Atonement
Gordon PepperAs
most of you know (or have figured out), I am a Jew and I
celebrate the Jewish holidays. This past holiday was Yom
Kippur, which is the time that you atone for your
various misdeeds and transgressions. I decided to
include the atonement to this website, where I am known
as 'Haterade'. The assignment for this column - to say
nothing but nice things about 7 items, all provided by
the friendly co-editor, Chico Alexander. Knowing how
Chico thinks, I have a feeling that this isn't going to
be easy at all.
We start with...
1. Bad Reality Shows
The nice things about bad reality shows is that they
make you want the good shows even more. It also gives us
great material for WLTI and other columns, because if
everything was perfect, there wouldn't be things for us
to make fun of. Okay, that wasn't that bad. Let's see
the next one...
2. NBC over the past year or so
So NBC has had a down year. They still have The Biggest
Loser and The Apprentice series. They will be bringing
back Fear Factor - and don't forget that they are
serious about airing Deal or No Deal. Despite the fact
that we harp on them, they still have some viable
properties. Next?
3. GSN
We like to bust on GSN. They are still creating good
programming like Ballbreakers and Extreme Dodgeball.
They picked up The Amazing Race, much to the happiness
of many reality fans. They are continuing to bring poker
content such as the Poker Royale series, and they have
as many as 9 new games on the horizon. That's a pretty
good track record.
4. William Hung
Now we're getting tougher. As much as people want to
dump on Mr. Hung, it's not his fault. He was someone who
has a talent that a niche group wanted and he took
advantage of it. As a matter of fact, he should be
credited for milking as much as he can - not every
American Idol has shot 2 videos for GSN, and Hung's
albums have outsold all but a handful of Idols - or any
other contestant on a reality music program.
5. Of course, Schwabbie.
Of course, he was going to do that. Regardless of what
people think of his personality, The Schwab is an
incredibly smart man who earns every penny of what he
does in the sports stat department (and as someone who
has done sport stats, I can tell you first hand that it
is a VERY hard position). Props to the Schwabbie, who
not only knows all of that information, but who has the
ability to stay cool under the pressure of the hot
television lights and be the powerhouse that he was for
the 3 seasons that the show was on.
6. Jim Caldwell
Jim Caldwell was the host of the ill-fated final season
of the 1978 version of "Tic Tac Dough", and you can see
him hawking imported slot machines on those late night
infomercials. Some people think that he was the cause of
TTD going down in flames, but I have bigger problems
with that show - like the rapping dragon in the 1990
revival (Ugh). Caldwell shouldn't be remembered for
that, as he has been a good host on other shows. He
hosted a very underrated show for CMT called Top Card,
and he was very good on that show, which should have
been on longer than it was.
7. The 2001 version of Card Sharks
We're getting into the heavy penance. Although our site
deemed Card Sharks the worst game show of the pastfive
years, it did had some very good ideas. One of which was
the splitting of the money in 3 layers for the bonus, as
not only does it have a higher maximum payoff ($57,400
for a complete run through the cards, Vs. 28,800 for the
original and $32,000 for the remake), but it also
provides bigger payoffs at the end for the contestants
if they played their cards right.
For the final atonement, however, I open the floor for
you. What items do you want me to be praising? Let me
know, and I will write up the results in a future
column. To all Jews everywhere, have a wonderful New
Year, and to all non-Jews, the best of health to you as
well. L'Chaim!
Today, Gordon Pepper
is a fan-man. E-mail him your atonements at gordon@gameshownewsnet.com. |