Written by: Chico Alexander Let’s say you are a high-powered network executive looking for the next big thing to happen during the summer. I come into your office, I’m met with your secretary, she asks me what my pitch is, and I say… “One person… 500 questions.” I would get a counter offer that went something like this: “Security is gonna rough you up on the way out.” But because…
Written by: Chico Alexander Silence. When met with the question as to who is going to occupy the Big Brother House this year, this is the answer with which we are supplied. Used to be during the days of old, CBS would have no problem trotting out the latest army of summer shut-ins for its ultimate guilty pleasure, an inside-the-house battle for control amongst a group of like-minded and like-bodied…
Written by: Chico Alexander Welcome to another installment of “Casual Game Show Fan”, a column that explains the mechanics of our little geek world to those who know who hosted “The Price Is Right” last week, but doesn’t know who hosted it back in the 60s… Bill Cullen, by the way. It was Bill Cullen. Read Adam’s book if you don’t believe me. This time, I have an idea. Let’s…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander “While the floors underneath our feet are crumbling, the walls we built together are tumbling, I still stand here holding up the roof, ’cause it’s easier than telling the truth.” -Kris Allen, “The Truth” This Monday on “The Bachelorette” was something else. We had the trademark drama – real or otherwise imagined by a story editor deep within the confines of Warner Bros. – culminating…
Written by: Gordon Pepper If you’ve been following the site long enough, and based on my many nicknames on the site (which include, but are not limited to Haterade, The 1%, Captain Wrong and The Dark Cloud), you would think that I would be rooting for the villains in every single series to win, Usually, you would be correct in that statement, but it’s not because I want evil to…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander As I watch Julia Collins play on Jeopardy!, I’m reminded of what Suzanne Collins wrote as Katniss Everdeen in her Hunger Games trilogy: “I can only form one clear thought. This is no place for a girl on fire.” It’s time to play “Casual Game Show Fan”. As a point of reference, if you are reading and/or writing this, then you are the die-hard. You…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander Since 1999, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” has been the very definition of the phrase “making millions by giving away millions”, and for good reason. The combination of high pressure, high stakes, and the man vs. machine dynamic of the game made it an event that brought audiences as much as it brought contestants. “Millionaire”, the creation of British screenwriters David Briggs, Steven Knight…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander Rewatching Thomas Hurley’s moment of gut-wretching defeat and the social media firestorm that has split the Jeopardy! fanbase into true J! People and Wheel People masquerading as J! People reminded me of a Buddhist axiom that I try and live by. “Suffer what there is to suffer. Enjoy what there is to enjoy. Regard both suffering and joy as facts of life.” If you haven’t…
Written by: Gordon Pepper Going back to the days where men were men…ok ok ok, political correctness….when people thought that being pelted with a basketball and called words that would make your grandmothers faint was acceptable, you had some of that same sort of behavior on reality shows, such as eating rats, throwing chairs across the room when it was revealed that you had genital warts, and being cursed out…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander Barack Hussein Obama II, the 44th President of the United States of America, is coming for your game shows. That is the inference made upon a recent petition set up on WhiteHouse.gov, the official website of our sitting commander-in-chief. The petition, the latest by-product of an experiment in open government gone horribly wrong, requests that the President not speak on matters of national or international…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander It’s a simple game, really. Here’s one thing. You can keep it or trade for a mystery item which may or may not be worth more than the thing you are currently holding. Repeat as necessary until one of two things happens: you are left with a game-winning larger thing or a game-losing worthless thing. Not only is it a simple game, but it is…
Written by: Dino “Chico” Alexander Cedric the Entertainer has been many things in his career: a comic, an actor, a performer on stage and screen. He was also a TV host as real as his job on summer bomb “It’s Worth What?” And as staged as his job as Gus Petch in “Intolerable Cruelty”, where he promised that on his show, he’d make you laugh, he’d make you cry, and,…