Ask around comedy clubs and you’ll hear stories about Shandling’s gentle nudges and big ideas. His approach helped performers rethink their voice, leaving a blueprint for how modern comedy grows.

There’s no shortage of stories of celebrities gone bad, but when Dana Plato—Diff’rent Strokes’ sweet-as-pie Kimberly—went off the deep end, fans took notice. Her short life became a series of tragic checkmarks of how not to manage a career. There were the drugs, the adult films, the video store hold up, and so much more. The public couldn’t stop watching this fragile life shattering in slow motion right before their very eyes.

The story of Aaliyah is truly heartbreaking. It’s not just because of its abrupt ending, but also because one can’t help mourning the loss of all that talent and promise. At 22, she achieved the kind of success most people only dream of. What big things was she destined for if she had lived longer? Pull out some tissues as we reminisce about the insanely talented artist and her full, but sadly short life.

Whitney Houston already lived in a world built of diamond-bright expectations, but when The Bodyguard soundtrack detonated into the stratosphere, selling 45 million copies, the world didn’t just celebrate her. It claimed her. That voice—once a heavenly instrument she wielded with ease—suddenly belonged to everyone else. The film-era triumph didn’t just elevate her; it locked her into a public image she could never escape.

Some movie sets run on caffeine, talent, and a prayer. Others run on caffeine, talent, prayers, and the faint hope that no one gets set on fire, eaten by a lion, struck by lightning, or sucked into a helicopter rotor. Before modern health and safety standards insisted that film crews return home with the same number of limbs they arrived with, Hollywood operated more like the Wild West—minus the union-mandated lunch breaks.

From the rural fields of Tennessee to global rock-royalty status, the journey of Tina Turner was never conventional—and her escape from an abusive marriage was the dramatic turning point. As she slipped away in the dark, carrying only 36 cents and a Mobil gas card, the world was getting ready for one of music’s most astonishing comebacks.