Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 20th

Nobody wants to hear thoughts about C-list Celebrity Diving, but I wanted to share just a couple of things about it then I'll move on.

First of all, "Rudy" got railroaded... that was outrageous.   I shouldn't take the scoring of ABC's "Splash" show seriously, but I felt bad for ole Huxtable because she had a great heart and for goodness sake, she *did a handstand dive*.  I mean come on!  To do that as a debut, that's tough.   David Bodia and that Aussie dude docking her for not holding the handstand long enough is reasonable in a vacuum, but then when they went gaga for Louie Anderson for falling and not breaking all his bones, and then giving Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a "7" because he's "seven feel tall", it really put an unfair advantage for Keshia Knight-Pulliam.  I felt bad for her, but she was a good sport the whole way. 

Katherine Webb -- yeah you know her, the one Musberger oogled during the BCS Title Game, is remarkably athletic.   You'd think someone like her who absolutely is sucking up her fifteen minutes of fame would be in over her head, but not so.  She was tremendous... really went after it, and tried a pretty tough dive to start her program.  Great job by Katherine.

The best part is that in her intro segment, she went out and just said "Yeah Brent Musberger made me famous overnight."  You gotta love the honesty!  All in all, a good show, and far better production values than the Fox Special "Celebrities in Danger: the High Dive," which preceded it.   It's clear the production is not intended to be a serious evaluation of diving on an Olympic level and the Fox version was far too hardcore.  Formatting the judging segment similar to American Idol makes sense.  It's a much more human interest diving show, and I think it shows.  The audience is much more into it, as am I.  The people involved are far more interesting to begin with.

I had the privilege of watching footage from the original Dutch version of "Celebrity Splash" and they had all the details of the original down to a T:  the babe in the swimsuit taking the robe off, the high fiving and doing the dancing with the audience, the on-diving platform interview before the dive, the wild variance of contestants from all shapes, sizes, and walks of life, and the judges from an actual diving background.  Getting last year's 10m Platform Olympic Gold Medalist David Bodia was a HUGE get for ABC.  So far I'm into it, and this is just Episode 1!

Then after the show, ABC put on Dancing with the Stars and we got to see Andy Dick cry like a baby.  Wonderful...   hasn't America had enough of Dick?  Unreal.  I didn't even care for him on "Newsradio."

Newsradio turned out to be a good ensemble comedy but to be honest, it hasn't aged very well.  Even the theme song was rather grating and too influenced by the "Seinfeld" theme song.  It was a little over the top.

Any sitcom centered around any kind of industry tires its best to be "Barney Miller" but where everyone else loses it is when they give in to the sheer zaniness of the characters and lose the rugged authenticity of the workplace.  The best attempt I've seen so far is "The Office."  I speak of the USA version, since I never saw the UK edition which never lost its stride.  Even "The Office" out here in the States couldn't hang onto the magic for more than a few seasons.

I have soft spot for "Night Court" even though it was over the top irreverent and never tried to be otherwise.  Come on -- who couldn't like Bull??   Dude was a riot!  All those goofballs were... Markie and her Posts, Dan Fielding, Mac, the other lady, Judge Harry and his bag of tricks.  It was great.

Overacting is a very common problem with sitcoms -- yet, it's also the Chuck Lorre sitcom.  Really it's the Chuck Lorre/Carsey-Werner signature, where punch lines are telegraphed so that they can put it on a plate for audiences to laugh at.  I'm really not a fan of that despite my current favorite sitcom, Big Bang Theory, being one such production.

In fact, I can tell you right away, the worst actor on the show is Simon Helberg a.k.a. Wolowitz.   This *might* be how he was written but his stilted speech and corny one liners is typical 80's-era cornball syndicated possibly worse than "Small Wonder" but just a notch above "Out of this World" lame-ness.  With that in mind, there are ways to pull off the character better, but I will admit, his physical humor is an asset.   It's just all the pregnant pauses in the wrong places and things like that.  I can't put a finger on it, but he has the comedic timing of Jon Heyman.

So, you wonder, why am I such a huge fan of "Big Bang Theory?"   In the beginning the answers were 1) High Concept Premise and 2) On Set Chemistry .   Both of these hold true today.  You don't often seen TV shows about science nerds, wherein said nerds are the principal focal point.  It's a treat to watch each week.  Series co-creator Bill Prady is a big reason why it works, and I hope he can see his baby through to the very end.

I think it goes to show you that in television, characters are a bigger factor in a show's success than the mere plot line.   Anybody can go to the dentist, but Sheldon Cooper trying to disprove his relative fear of germs while going through a process he'd see as beneath him is intriguing.  Any dope giving a tour of a ranch is dull, but Dwight Schrute extolling the virtues of his long running love of beets at his own personal beet farm with his cousin in the background puts us in stitches.

I may have made up the plotline about Sheldon going to the dentist, but Bill and Chuck, if you're reading, TRY THAT OUT!

We are never going to get rid of Pitbull are we?  He has songs that anchored two ABC shows last night back to back. 

I was watching another show, for a few moments, by chance, about a guy who has to go to a support group to cope with the loss of his wife.   Dude is a Sportstalk Radio Host.   The show's called "Go On" on NBC.   I'll be damned, the show is actually pretty good!  Matthew Perry is the main character.

Let's give it up to North Carolina A&T for winning their play-in game and emerging as one of the "First Four."  St. Mary's also held steady in their game.  Both are into the 2nd round on Thursday.

Some joke popup ad claimed to have all the answers for scoring with women... usually I close it out on the spot but this time I gave it a listen just to see how bogus this joker's ideas were.  Well the only thing I got out of that, after 45 minutes of sitting through it, was that if you talk to a woman's mouth she really wants you.   And for just 15 easy payments, this crock can tell you more secrets to wild nights in bed.  Haha, ok fella, I think I will pass.

...but I did try the talking to women's mouths idea and iono, its seemed to work and then not work in spots.  You really cant prove it one way or the other.  It does get the lady's attention though.  I mean it would get MY attention too if somebody was just looking at my mouth or leaning that way.

Would you ever get a Latte without the sugar?  I really think that's good enough for my needs, many times.   My last trip to Starbucks, I got just the latte, no vanilla, no sugar.  It was tremendous!  It saves a ton of work that you'd otherwise commit to mixing milk into the coffee.

Dinner last night:  Life Cereal and a PBJ sandwich.   Not all that exciting.

Like others, I think Taylor Swift's whiny music is getting old quickly.  She really needs to move on with her life.

If Katherine Webb came to my door, I wouldn't say no.  Hell if Spud Webb came to my door I'd want to go to the pub and talk sports with him over a few beers.

I bet you Katherine would be down to pound beers and talk sports too.  A.J. McCarron does not know how good he has it.

Good lord, A.J. McCarron.  He's not that exciting to me.   If he lands in the NFL he'll be a good backup, nothing more.   The most exciting thing about him is his current girlfriend.

Man, this is the crazy thing about writing this blog.  You start with the goal of writing a few sentences and suddenly you get a whole booklet of material.  It's truly a great exercise of the mind!

Books would be a daunting task to write.  Books would be like writing about 100 blog entries in a row, but then, all 100 of them would have to connect to one another.  That's hard!  I have a lot of respect for the great authors of the world. 

I believe that's really all I have this morning.  Hope you all are doing well out there, and more to come tomorrow.