I hit a new low last night. I watched “American Idol Extra” on the Fox Reality Channel. That’s right… Apparently I can’t get enough American Idol during the week (when it takes up 3 hours of my weeknight viewing,) so now I’m watching an additional hour of coverage as well. This “American Idol Extra” is like watching post game Superbowl coverage. The show essentially takes place at the AI stage and they interview the contestants as they’re coming off the stage.
So Amanda Overmeyer gets booted from the show last week, and then as she’s walking offstage, she’s met by the AI Extra host and he’s getting her “initial thoughts” about being kicked off. And I’m watching this shit like it’s important. And then they start parading out old Idol contestants to do some interviews… and I’m hooked.
Remember Constantine? (Of course you don’t. But I do.) He’s one of the hosts of this garbage. There was also an appearance by Jon Peter Lewis from several seasons ago. Remember him? (Why would you? But I did.) Just writing about this is making me sad for myself. (Not so sad that I don’t have time to remind you that if you’re losing your hair, I urge you to visit www.tryrogaine.com for a free one month’s supply of Men’s Rogaine Foam.)I don’t know if I’ll ever watch Amercian Idol Extra again… It made me profoundly sad, even while entertaining me. I did set it to record again on my TiVo, though. I mean, as the contestants start leaving now, it’s gonna be pretty damn interesting to hear from them right as they come off the stage. And only AI Extra can give you that kind of access. But enough about that sadness…
I’ve discovered a new show that is truly entertaining. Check out “Locked Up Abroad” on The National Geographic Channel. That’s some good TV right there. It’s hour long documentaries about people imprisoned in countries other than their own. Like last night, I watched two English mates get locked up in Caracas, Venezuela.
It was captivating and horrifying to watch them tell their stories. As you could probably imagine, the penal system in Caracas is not the best in the world. These guys were literally fighting for their lives everyday… They ended up spending almost 4 years in Venezuelan prisons before they found their freedom. (The next episode set to record on my TiVo is someone getting imprisoned in Nepal. Should be interesting.)
So, there you have it. Two new TV shows I’m into… One sad. One riveting. Both recommended.
March 24th, 2008
We’ve talked about it on the air a few times, and now the actual beginning of the tournament is almost upon us. This year, for our March Sadness tournament, instead of breaking down 64 college basketball teams that no one cares about, we’ll be breaking down 64 video games that EVERYONE cares about. We’ll assign a video game to each team in the tournament, and then that video game will represent the team throughout the tourney. That way, instead of talking about North Carolina and Duke, we’ll be talking about Frogger and Asteroids.
I’m in a video game mode right now. On Friday I bought my 3 year old son (and me) a Nintendo Wii. What a cool game. My son, who turns 4 in April, absolutely loves it. He’s been playing baseball, tennis, bowling, and boxing all weekend long. My parents came over, and they’re even playing it with him. Yesterday, I stopped by Gamestop and bought a game called “Playground.” Now my kid and I are playing dodgeball against each other, and I love it. What a great purchase!
I grew up playing video games. I had the Atari 2600… The Intellivision… and ColecoVision. I even had a game system called the “Fairchild.” Anyone remember Fairchild? Video games played such a huge role in my growing up… I remember going to the arcade near my house called “Peacock’s Palace.” I’d walk in, wondering if they had any new games that came in. The line for Donkey Kong would be 6 people deep, so I’d end up playing Rally X or Tempest. (Remember how you’d stake your place in line at the arcade games? You’d line up quarters on the machine to slot your place.)
Anyway… I digress. I intended to make this blog about our March Sadness tournament, and I wanted to ask for your help. What video games should be represented? I’ve got a bunch already… Frogger, Pac Man, Q Bert, Tapper, Burgertime, and numerous others. But I need more suggestions. What are some of your ideas for the top 64 video games ever?
And then… Just as I was pretty sure last night that a video game tournament was the way to go, I had another idea pop into my head. What about a tournament of game show sounds? If you’ve been listening to the show lately, you know I’ve been stuck on the “yodeling” sound from the old Price Is Right game called “Cliffhanger.” So I started thinking that a tournament of game show sounds might be a more entertaining tournament this year.
And the beauty of it is that a game show could have multiple sounds in the tournament. The Price Is Right would probably be represented by several sounds… including Plinko, Cliffhanger, and the “losing” sound that we play all the time. Match Game would be represented by its theme song. Jeopardy would be represented by its “thinking music” and maybe the sound of the board being set. Wheel of Fortune could be represented by the sound of the wheel spinning… and maybe the crowd shouting “Wheel… Of… Fortune.”
The possibilities seems endless. So what should it be? A video game tournament? Or a game show tournament? I need your opinions and suggestions… So get to it. I just thought of another one: Press Your Luck will be represented by someone yelling, “No Whammies.”
March 10th, 2008
I promised during last week’s blog that I would do a questions and answers session for this week’s blog, so here you go… Feel free to post any question or comment that you’d like, and at some point I’ll respond to it right here on this very blog!
This isn’t the actual thing that I wanted to blog about this week, but I’ll do it anyway. I really wanted to blog about this new show on MTV that I can’t stop watching… “Randy Jackson presents America’s Best Dance Crew.” That’s right. I said it. I’m watching a dance competition on MTV and I LIKE IT. So take away my man card. Send me to un-manly prison. Tell me I have no business being part of a sports show if I enjoy watching “Randy Jackson presents America’s Best Dance Crew.” I don’t care! I’m going to keep watching.
Now, back to the regularly scheduled blog. Fire away. Ask questions. Nothing is off limits here.
March 3rd, 2008
