Going Goen Gone

Things haven't been the same since Bob Goen was relieved of his duties on Entertainment Tonight. Really if you’re reading this and you finally realize that he’s gone and has been gone for months. What is odd is that Goen left without a trance, leaving only scant evidence that he was even employed there at all. Was he? Did it happen?

How did most of us “meet” Bob Goen? It was perhaps in the early ‘90s went he took over hosting chores for the ill-fated Pat Sajak less Wheel of Fortune. Rolf Benirschke lack of skill pretty much set Goen’s so-so career in motion. By the time Goen signed on to ET, his biggest appeal was that he wasn’t John Tesh. Of course millions of other humans also hold that distinction, just saying. Nightly with or without a fully functioning Mary Hart, Goen was the go-to guy for sad farewells, feigned enthusiasm and the pointless reviewing of old tape from the Dinah Shore show. It all went well until a few years back when Goen did the typicial: Bob Goen got a case of the cutes.

Certainly never a powerhouse of entertainment, Goen’s repeated collisions with the sleaze and self-importantance seemed to be his downfall. His one-sided grin-fest relationship with Julia Roberts pretty much set the gag meters on overtime. The hideous Entertainment Tonight as the Friends skit seemed to also make Bob “Chandler Bing” Goen’s head swell to skyscraper in scope.


At the same time, Goen--a step away from straight facedly delivering the inside info on weight of celebrity babies stools became a "legal beagle." It was Michael Jackson's courthouse woes that seemed to flatline all impartially and common sense. All of the sudden Bob Goen became a "legal beagle." Traipsing around with a fellow also-ran, Marcia Clark, Goen all but kept a vigil by whatever court door Jackson was due to slide out of. And that's where Entertainment Tonight left him as he was last seen by many, in front of another courthouse in another ill-fitting jacket with his remaining crops of hair blowing in the breeze. With ET lining up reinforcements in the wings the only thing left was for Goen to hit the bricks, scale a really tall fence, leave his prison clothes in the river, etc... Mary Hart, who all but had chickens on John Tesh's last day, didn't even mention Goen again. Jann Carl, Bob's other partner didn't utter a peep either. Goen served ET from 1993-2004. He was good about half that time.


There's Bob Goen interviewing a totally disinterested Halle Berry...