The voice, the hair, the outfits, that laugh - I miss every single thing about that glitzy, ditsy, outrageous person.
Oh, yes, his workouts, too.
It's funny how now, even almost 40 years later, I still hear certain rock/pop songs on the radio (OK, streaming service, etc.) and my mind automatically goes right into the choreographed moves for that song from one of his Sweatin' to the Oldies or other VHS workout tapes. My husband looks at me weirdly when I start doing the arm movements, or shout out the lines of encouragement Richard used during the workouts, or start chuckling when when I remember the smile & wink he did after a particularly suggestive one.
I still own every single Richard Simmons VHS and DVD that I ever purchased, and even had some of the tapes transferred to DVD then ripped into mp4 files so at the press of a button I can do one of my favorite workouts any particular morning. Some many of them are "favorites" - I can't choose just one. Some I had to buy multiple times because I kept wearing out the VHS copy, like the original Blast Off and Richard Simmons and the Silver Foxes. Thank goodness they eventually released most of them on DVD! But not all of them did, and the VHS/DVD recorder I owned died before I could transfer all that I owned. (Sob!!)
But I think the one I played the most has never made it out of VHS (officially), and that's Stretchin' to the Classics with Richard Simmons. You can still find used VHS copies wherever used videos are sold, including Amazon. Recently it's been popping up on various people's pages on YouTube. It was so nice to have this old friend back! Just in time, because my VHS player has been getting a bit wonky and the only ones for sale are used ones, probably in worse shape than mine.
And unlike all his other videos, in this one he doesn't utter a sound, not one word! Just Richard in a tank top and spandex shorts doing various stretches, using a chair as a prop for one song, but otherwise just him on a wooden stage in front of a green screened background.
Oh, how I miss Richard! I don't care if he's old and flabby - that's what probably all his original followers look like now, too - I know I do. We know he has bad knees and can't do all the exercise moves like he did before - neither can we. We know he has his mother's genes and probably is as short and round now as she was in her later years - so are we, who have similar genetic heritages.
It would be so nice if he came out with one more exercise video - a real seniors' workout for real seniors! Some of his older senior workouts even 20 year olds had trouble keeping up with (Platinum Sweat, I'm looking at YOU!). The closest he got a what real seniors - not former athletes or professional dancers like he hired for Platinum Sweat - can do was shown in the Richard Simmons and the Silver Foxes one, where the exercises were parents of celebrities, including his mom.
Some of them can't keep up with the speed and the movements, but that's okay - it proves these are ordinary humans! This is the type of workout I want to see him do now!
But if you want to see what he did then, his "people" have been uploading many of his old workouts, some in just 10 minute segments, to his YouTube channel. Stop by for a blast of nostalgia and remember the good old days of Richard Simmons, the Weight saint.
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