the first year since Obama that the inductees went to the White House. But maybe if the pandemic eases, the Kennedy Center will return to its regular schedule, have another show in December and invite two years’ worth of honorees.
Still not in: Betty White, who turns 99 this week. Jane Fonda, who most definitely should be in already. The Rolling Stones, with whom the Kennedy Center can’t seem to make an arrangement, and Denzel Washington.
