Top 22 Alan Thicke Quotes

There are psychological repercussions to illness and we need a little more help to get through the effects not only on the afflicted but on the family. And I think there’s even a place for humor in that.

The two things I hear wherever I go, literally walking down the street, through airports, or in restaurants – it is either ‘You raised me,’ or ‘Fellow Canadian.’ Not even a paraphrase – those are the exact remarks.

So there was a constant flow and a thin line there between reality and television and yes, much of what I was experiencing in my real life was also what was going on in the television show to the extent that I had to take writers’ advice and from the counselors around.

I’m a big proponent of having a mental health component go along with whatever the physical realities are.

I did write a lot of TV themes – I wrote about 45 of them, and a couple of which are still reference and popular today, like ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ and ‘Facts of Life.’ But I was a limited musician.

If one tends to be a humorous person and you have a sense of humor the rest of your life then you can certainly lighten the load, I think, by bringing that to your trials and tribulations. It’s easy to have a sense of humor when everything is going well.

And introduce an element of cynicism and darkness into it and just realize that we’re all vulnerable. We are humans. There is a finite end to this life and we’re all going to face it and a little silliness can help.

I’m not doing anything Jack Nicholson turned down. Any part that required a character distanced from myself would have been a reach. But the one thing I’ve always done well at, and I’m most devoted to, is my children.

My kids are all pretty big and tough and strong, and I don’t worry about them being bullied – the reverse, be kind to people and don’t ever be a bully yourself, and I think they’ve followed that.

I was discovered, or mentored, by Norman Lear, who plucked me from the grinder of relative obscurity.

My advice, it’s get involved in any and every aspect of the business that affords itself to you.

Family involvement is a valuable thing and playing together actively can be the ’90s version of it. Instead of just watching, you can do it together… something we don’t spend enough time on. We can motivate and excite each other about fitness.

I’m not able to go in with an act that I use month to month year to year all the time. It’s constantly evolving and changing and that keeps me on my toes but certainly adds to the challenge.

Fitness needs to be perceived as fun and games or we subconsciously avoid it.

One week you may be an actor, and the next week you had to be nimble enough to be a TV host. And the week after that, you might have to do some stand-up or be in an improv company or write and sing a song somewhere.

Part of the mystique of shows like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is the idea that they begin with a couple of plot lines, and then a bunch of geniuses improvise dialogue. It’s not quite that unstructured and loose. It makes for a good urban myth, but everything’s a little more tightly scripted and programmed than that.

About 100 things that your kid will do that will surprise you and break your heart and it will be a combination of fact based therapy, medically advised kinds of passages accompanied by celebrity anecdotes and just some funny stuff to lighten the load.

In terms of social media, I try to have my voice heard loudly in the cacophony of other influences whether from television and the Internet or social media… I want my voice to be heard in terms of the standards and values that I try to pass on to my kids.

I have few other characters to relate to other than myself. I have enough of a body of work now that the paternal side of Alan Thicke gets a lot of play. I do get a lot of calls to play dads.

My advice to Robin is listen to your heart, do what you feel. Follow your heart in love and marriage as you would in careers, and you’ll be fine. Robin has a great heart. He’s a fabulous father.

I wouldn’t call myself a standup in the presence of Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock, but I do my share of it and it has been and remains part of my activity and I like it.

In ‘The Goods,’ I’m Ed Helms’ dad, and I was known all those years as Kirk Cameron’s father, and now I’m known as Robin Thicke’s father, so I find myself playing myself a lot and, frankly, living up to expectations of what the public’s image of me is.