Maybe this is how Elvis felt when he shot that television set...
There are few TV personalities who really irk me. A recent addition was made to the list...Michael Essany. Maybe part of it is jealousy that this kid's hosting a national-televised show and I'm not, but something about him just bugs the hell out of me. The real tip of the iceberg was this recent article from Yahoo news. The quote that particularly yanks my chain is this one:
"Pat Sajak is a game show host. There's a difference between telling people to spin the wheel and entertaining audiences like Johnny Carson."
This was in response a question he was asked to comment about failed talk show hosts including Chevy Chase and Pat Sajak. All right, on one degree yes, his quote is true. I'll give him the benefit that there IS a difference and that Pat Sajak didn't do the greatest job hosting his late-night talk show. But I sense there being an implication that what Pat Sajak does and what game show hosts do in general are irrevleant and do not constitute entertainment.
I'm sorry, but there is a lot more to Pat Sajak's job than telling people to just spin the wheel. There's playing the role of the cheerleader when people win, the empathy man when a player loses, the comic relief when a moment needs some humor, and the traffic cop to guide the audience and players through the game. I'm sick of people belittling the role of the game show host and thinking that all it consists of is just reading off questions, explaining rules off of cue cards, and grinning and looking pretty. I'd go as far as to say that failure rate of newbies to the game show host world to newbies trying the talk show hosting thing is higher. As I quickly discovered when hosting my rinky-dink game show in college, it's NOT an easy job and a lot of the good game show hosts don't get the respect they deserve. In the three or so years I've been in the game show industry, I've seen a number of good hosts' work up close and personal and these guys are putting everything they've got into it. There's a lot of homework and quick thinking that needs to be done to get the job done right. In my opinion, Essany's quote was quite an arrogant, ignorant, and dare I say, assholic comment to make...
Forgive me for being all rantish there...but I dunno, reading that particular quote from Michael Essany makes me have an even greater yearning to kick my TV in when I see his grinning face on it. Ugh...But I vent...
In other things...Somebody on one of the message boards commented that this website has turned into a "Whammy" PR site...I admit it, it's been a bit Whammy-fied as of late, but I believe in the show. In a way, it's kinda been like my baby, since I've probably had more input in this show than any of the shows I've worked on. So why not do a little plugging for it? Here's the latest pic:
This pic answers the question as to how we can do six (sometimes seven a shows day) and manage to keep things looking all nice and tidy despite the Double Whammys. :-)
There are few TV personalities who really irk me. A recent addition was made to the list...Michael Essany. Maybe part of it is jealousy that this kid's hosting a national-televised show and I'm not, but something about him just bugs the hell out of me. The real tip of the iceberg was this recent article from Yahoo news. The quote that particularly yanks my chain is this one:
"Pat Sajak is a game show host. There's a difference between telling people to spin the wheel and entertaining audiences like Johnny Carson."
This was in response a question he was asked to comment about failed talk show hosts including Chevy Chase and Pat Sajak. All right, on one degree yes, his quote is true. I'll give him the benefit that there IS a difference and that Pat Sajak didn't do the greatest job hosting his late-night talk show. But I sense there being an implication that what Pat Sajak does and what game show hosts do in general are irrevleant and do not constitute entertainment.
I'm sorry, but there is a lot more to Pat Sajak's job than telling people to just spin the wheel. There's playing the role of the cheerleader when people win, the empathy man when a player loses, the comic relief when a moment needs some humor, and the traffic cop to guide the audience and players through the game. I'm sick of people belittling the role of the game show host and thinking that all it consists of is just reading off questions, explaining rules off of cue cards, and grinning and looking pretty. I'd go as far as to say that failure rate of newbies to the game show host world to newbies trying the talk show hosting thing is higher. As I quickly discovered when hosting my rinky-dink game show in college, it's NOT an easy job and a lot of the good game show hosts don't get the respect they deserve. In the three or so years I've been in the game show industry, I've seen a number of good hosts' work up close and personal and these guys are putting everything they've got into it. There's a lot of homework and quick thinking that needs to be done to get the job done right. In my opinion, Essany's quote was quite an arrogant, ignorant, and dare I say, assholic comment to make...
Forgive me for being all rantish there...but I dunno, reading that particular quote from Michael Essany makes me have an even greater yearning to kick my TV in when I see his grinning face on it. Ugh...But I vent...
In other things...Somebody on one of the message boards commented that this website has turned into a "Whammy" PR site...I admit it, it's been a bit Whammy-fied as of late, but I believe in the show. In a way, it's kinda been like my baby, since I've probably had more input in this show than any of the shows I've worked on. So why not do a little plugging for it? Here's the latest pic:
This pic answers the question as to how we can do six (sometimes seven a shows day) and manage to keep things looking all nice and tidy despite the Double Whammys. :-)
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