The Meaning of Life with George Burns or as advertised, Mazda Presents The Meaning of Life, is a TV special that aired December 27th in 1991. The special was based on the Life Magazine collection which was published as a book under the titled The Meaning of Life: Reflections in Words and Pictures on Why We Are Here.
Originally we only learned of the TV special based on an eBay seller who had listed the advertisement for sale. Naturally, we purchased the advertisement and then went to work to find out where we could actually watch the TV special.
As it would turn out, it wasn't necessarily easy to find. A few Google searches on "Mazda Presents the Meaning of Life" and "Meaning of Life December 27th 1991" yielded nothing of interest. First we contacted CBS who said they could not find a record of the show, but referred us to Mazda based on the advertisement. So we contacted Mazda and never received a response. Next, we reached out to Life who referred us to the NY Historical Society, who then referred us to Dotdash Meredith, which is where we left off. As luck would have it, we posted online and the community found the video under the name "The Meaning of Life with George Burns."
The video only has a few hundred views on YouTube and is still the only copy we've been able to find. The series boasts that we'd see Kenny Rogers, Oprah Winfrey, Garth Brooks, George Foreman, Betty White, Hammer, any many more, and indeed we do.
However, the TV special watches as an hour long infomercial for charities, causes, Mazda, and of course, the CBS Olympics, with celebrities interjecting thoughts in between with a few words of wisdom. Of course, there are also a few inspiration stories as well. Overall, it wasn't a bad watch, and it was kind of surreal to travel back to the early 90s to watch a special on the long forgotten topic of meaning.
Some notable quotes from the special include:
To me the meaning of life is a good cigar, the sound of laughter, a double martini, and a pretty girl. But not exactly in that order. - George Burns
I think the meaning of life to me is letting the world know that you were here. You know, that you meant something. You know, that you carved out a mark that people can look at many many years after you are gone and say yes, that’s what’s it about. - Charles Dutton
To me the whole meaning of life is to appreciate a good dinner, a good wife, fat baby. - George Foreman
I don’t know. I think the meaning of life changes as you go through life. When I was younger I used to think it was something like a goal. You where, um, I always had a goal of being able to cross my legs in hot weather and then, then I got older and then, then it began to get up a purpose type thing. Like I was out on Earth for some special reason. Like, after awhile I became the only person in the house who change a toilet tissue spindle. But then, then when I got older I thought no I think it’s something deeper than that. That had a little more meaning than that because the meaning of life to me, is you take all this talent he’s give you and you spend it. Right here on Earth. Every single ounce of it. To make this place a better place to live. Because that is why he gave it to you in the first place. - Erma Bombeck
I believe that because life is like a classroom that this whole life experience is just a journey in life lessons and that if you can learn to look at situations that happen to you as opportunities to learn, to grow, opportunities to choose love over fear, it makes for a really exciting journey. - Oprah Winfrey
I get a kick out of making people happy. I would say the meaning of life is, the key word would be love, to love God, to love yourself, to share love, to enjoy love and to learn how to completely overcome everything with love. - MC Hammer
For me, the meaning of life is to find to find the good and praise it. - Alex Haley
Animals live in absolute time, maybe that’s the meaning of life. - Betty White (talking about taking care of dogs and living fully in the moment)
Other individuals from youth to those in their final days, stated that joy in work, sharing the world with others, no idea, we give life meaning, helping others, happiness, struggles and accomplishments, etc., were some of the many meanings in life.
Finally, there was also a bit of a political or even warning to society about who we idolize. A farmer states that he doesn't understand why society idolizes he Donald Trumps, Michael Milkens and the Ivan Boskies, people who became millionaires overnight, instead of the true working Americans like farmers. Whatever your take, it was interesting to see a familiar name mentioned 30 years ago on a TV series about the meaning of life.
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