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I never would have expected that Videogum would become a PREMIERE resource for Eddie Munster news, and yet here we are. It’s like that part in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf tells Frodo that the only thing we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given, except that instead of do it’s “say about” and instead of time it’s Eddie Munster news. (So: “the only thing we have to decide is what to say about the Eddie Munster news we are given, Frodo.”) Of course, the reason we first started writing about Eddie Munster was because his story at the time was, while hilarious and very weird, kind of benign and even pleasant. Now it’s just a fucking shit show. Aren’t they all. From RadarOnline:
The former child star who played Eddie Munster on the 1960′s TV sitcom The Munsters checked himself out of a New Jersey rehab facility, but nearly overdosed days later, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
Butch Patrick, 57, has now entered a rehab in Orange County, California, after prompting from friends who desperately want him to beat his 40-year addiction to cocaine and alcohol.
“He not only continued with drugs and alcohol after checking himself out of rehab, but started to black out and make rash decisions while under the influence causing him to nearly overdose last Thursday evening,” Butch’s agent Jodi Ritzen told RadarOnline.com.
OOOOOOOF. This comes shortly after the dissolution of his relationship with a woman who sent him a daisy chain in the mail 600 years ago. Yikes. Poor Butch Patrick! A 40 year addiction to cocaine? That is so many years to be addicted to cocaine. One also has to wonder–and no offense to Butch Patrick or his loved ones in this difficult time–where he got the money for cocaine? I guess they do charge a lot in the autograph hall at Comic-Con these days, but they didn’t used to. Anyway. Do you want to know the saddest part? It is not, incidentally, that production was temporarily halted on his reality show, LIFE’S A BUTCH (ugh, duh). No, this is the saddest part:
“Butch is uninsured, but they were able to check him into an Orange County facility after they offered him free treatment,” Ritzen told RadarOnline.com.
BUTCH IS UNINSURED?! Good grief. Can someone please get Butch Patrick some health insurance? It is literally costing America more in frowny faces caused by learning that Butch Patrick doesn’t have health insurance than it would cost to just insure him. Although, while we’re waiting for the paperwork to clear, we can all agree that THIS IS ALSO VERY SAD:
Ritzen noted that with the amount of alcohol and drugs that Patrick was consuming, especially having only one kidney, he is lucky to be alive.
One kidney? Good GOD. Part of me wishes we had never re-opened the Butch Patrick cold case, but now I am a man obsessed. Shit. I was supposed to retire tomorrow!!!! (Thanks for the tip, Darryl.)
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Turns out, it’s true.
He looks pretty good* for a guy with a 40 year coke problem.
*good=alive
I’m glad you used the health tag. Sometimes I like to browse all of videogum’s health news so that makes this very convenient!
The job will not save you, Gabe.
Gabe’s building something here, people. All the blogposts matter…
Breaking News! Early Hollywood success continues to destroy people’s lives on a daily basis.
Thanks for nothing, Darryl.
Uninsured? Butch knows there is a show called Celebrity Rehab right?
An addiction to cocaine and alcohol that began when he was seventeen, already several years after his two season run on the Munsters, canceled due to low ratings. An addiction blotting out the best years of a young life.
Decades of looking back to that brief time, already past, when he was famous and successful, riding the waves of memory and nostalgia for all they are worth, but realizing that every year fewer and fewer people remember who he is.
And then, late in life, finally finding love and comfort and happiness, a time-confounding love of a young girl for a young boy, something that glimmers through the narcotic haze and sorrow. Some small thing that is real to hold, but then it too is gone and he is left dependent on goodwill, charity and one kidney.
I hope that Butch Patrick can find some love and comfort and support in this world. I know that this is all too sad for me to be able to handle this morning.
Gordamnit mans, you’re making me emote at work again! But seriously, I agree. I hope for the best for him, and for all people dealing with addition. Sometimes it really does seem that life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Me, I feel sorry for all the people dealing with subtraction. Not to mention long division. That stuff’s a bitch. (Almost wrote “a butch”)
Mans, you always know just what to say.
This is lovely, of course, because it is from Mans, but also? The phrase “dependent on goodwill, charity and one kidney” is kind of funny. IT IS. Stop looking at me like that.
I don’t have any insurance either
x3 (triple frowny face)
Me either. Is too much to ask to go to the doctor? I would just like to do to the doctor once a year, AMERICA!!!!! Are you listening to me?!
me threes. and I live in Massachusetts, so I pay a tax penalty. because…. I can’t afford…. less money…. I’m still not sure why that law got passed.
BUTCH PATRICK STAY OUTTA MASSACHUSETTS.
late to the game here, but @youfuckedjeff, have you checked out whether the subsidized Commonwealth Care program is an option for you? https://www.mahealthconnector.org/portal/site/connector/
also, in general, the federal site healthcare.gov now has an insurance options finder for every state: http://finder.healthcare.gov/
only 3 more years til every state has an insurance exchange with subsidies…
How do you still have a NOSE after 40 years of doing blow?! Also, this is just so sad. Poor Eddie Munster.
This story really eightballed out of control, didn’t it? (I’m sorry)
Yeah, totally went right off the rails.
This all stems from the psychological boyhood trauma of having to wear short pants.
My boyfriend died from an overdose 2 years ago after his short life and spirit were ravaged and consumed by addition. No matter who is afflicted, I feel sad when I hear about people struggling with drugs and alcohol.
Now that I’ve left my periodic super-downer Videogum comment, I can successfully go home. No more work to be done here!!
Sorry guys.
Please don’t be sorry! Also on the topic of being sorry, I am sorry for your loss.
Thanks Serious Monster. I feel like we might be kindred spirits in our seriousness
I’m sorry:
Thanks! I seem to only chime in these days with downers!! I am not like that in real life, I swear. New goal is to post totally inane comments only!!
I am sorry to hear this. I hope you are doing okay.
Oh I’m doing okay. I’m just really sensitive to hearing stories about addiction. I know the pain and the literal horror that is involved for the person and their loved ones. It’s an incredibly ugly way to live and to die. So it makes me sad to hear stories about it, but I don’t think about it nearly as much as I used to.
Being divorced and then widowed before I turned 30 was enough to turn me really cynical about love, but I am working on it!
Super hearts to the VG monsters for being kind and also very funny.
I’m really sorry that happened, aniktwo.
I thought that coked up werewolf sketch on Conan was just a gag, not a cry for help.
I’ll just let myself out.
Sad Butch Patrick story:
Every year in Philly there is a massive haunted house attraction run out of Eastern State Penitentiary. It seriously is one of the biggest crowd-drawers of the season in the area. At the end of the haunted house there’s a little area where people can buy souvenirs, food, halloween-themed stuff, get zombie makeup put on their faces, etc.
This year (and I hear, many years prior though I never noticed) Butch Patrick was one of the post-house attractions. Sitting by himself. With pictures of himself as the little Munster. Waiting, desperately, for someone to recognize him or ask him for his autograph. Like, he was there, specifically, to sign autographs for people and out of a monstrous crowd not one person was interested for the whole 10 minutes we were hanging out in the area. It was the single saddest thing I have ever seen.
Then when we got closer and passed him on the way out I got a better look and realized people were probably avoiding him because he looked COKED OUT OF HIS GOURD.