Blog Archives
90s Talk Show Hosts Attack
Okay, not really, but it’s starting to look that way.
Yesterday, we reported that Arsenio Hall wants to return to television with a talk show. Today, Reuter’s reports that Ricki Lake will officially rejoin the daytime talk show circuit on September 10. A start date that she will share with Katie Couric, Survivor host Jeff Probst, and comedian and current Family Feud host Steve Harvey. Those four new talk shows will have to compete with, Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper, Wendy Williams, Dr. Phil, “The View”, and “The Talk” as well as the “trashy” talk shows like Maury and Jerry Springer.
There are already enough daytime talk shows. We don’t really need more of them. I guess it’s better than forty-two more court shows, but it seems like the networks aren’t even bothering coming up with something other than talk shows and court shows. Whatever happened to game shows? I’m not asking for the glory days of the 70s with classics like Match Game. I just want more variety than The Price is Right, Let’s Make a Deal, and Family Feud.
What do you predict for this new batch of talk shows?
America’s Got Talent Visits St. Louis
Issac Brian Brown
I had some faith that Tuesday’s episode of AGT would be better than Monday night’s, simply because the odds are they would start to find better talent. I was mostly right. They had never visited St. Louis prior to this season, which sort of surprised me. Regardless, St. Louis’ first audition show two weeks ago was also a good showing. It makes some sense that this show would be good too.
America’s Got Talent begins every episode with a feature story. It’s normally a tossup as to whether it would be a terrible act that happens to be entertaining or an act of genuine talent. When “Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” started playing at the beginning of the guy’s feature, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a good act. When the contestant said he was a puppeteer, I was positive it wasn’t going to be good. Aside from the fact that this type of act is immensely unlikely to be worthy of 1 million dollars, the viewer quickly discovered he wasn’t even a good puppeteer. Nick Cannon promptly turned to the camera with a sock puppet in his hand and said, “I’m a better puppeteer than this dude.” Despite the complete lack of potential this act had, I was still entertained. The contestant had very high energy and the judges’ spirits seemed very high. This was going to be a captivating hour.
Who’s Getting Sent to Room 101?
This week I’m going to introduce my fellow American’s to a new British panel or comedy show everyday.
Room 101, another show that originated on radio, lets celebrities send people and things to “a fate worse than death.” Since that is the premise of the show, celebrities pick things they don’t like or things they think would make for a funny exchange and good television.
Not every object mentions goes into Room 101 because the host has to be persuaded that the object deserves to go into Room 101, which is named for the room in George Orwell’s 1984. Some things that celebrities have chosen to send to Room 101 are American Football, The Beatles, and even the show itself.
There have been three hosts of Room 101: Nick Hancock, Paul Merton, and Frank Skinner. The following clip is from the last show ever with Paul Merton and has Ian Hislop trying to send Piers Morgan into Room 101. However, it doesn’t quite work the way as planned.
Will Arsenio Hall Get a New Talk Show?
Fresh from his Apprentice win, Arsenio Hall is looking to strike while the iron is hot. The comedian and former late night talk show host may return with a new syndicated talk show. According to Deadline and Broadcasting & Cable , Hall is in talks CBS Television Distribution and Tribune Broadcasting for a syndicated talk show, but no deal has been finalized yet.
Arsenio Hall has not been relevant in a long time, so a new talk show might not be a success. His first talks show, which was also syndicated, ran from 1989 to 1994 and was a hit with an “urban” audience. However, nowadays, it tends to be unfairly grouped with Chevy Chase’s abysmal Fox talk show that used be a punchline. (The failure of The Jay Leno Show has replaced it as the biggest talk show flop.)
Unlike Chase, Hall has managed to be remembered for something other than sucking at his job. The clip of Bill Clinton playing the saxophone is always played in presidential election years as an example of a presidential candidate looking cool. Also, anyone 30 to 40 years old probably remembers the dog pound, its fist pumping, and “Woof, woof, woofing.”
While I don’t think Hall will be a success, I could be wrong. Nobody thought Conan O’Brien would last more than 13 weeks and he’s been around for almost 19 years.
America’s Got Talent: Not that Inspiring
This early in the season, there’s a lot of novelty in America’s Got Talent. I try to look at these acts with a critical eye and not simply take pleasure in America’s failure. During the show’s tenure, there has been a lack of success in finding a sustainable “star.” There could be many reasons for this, but AGT is a talent show with absolutely no parameters. Perhaps, it’s got to come to terms with the fact that America hasn’t been that good. There’s still plenty of audition shows left, but the country has a lot to prove.
Monday’s episode was enjoyable, but not overly impressive. Some acts were good, but I sincerely doubt I saw one with a serious shot at winning the competition. Conversely, some acts were bad, but I don’t think the public will be talking about them or that their performances will spread around YouTube for the sake of hilarity. It was just an hour that did an adequate job of holding my attention.
This episode opened with a singing and dancing troupe called Inspired, which is also a non-profit organization with a focus on the inner-cities. They told the judges they have been referred to as “the urban Glee.”
As cynical as this sounds, it is at this point where the show gets less entertaining. I’m all for sentimentality, but one would expect that at least one act with a troubling or “inspiring” background would not make it to the next round because they just aren’t talented enough. I do not remember a single instance of that happening in any competition show, especially AGT. I suppose, on shows like AGT, everyone needs a good story, but I didn’t appreciate knowing that Inspired would go through before I saw them perform. They inevitably were voted through to Las Vegas. I would tolerate this better if they were a spectacular act, but their rendition of “Lean On Me” wasn’t anything exciting.
TV Heaven, Telly Hell
This week I’m going to introduce my fellow American’s to a new British panel or comedy show everyday.
Channel 4’s TV Heaven, Telly Hell has a celebrity tell host Sean Lock about what shows, people, etc. belong in “TV Heaven” or “Telly Hell.” As you can probably infer, tings that the celebrity likes go to “TV Heaven” and those that they don’t go to “Telly Hell”. It’s one of those shows that would be fun to play a version of with your friends. Of course, you don’t agree with the celebrity’s choices all the time, but that is the fun in watching.
This episode features comedian Jimmy Carr, who sends Jeremy Clarkson and Flavor of Love to “TV Heaven” and Derek Acorah and Babestation to “Telly Hell.” Why Carr admitted to watching Flavor of Love, I’ll never know, but the results are very funny. Derek Acorah is a English Medium. Babestation is a TV channel whose title is self-explanatory.
Have fun watching Jimmy Carr on TV Heaven, Telly Hell.
The last three parts of the episode are after the jump. The show is a half hour.
Stephen Fry and Alan Davies are Quite Interesting
This week I’m going to introduce my fellow American’s to a new British panel or comedy show everyday.
Today’s show is QI or Quite Interesting. Each series (or seasons for Americans) has a different letter of the alphabet determining the topics. For example, series A had shows based around the topics: Aquatic Animals, Advertising, and Antidotes.
The incomparable Stephen Fry hosts QI. While the adorable Alan Davies is the show’s only permanent panelist, who typically loses by what appears to be a random amount because of QI‘s crazy point system that only a guy named Colin knows the formula for.
The following clip has Stephen explain that the grammar rule “I before E except after C” is not as accurate as one would expect. The panel of Graham Norton, Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Mack, and Alan Davies have hard time comprehending what Stephen is saying. Lee Mack has a tougher time than everyone else. Enjoy!
After the jump, you will find the QI‘s unbroadcast pilot. As the first episode ever made, it takes place before the set was changed and the current points system was put in place. Alan Davies, Bill Bailey, Eddie Izzard and Kit Hesketh-Harvey are the featured panelists. For American (and possibly some Brits), it will be odd seeing a red-haired Eddie Izzard.
The Forgettable Season of Food Network Star
The Next Food Network Star is one of those shows that I watch because I think it’s going to get better, but it never does. It’s hard to believe that Food Network Star made its debut in 2005 with Marc Summers as host. The show hasn’t had a true host for about 5 season. Instead, the judges take turns announcing rules, so that the show does not completely lose its way. Each year Food Network Star continues without a host, I wish Marc Summers was back to keep track of things and help viewers keep track of the contestants.
Spoiler Alert
The contestants for season 8 of Food Network Star.
Previewing FOX’s Fall Season- Part 2
There’s a lot of risk in creating new television. The months or sometimes years invested may go unappreciated or completely unnoticed. Fox has taken those risks. It is the youngest broadcast television station, having only been in operation since April 1987, and its hits have been groundbreaking .
In the very beginning, Fox broke in with Married…With Children and it lasted 11 seasons. For all its inappropriate humor, it made the standard sitcom family a dysfunctional one and that point of view is not going anywhere. Fox’s next hit was The Simpsons, which debuted in December 1989 and ushered in a new generation of primetime animation. It is still as strong as ever to this day.
Fox’s has not been so lucky in the drama department. FOX seems to be a lighthearted network. With House on its way out and 24 still missed by its millions of fans, the network has to take risks again by going out of their comfort zone. Serious dramas are a bigger gamble as there is no way to really “love to hate” them. They have to be genuinely good. FOX knows its challenges. They’ve come to expect a struggle finding a new hit show.
Fox only has one new drama premiering in the fall, so they are leaving themselves a lot of breathing room for midseason. Now that one of their few hit dramas is gone, they have to have some faith in their new shows.
I’ve Never Seen Star Wars
This week I’m going to introduce my fellow American’s to a new British panel or comedy show everyday.
I’ve Never Seen Stars Wars, which is based on the BBC Radio 4 series of the same name, is not one of the more popular panel shows. It only ran on BBC Four and BBC Two for 8 episodes in 2008 on and had 1 special in 2011. The original host was Marcus Brigstocke, who I have honestly never heard of before, but has an awesome name. Jo Brand hosted the 2011 special. Both Brigstocke and Brand are good hosts, but I prefer Jo Brand. However, I am extremely biased toward anything with Stephen Fry, who is the guest in that episode, so don’t let my opinion sway you.
Many of the celebrities are not well-known to Americans with the exception of maybe Stephen Fry and Clive Anderson, who was the host of the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway?. Despite not knowing the guest celebrities well, the show is still very funny.
The following clips are from Marcus Brigstocke’s run as host and features Clive Anderson as a guest.
Click the link below to see the second and third part of the episode.
Wait! What's A Dial? 