Pick A Winner

Hi, my name is Peter. I'm addicted to television.

There, I said it.

I'm working on stopping here in the New Year, but still being unemployed doesn't help. Regardless, Sunday tv is the best. Even when football ends(which is only a few short weeks away, sob), Sunday night tv is generally really good. Last night was particularly interesting:

The Live Free or Diner
The Simpsons last night skewered the whole 'first-in-the-nation' primary thing. While it focused mostly on New Hampshire and Springfield, it was also relevant to the atmosphere here in Iowa over the last few months. The hype, the influx of press, and the rallying behind a candidate for no apparent reason, that's been all around us the last 5 months. And they got in some really good digs at some candidates, especially Kucinich and Fred Thompson

[Ever since the caucus ended last Thursday, they have stopped running political ads on TV. At one point, every commercial break was a political ad, one after another, on virtually every channel. Obama talking to the kids, Clinton being all motherly, Thompson on Law & Order (DA-DUM), Romney attacking Huckabee, Huckabee praising Jesus, and Ron Paul and Denis Kucinich being kind of invisible, it was amazing how many there were. It's kind of weird to be back to Viagra and Oxi-Clean ads.]

Gladiators, are you Ready?
I was really excited about the return of American Gladiators last night. When I was in elementary school, I used to watch it every Saturday, then go to a friends house, where we would set up our own challenges, throwing tennis balls at each other and giving bloody lips. It was the coolest show on tv. I never really realized how cheesy it was until I watched a few old episodes on classic-sports tv.

It seemed like the new show was going to be as cheesy as the original - dumb gladiator names, too much spandex, even Hulk Hogan as a host. But in the end, it disappointed.

The problem, as with most modern remakes of old classics, is that they took themselves too seriously. They took a cult classic that originally aired on Saturday afternoons, and tried to class-it-up for prime time. Too much production, not enough cheese. People were getting injured (one girl looked like her knee broke in half during the show) because the gladiators were overly intense. Too many lights. Too much stupid water.

Maybe the show was really as cheesy as the original, and my tastes have just matured. That's probably closer to the truth. But in my head, I'm still blaming tv for this one.

Thanks for ruining my childhood memories, NBC.