We Remember John Belushi (Mar 6, 2007)

He was one of the players on the 70s National Lampoon lineup, being featured on several recordings including "Punishment Band" where he plays a stereo being punished screechy sounds by a bad record.

Of course, we remember his rise to big time fame on his 1975-79 job on "Saturday Night Live" as well as the Blues Brothers with his pal and co-star Dan Aykroyd, movies such as "Animal House", "The Blues Brothers Movie", and the bomb but noteworthy "1941".

"Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels feels an obligation to "restate the obvious," that Belushi was profoundly talented and part of the show's creative DNA.

Belushi's TV, movie and music performances proved influential, hitting the baby-boomer sweet spot and surviving despite pop culture's truncated attention span, in spite of his destructive behavior, now exhibited by train-wrecks such as Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Ritchie.

Who can forget his impression of Joe Cocker on SNL? He played Captain Kirk on a Star Trek sketch in the episode where the set gets taken apart piece by piece after Kirk learns the news that NBC has cancelled Star Trek. Who can forget his Samurai skits including the classic sendup of a disco movie that they called "Samurai Night Fever!" How about the time he lampooned Elizabeth Taylor choking on food? He gave us a name for 0.0 grade point averages: Bluto Blutarski from Animal House, who boldly called for a "Food Fight" in the 1978 flick. By 1979, he was a TV star, a movie star, and a recording star all at the same time when "A Briefcase Full of Blues" album by the Blues Brothers was released and hit number one on the Billboard record chart.

It was also said that David Tanny looked like John Belushi. Spooky, isn't it?

Belushi was a hurricane that roared loudly and became the king of all the media that existed way before the Internet was created for the masses.

The comedian was found dead on March 5, 1982, in a hotel bungalow at the Chateau Marmont hotel on the fabled Sunset Strip.

Cathy Evelyn Smith, a drug dealer and user who was convicted of injecting Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine, served 18 months in prison.

His last project was 1981's "Neighbors" with Aykroyd; he was set to make "Ghostbusters," which filmed after his death with Bill Murray replacing him.

If he didn't die 25 years ago, there would have been many more opportunities for Belushi to open for other struggling musicians and actors whom he idolized as well as continuing to inspire a new generation of actors who could add enough depth to the characters that they played to be lovable despite having extreme faults like Bluto in the 1978 movie.

He could have slowed down, taking it easy, laying off the smack and downers, and cleaning himself up, but noooooooooo!

In an ironically funny film short seen on one of the episodes of SNL, Belushi played an old man who outlived all the other original members of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

Who knew that it wasn't to be.