more quality programming cancelled for ratings...
It's sad when The Man cancells terrific tv shows just because "no one watches them."
Such a cop-out.
This season's addition to the television burial ground are a couple of my high-brow favorites:
Blind Date
AND
Elimidate.
(****reverent moment of silence*****)
They were the last, stalwart remains of the "relationship programming" genre that included fiendishly addictive gems like "The 5th Wheel" and my compulsive favorite "Cupid" (the platform for the lovely and personality-free Lisa Shannon - a Courtney Cox-Arquette knock-off - to go on dates with brainless thugs and sexually-ambiguous pretty-boys then let her "best friends" critique/dehumanize/humiliate the suitors until they found one lucky (?) sucker whom personality-free Lisa and the evil "best friends" AND the voting American Cupid-watching public agree she should not just date, but marry. Because the aim of the "relationship programming" was never a snuggle-buddy or a passionate affair. The aim was always marriage. Eternal togetherness. Televised matrimony. Ah, unadulturated delight. Check out the website. Really. It's very pink. Hard to resist.)
For awhile, primetime was awash in cheap n' easy midseason exploitation like "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire," and then the inevitable "Who Wants to Marry My Dad" tag-along. We had "Temptation Island" and "Joe Millionaire" and "Regency House Party" and "The Bachelor" and "For Love or Money" and "Average Joe" and "Paradise Hotel."
It was the golden age of television for people - like me - with poor taste and short attention spans and a voyeuristic streak. I could count on an all-new episode of "Elimidate" every night with my bedtime hot cocoa. The girls would be catty, the boys would be painfully metro, the date locations would be trite and at least one unfortunate luv contestant would decide it was a GOOD idea to write poetry about the object of their misguided, televised affection almost every night. Their declarations of love (and - even better - rationalizations for why they'd chosen to kick Dixie or Burke or Zeke out of the competition) were so awful and uncomfortable and forced I'd squirm and cover my eyes and tune in again for more of the same every night.
It's sad when networks kick such gluttonous fun to the curb...they were saccharine, artificial, vicariously uncomfortable...and they're no longer on the air.
R.I.P. Blind Date. I'll miss you.
And Roger Lodge.
posted by heatheradair at 4:30 PM
8 Comments:
OMG, I was a Blind Date addict about 4 years ago. My sister, our roommate (a male) and I would all gather around the tv and watch the terrible dates, awesome pop-ups and witty Roger Lodge one-liners. Sigh.
I know a girl that was actually on Elimidate and beat out the other 3 competitors. She was dumb as rocks, but she knew how to wrap guys around her finger.
I used to LOVE these shows. I had to stop watching because instead of just sitting back and enjoying the ridiculousness, I would always root for the smart-but-not-as-attractive-as-the-dumb-chick-with-the-balloon-breasts underdog, and inevitably be disappointed and yell at my TV.
I couldn't believe what some of those girls would do just to win - it wasn't even about the guy, it was about beating the other girls. Gah. This is why I avoided sororities in college.
I think Blind Date will be missed. It's the first and best show on TV to make mocking the socially awkward an acceptable and enjoyable passtime.
Plus, some of those dates are so bad (like the guy who did tequila shots and threw up 3x in front of his date) that it lowers the "good date" bar and I look like a real catch, by comparison.
Joe Millionaire - I shudder at the memory. Over made up, manipulative, scripted to within an inch of it's life, wooden - and that was just him.
I agree with jaime, too - those shows really make you despair for the female species!
Yep, awkward, artificial, uncomfortable: ADDICTIVE.
I never PLANNED to watch them from night to night, it just always seemed to HAPPEN. Where do they FIND those people, that strange subset of attention-mongering humanity that loved being humiliated in front of the camera...
aw, who am i kidding, I would have done it in my single days...
"Who Wants to Marry My Dad" spun off from "Meet My Folks" which was a much better show. "Temptation Island" was pure crap, but I was never tempted to turn the channel. I loved "Joe Millionaire" and "Average Joe" but I can't remember which was which; they both had poor construction workers. I loved "For Love or Money" because it was always for love, but then two weeks later it should have been for money.
At least we still have cheaters.
Ok, I know this was originally posted quite some time ago, but when I saw the show "Cupid" i had to stop and think...oh yes, its coming back to me now. If ANYONE besides me and my then-reality tv junkie friends watched that show, I certainly hope they saw the episode where the Arnold-like dude sang "Lisa-Shannon Lisa-Shannon, lu-lu-lu Lisa-Shannon." Like a rap. With the accent. IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!
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