Marvel at people's hands up felt orafices!
So busy weekend this weekend. Saturday I went to MuppetFest at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It was a BLAST. The best part was the Muppet Q&A where the audience got to ask questions of the Muppets. A great moment was when somebody asked Floyd (from the Electric Mayhem) is he was still tight with Janice. Floyd responded by saying, "Well, Janice isn't as tight as she used to be!" Hilarious stuff. There was also a retrospective of the Creature Shop's work as well as a look at a neat avant-garde film by Jim Henson called "Time Piece." The most surreal part of the day was when I was walking down the aisle trying to find a seat. Upon turning around I see this giant green thing in front of me saying "hi ho!" in Kermit's voice. It was a man in a Kermit suit. Wait...I should rephrase that...it was a FAN in a giant Kermit suit. Not one of the people working for the event, a fan. I think to sum it up best...this was probably the gay equivalent of a Trekkie convention.
By the way, my roomie Ted will be writing up his take on Sunday's events of MuppetFest in our brand new "Guest Blog of the Week" section. Look for that some time tomorrow.
Went to Erin's holiday party in the evening. 'Twas a lot of fun. Ted and I got to meet her really cool sister Leslie. And the best part...they both live just walking distance from us! There was a very twisted gift exchange at the party which netted us some candles and a set of Knott's Berry Farm jellies. Mmmm...peach jelly.
Today, I went to the Museum of TV and Radio with my friend Brad. We took a lot at some really cool game show nuggets, most notably two great Chuck Woolery episodes of "Wheel of Fortune." I'll say it again...Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford were classic "Wheel of Fortune." We also watched "Celebrity Sweepstakes," "Jackpot," "Say When," "The Cross-Wits," and one of the worst game shows of all time, "The Magnificent Marble Machine." Oh...you've never heard of it? This obscure game revolved aroudn the gimmick of having contestants and their celebrity partners play a giant life-size pinball machine. Sounds fun on paper but is hilariously bad when seen in it's noisy, gaudy glory.
So....here's the write-up I had been promising on the bad news of Friday...
"Card Sharks" got the axe. The ratings hadn't been all that hot and the market's just not great for new syndicated shows, let alone new syndicated game shows at the moment. The show had been the subject of some harsh criticism from the game show die-hards on the newsgroup. Now, I'll admit the show was not perfect...in retrospect, there were some minor rules changes I would have suggested, but overall the reaction I got from the general public was positive. People liked the pacing of the show, they loved the set, they loved Pat and Tami, and they especially loved the video clips. I think what hurt the show was the timing of its premiere and its bad time slots in general. Lots of people didn't even know the show was on! I mean, who in the hell is going to find a show that's on at 4:30 in the morning in some cities!
I think in another time and better support and publicity, we could have gotten better numbers and survived this really tough fall season. In any case, say what you will about whether you liked the show or not...there was still a group of hard-working people who worked many long hours to put together those shows. It saddens me that they won't get to finish out the rest of the season as we had planned, but knowing how this business works, they'll be back on their feet with some other shows. And knowing how the game show world goes, I'm sure Card Sharks in some form or another somewhere down the line...
So busy weekend this weekend. Saturday I went to MuppetFest at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It was a BLAST. The best part was the Muppet Q&A where the audience got to ask questions of the Muppets. A great moment was when somebody asked Floyd (from the Electric Mayhem) is he was still tight with Janice. Floyd responded by saying, "Well, Janice isn't as tight as she used to be!" Hilarious stuff. There was also a retrospective of the Creature Shop's work as well as a look at a neat avant-garde film by Jim Henson called "Time Piece." The most surreal part of the day was when I was walking down the aisle trying to find a seat. Upon turning around I see this giant green thing in front of me saying "hi ho!" in Kermit's voice. It was a man in a Kermit suit. Wait...I should rephrase that...it was a FAN in a giant Kermit suit. Not one of the people working for the event, a fan. I think to sum it up best...this was probably the gay equivalent of a Trekkie convention.
By the way, my roomie Ted will be writing up his take on Sunday's events of MuppetFest in our brand new "Guest Blog of the Week" section. Look for that some time tomorrow.
Went to Erin's holiday party in the evening. 'Twas a lot of fun. Ted and I got to meet her really cool sister Leslie. And the best part...they both live just walking distance from us! There was a very twisted gift exchange at the party which netted us some candles and a set of Knott's Berry Farm jellies. Mmmm...peach jelly.
Today, I went to the Museum of TV and Radio with my friend Brad. We took a lot at some really cool game show nuggets, most notably two great Chuck Woolery episodes of "Wheel of Fortune." I'll say it again...Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford were classic "Wheel of Fortune." We also watched "Celebrity Sweepstakes," "Jackpot," "Say When," "The Cross-Wits," and one of the worst game shows of all time, "The Magnificent Marble Machine." Oh...you've never heard of it? This obscure game revolved aroudn the gimmick of having contestants and their celebrity partners play a giant life-size pinball machine. Sounds fun on paper but is hilariously bad when seen in it's noisy, gaudy glory.
So....here's the write-up I had been promising on the bad news of Friday...
"Card Sharks" got the axe. The ratings hadn't been all that hot and the market's just not great for new syndicated shows, let alone new syndicated game shows at the moment. The show had been the subject of some harsh criticism from the game show die-hards on the newsgroup. Now, I'll admit the show was not perfect...in retrospect, there were some minor rules changes I would have suggested, but overall the reaction I got from the general public was positive. People liked the pacing of the show, they loved the set, they loved Pat and Tami, and they especially loved the video clips. I think what hurt the show was the timing of its premiere and its bad time slots in general. Lots of people didn't even know the show was on! I mean, who in the hell is going to find a show that's on at 4:30 in the morning in some cities!
I think in another time and better support and publicity, we could have gotten better numbers and survived this really tough fall season. In any case, say what you will about whether you liked the show or not...there was still a group of hard-working people who worked many long hours to put together those shows. It saddens me that they won't get to finish out the rest of the season as we had planned, but knowing how this business works, they'll be back on their feet with some other shows. And knowing how the game show world goes, I'm sure Card Sharks in some form or another somewhere down the line...
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