{"id":18114,"date":"2014-09-04T15:35:14","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T21:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=18114"},"modified":"2014-09-05T16:12:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T22:12:53","slug":"joan-rivers-tv-and-comedy-trailblazer-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/joan-rivers-tv-and-comedy-trailblazer-dies-at-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Joan Rivers, TV and comedy trailblazer, dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 Joan Rivers, who broke barriers for women in comedy and on television, has died.<\/p>\n<p>Rivers, 81, died Thursday a week after being rushed to Manhattan\u2019s Mount Sinai Hospital after her heart stopped during throat surgery at a clinic. Doctors at the hospital put her in an induced coma from which she never awoke.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18116\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a title=\"Joan Rivers\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18116\" class=\"wp-image-18116 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers-300x241.jpg\" alt=\"Joan_Rivers\" width=\"300\" height=\"241\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers-300x241.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers.jpg 797w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/241;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18116\" class=\"wp-image-18116 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers-300x241.jpg\" alt=\"Joan_Rivers\" width=\"300\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers-300x241.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Joan_Rivers.jpg 797w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-18116\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joan Rivers holding a sign in support of a gay Israeli couple that reads, &#8220;I want them to have a baby too!&#8221; (Courtesy A Wider Bridge)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cMy mother\u2019s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh,\u201d her daughter, Melissa, said in a statement on the Joan Rivers website. \u201cAlthough that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rivers, who launched her career in the 1950s, was among a handful of female standup comics \u2013 Phyllis Diller was another \u2014 whose raunchy and blisteringly honest takes on married life broke barriers in the 1960s.<\/p>\n<p>Her gossipy trademark line, \u201cCan we talk?,\u201d was an invitation to truth telling about the high and mighty, but also no-holds-barred self-deprecation.<\/p>\n<p>Her scathing remarks on celebrity anticipated the coruscating Internet culture of decades later \u2013 one that she embraced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love the Internet,\u201d she told the Boston Globe last year.<\/p>\n<p>She was one of Johnny Carson\u2019s favored guest hosts on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d until she launched a failed attempt to compete with him in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>The notion that a woman could carry 90 minutes by herself paved the way for others in the TV business.<\/p>\n<p>Rivers was a pioneer in reality programming, first in red carpet fashion commentary at Hollywood events (joined by her daughter) and then in a reality series about her loving but fraught relationship with her daughter. She hosted the show \u201cFashion Police\u201d on the E! network.<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, she drew attention for her robust defenses of Israel during the summer\u2019s Gaza War and her takedowns of celebrities who criticized Israel.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Joan%20Rivers%2C%20TV%20and%20comedy%20trailblazer%2C%20dies%20at%2081\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[5932,8790,8795,2257,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18114"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18120,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114\/revisions\/18120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}