Clark’s Age Discrimination Countdown

10: Ralph Andrews, a 76-year-old Californian man who produced game shows in the 1960s and… 10: Ralph Andrews, a 76-year-old Californian man who produced game shows in the 1960s and 70s, filed a lawsuit against the ever-ageless Dick Clark for alleged age discrimination after Clark refused to give him a job based on his age, according to Andrews’ suit.

9: Clark allegedly wrote, in a letter to Andrews, that people their age “were considered dinosaurs,” which confirms reports that Clark did emerge during the Jurassic Period. The letter, included in the lawsuit, also states that, “The business is being run by ‘The Next Generation.'”

8: Andrews has filed a lawsuit against Dick Clark, Dick Clark Productions and Mosaic Media Group, claiming that Clark violated the Fair Employment and Housing Act, which states that it’s illegal for an employer “to discriminate against a person … based upon that person’s age.”

7: Not hiring every older person who applies isn’t discrimination. Andrews claimed that he and Clark have known each other for 40 years, therefore making the idea that Clark discriminated solely based on his age unlikely.

6: Being a dinosaur doesn’t just refer to age; it refers to a mindset. Game shows being marketed to young audiences need people who know their market and, in effect, “think young.”

5: Because Clark allegedly conversed with Andrews for a year, off and on, and knew him from the business, it’s fair to assume that Clark could judge Andrews’ mindset, and could determine whether or not he was compatible with his company’s agenda.

4: Clark’s frankness, in the alleged letter, was admirable, as was his offer to alert Andrews should a new project arise that needed his “experienced hands.” Rather than hiding behind corporate euphemisms, he told Andrews the precise reason that he wasn’t being hired, and why others were. Perhaps, in this land of litigation, Clark should have been more veiled than he was in order to avoid this lawsuit.

3: Mandatory retirement ages do sometimes backfire. Dr. John Fenn was forced to retire from Yale at 70, but afterwards won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002. He ultimately found fame while working at Virginia Commonwealth University, at age 85. Clark’s choice, which was made with business success, not age, in mind may well backfire too. But wrong decisions are not necessarily discrimination.

2: Fenn is the exception, and not the rule. Clark knows his business — that’s why he’s been in it for so long. And, while the Fair Employment and Housing Act should be invoked in times of clear discrimination, this isn’t one.

1: Clark was familiar with Andrews’s work, and decided not to hire him. In this case, it was Andrews, and not Clark, who dropped the ball.