BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 21, 2025) — Today, THE PLANET dedicates our column to our friend, colleague, collaborator, and compatriot, Dave Bubriski.

How does one sum up the loss of a friend in a way that conveys the depth of feeling and strikes the right tone, that elusive mixture of absence for the future, happiness for the past, and the simple and unaffected sadness of now? Our loss is just a fraction of what his family and loved ones are experiencing, and we convey our deepest sympathies to them. The head must rule the heart–except when the heart is breaking. Then one must accede to the emotions, which are never wrong in such instances.

The best way to deal with feelings is to feel them. So we do.

THE PLANET got the news over the weekend that Dave had died, and it came as a shock and loss. In fact, we were in touch just a couple days ago on a new project that would have been a hoot to do. It will never come to fruition, but that is the minimum of it. The true gravity comes from knowing that we shall be deprived of his presence and character, not the least of which was his bone-dry sense of humor and razor-sharp wit.

In a poem long ago, we wrote that “a friend is someone who asks you questions.” Dave was that person, as we were to him. Our talks included politics, which he loved and for which he had passion; our mutual interest in the New York football Giants, particularly the Tittle-to-Shofner years, the Three Stooges, those sage slayers of the phony and self-absorbed; media, particularly the production side, and much more.

———- ooo ———-

If you knew Dave, count yourself lucky. If you did not “know” him, perhaps you indirectly did through THE PLANET‘s ventures in television and films. Dave produced the hundreds of shows we did on cable. If you remember PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION—PVTV–you remember Dave. This was live TV that made flying by the seat of your pants look like the first-class traveling section of a 747. That was the fun of it, for both of us.

It takes a special kind of person not to get rattled in that kind of situation: You have an hour to fill, it’s live, it’s spontaneous and improvisational, and you simply dive in and do it. This was the same thrill we got from our thousands of radio shows on WBRK, mounting the high wire over a lava-filled canyon blindfolded while juggling chain saws. On PVTV, Dave and I had to rely on a kind of telepathy. We’d meet prior to air time, the pre-production meeting lasting as long as five minutes, if we were lucky. Fortunately, Dave shared our vision of the show: all improv, on the fly, and with the same likely targets in mind.

Dave and I also coproduced three one-hour films of “life in the city of Pittsfield,” satirical hours where we did our best to stick pins and needles into the hot-air gasbags of local politics. Dave would serve as coproducer, cameraman, and ran sound. THE PLANET would be out front, making it up as we went along, shooting on location, often to the curiosity and wonderment of onlookers and passersby. It was Dave who helped create our most memorable character, The Generalissimo. Oh, man, what fun.

———- ooo ———-

Off the air, Dave and I would get together for breakfast. The fruits of our conversations were low-hanging and consumptive, aspects of the kind of sharing one can do when someone else “gets” you. Dave “got” us, and we “got” him.

Dave Bubriski was a living example of that line from a country music song: “Always say ‘yes’ if ‘yes’ is the answer.” He was cooperative, quiet, self-effacing, willing, and able. He devoted countless hours to loving his family, helping friends, and assisting in the community. Like all of us, he didn’t throw a perfect game in life. Such is left to Don Larsen. He made his mistakes, as we all have done, but his errors didn’t define him. They improved him.

There is so much more to say but no more words for saying.

Godspeed, David. If there is an eternal reward, you’ve got it … or what’s a heaven for?

“Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones” — Baron de Montesquieu.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE. DAVE IS COMING!”

LOVE TO ALL.

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