Category: Musings

Saw My First Drew Carey-Hosted Price Is Right

So a funny thing happened one day while I was flipping channels; I found myself watching an episode of The Price Is Right. But not with the usual host Bob Barker, who had retired, but with his successor, Drew Carey.

Yes, that Drew Carey. Of The Drew Carey Show fame.

He’s hosting The Price Is Right now.

And you know what I felt when watching this show?

Awkward.

I don’t watch The Price Is Right on a regular basis these days, but I used to remember watching the show as a kid during those weekdays when I was at home during a day off school. There was something about the soft-spoken Barker and his straw-thin microphone that stuck with me. I couldn’t tell you what that was, but it was enough that whenever I think The Price Is Right, I think Bob Barker.

And now I’m watching an episode hosted by the short and stubby funnyman from Cleveland. And it feels odd.

For what it’s worth, he’s not bad in the gig. I’ve seen him host the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and he was always there, so he can do the hosting thing just fine. But it feels odd seeing him host this show, on those sets, with that same straw-thin microphone.

It’s not going to be the same.

On the other hand, Drew Carey hosting The Price Is Right is NOT the strangest thing I’ve seen this man involved in. After all, he was in the Royal Rumble once upon a time.

Yep.

An “Open” Letter To Mr. Shat(ner)

The following letter is not an open letter, but the approximation of what would be written in an open letter to Mr. Shatner should I feel compelled to do so. It does however reflect my own opinion of the whole Shatner/Star Trek XI affair.

Dear Mr. Shatner,

Word has it that you will not be in the new Star Trek movie and that you have decided to let people know about it, expressing your opinion about how it is a foolish move not to have you in it. I suppose in your mind it’s not fair, considering your old buddy Leonard Nimoy was convinced to return to acting to play the role of “Old Spock” in said movie developed by that guy who did Felicity, Alias, Lost, and some other fine shows. I suppose in your mind, it could be unjust that since you were involved in the “second” birth of Star Trek (I don’t see Jeffrey Hunter rising from the grave complaining about how HE’S not digitally recreated for the new movie since he was involved in the “first” birth of Star Trek) you should involved in the rebirth. Fortunately, Mr. Shatner, I have some soothing words to calm your nerves.

Please shut the fuck up. Pretty please.

So you’re not in the new movie. Big deal. You apparently never made a big deal of not appearing in the Next Generation show despite your best friend Leonard Nimoy appearing in two episodes. You didn’t complain about not being featured in Deep Space Nine (even though you were featured in stock footage) or Voyager. And the last time I checked, you were holding out on a possible cameo for the last Trek venture, Enterprise. And now all of a sudden, you want to be featured in Trek again.

Fuck you, Shatner.

Do yourself a favor, Billy. Just forget about showing up in Star Trek XI. It’s not going to happen and all your moaning and bitching is doing more to make you look like an egotistical asshole than it is to get you into the movie. All this bullshit you’re spewing isn’t making me feel sorry for you – it makes me nauseous. If anything, it makes me feel sorry for all the other fools who buy into your shameful bitching. I mean, I don’t see George Takei complaining about not being involved in the new Trek… he had his share with New Voyages. Same goes for Walter Koenig… and Nichelle Nichols whose name I probably misspelled and for that I apologize in advance if I did, madam. Regardless, they’re not complaining about not being in the movie. In fact, they support the movie and the actors who are playing the roles they once held. Why can’t you?

Just forget about Star Trek. Just stick with your horseback ridings. Stick with Boston Legal. Stick with writing crappy Starfleet Academy novels. Just forget the movie. If you’re lucky and you’re alive when casting for Star Trek 24: The Voyage To The Home comes around, I’m sure they’ll give you a call.

In your own immortal words, Bill… GET A LIFE! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, IT’S JUST A MOVIE!

Thanks for listening. Good night.

Sincerely yours,
DTM

Monty & Sonny Gone From TNA, One Year Of John Worthless World Champ

Don’t know if anyone realized it, but today marks the one-year anniversary of John Worthless’ reign of terror as WWE Champion. Don’t know if anyone actually cares, either.

Apparently, family emergencies doesn’t fair too well when having a career in WWE. It was recently announced that WWE had released former TNA/ECW star Marcus Cor Von (Monty Brown) and developmental talent/former TNA star Sonny Siaki. That’s just too bad.

Apparently, Eric Bischoff is back in power and I didn’t know about it.

Oh Shat(ner)

Apparently the campaign to get Shatner on Abrams’ Trek flick continue as the former “Kirk” is whoring himself out in an attempt to get someone to convince Abrams to stick the Shat in there. And… the talks over at Trekweb are amusing as hell, with the Shat-fans saying that Nimoy betrayed his best friend or some other bullshit…

Doesn’t Shatner already have a TV show he’s doing right now? Shouldn’t he just stick with that? His days as Kirk are long gone and no amount of makeup or toupees is going to bring him back to form just for a useless cameo. Would it be cool to see Kirk back in action? Sure… when a younger guy plays him. If Shatner doesn’t fit into the equation, there should be no reason why he ought to.

Maybe it’s because I was born in the eighties when Trek movies were starting to come out, so I don’t have the same time of love for Kirk. Yes, I do believe he defined Trek. He’s a cultural icon that Shatner has molded into his own. That much cannot be taken away. However, the man is way past his prime as far as that role goes and it’s time for the mantle to be assumed by someone else.

Would it be nice to see Shatner in a Trek movie?

Sure… as the Enterprise chef.

Anchorwoman Axed After One Episode… Sort Of

Now this is a story that is truly worth of a WTF moniker.

In a record-breaking cancellation move, FOX (famous for cancelling shows within a couple episodes) has cancelled the latest comedy-reality series Anchorwoman, featuring a former WWE Diva’s attempts to become a TV news reporter. Some people say the show was so bad it had to be cancelled after the first episode aired. I disagree because when I read the show got cancelled, my first thought was “Wait a minute. The show’s cancelled? I didn’t even know it aired!”

So, this is news that came across some wrestling news site somewhere because coincidentally that’s the only place you could find this sort of hard-hitting information that you apparently never knew you needed… except you really didn’t. This was a show that I’ve heard nothing – and I mean NOTHING about – frequently other sites of non-wrestling media, nor did I ever recall seeing any ads for. Is it the sort of the show that even FOX is embarrassed to allow even a full season run?

The world may never know… save for the few sad folks who somehow caught this on air.

POSTSCRIPT (2023)
Greetings from the future… today! Doing a bit of digging during the process and it turns out that while Anchorwoman was indeed cancelled after its premiere on FOX, it was NOT after one episode. As a matter of fact, the premiere featured the first two episodes aired back-to-back. So in truth, Anchorwoman was axed after two episodes that aired on one night. It was made available for a time on the FOX website – including a number of episodes that never made air – before being taken down and promptly forgotten about.

The TNA in TNA Wrestling stands for “Transparent Numbingly Awful”booking

So last night, at TNA’s Hard Justice PPV, TNA World champion Kurt Angle defeated X-Division/Tag Team champ Samoa Joe to win all the TNA Titles. This happened due to Angle’s wife pulling a swerve on Joe that was so predictable you had to be a total idiot not to see it coming.

What happened to being the wrestling alternative? The thing that was DIFFERENT from WWE, not copying the same bullshit. Instead, we’ve got a bunch of stupid storylines for the sake of being stupid. WWE’s storylines tend to be pretty moronic as well, but at least they end up producing entertaining matches even at the expense of young, fresh talent. Instead, TNA is slowly becoming a second coming of WCW. I mean, it absolutely boggles the mind how progressively bad they’re becoming.

All that talent and they have to push this shit down our throats? That’s just sad.

Then I watch their TNA Today Youtube show which took place at the tail end of their shitty PPV and you have Mike Tenay and Don West complimenting Kurt Angle on his wonderful swerve, suckering everyone into almost feeling sorry for you. Congratulations, guys. I never thought it possible, but you’ve won idiots of the year award… and the year’s not even over yet!

No wonder – Mike Tenay isn’t wearing his signature bow tie. Probably got released from its contractual obligations.

(2024 Update: I got around to watching this show recently. You can check my thoughts here.)

Give It A Rest, Guys.

I find it absolutely amazing that a couple years after Enterprise is canceled, co-creator and writer Brannon Braga is still getting flak from Trekkies over the direction of the series and some of his episodes.

Now Braga admits that he has regretted somethings that have come to pass, but that doesn’t change anything. And you know what? He’s right. Regardless of whether he regrets something or not, it doesn’t mean a damn thing. It doesn’t change a damn thing.

So do me and everyone else a huge favor and give it a rest, guys. Enterprise is dead and buried. It is not coming back. The guy’s moved on to other projects and so has everybody else. Leave him alone.

Good lord, can’t we be happy that somebody else is working on a new Star Trek movie? I, for one, am looking forward to someone else’s take on someone else’s property.

Now fetch me my tea… Earl Grey… hot.

An Interesting Quote From Bob Hoskins

Found this interview with actor Bob Hoskins (the detective guy from Roger Rabbit) that seems like a decent enough read. Why would I care about this story? Because of this timeless gem:

“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Brothers. It was a fuckin’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin’ nightmare. Fuckin’ idiots.”

Amen, brutha. Amen.

RAW Woes: A Word On The Recent Ratings

If you’ve been following some of the wrestling sites, you’ll know that the last episode of RAW has scored its lowest rating in nearly TEN years. This is obviously bad news for WWE and USA Network, who are trying as hard as possible to come up with something to regain interest in the program.

Unfortunately, with the recent wrestling-related tradegy from back in June, it seems that any attempt to regain interest will be useless. I generally don’t like blaming outside forces for low ratings unless it’s justified, but this tragic state of affairs is causing people to tune out and disassociate themselves with wrestling in general. It’s one of those things that can’t really be handled in any good way.

There have been some mentions of a possibility that RAW might get cut down to a one-hour show. For the moment, I feel this is the best course of action, because it’s impossible to come up with good content for two hours on a weekly basis. Let’s be honest here: as enjoyable as the product tends to be, the consistency of quality in the product is lacking. This isn’t a result of the tradegy; it’s been like this for quite some time now. By cutting the show to an hour, you have less time to fill and thus more time to refine the stuff that will make it to air.

On the other hand, WWE currently has a one-hour show on the Sci-Fi channel and it’s not doing well on either a creative or rating standpoint.

Who knows what’s going to happen?