THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 4, Episode 15 aired April 23, 2001

CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Letters from the viewing audience
3. The poll
4. Don't Miss
5. TV Trivia
6. The Weakest Quiz Show
     -by guest writer Jason Gordon
7. Slave to the Idiot Box
     -by guest writer William Noetling
8. Favorite quotes of the week
9. A totally unrelated link
1. Intro

I watched two of the three episodes of The Weakest Link that aired last week on NBC. I'm not wild about it, but I'll save my opinion for now since we have two strong and very different opinions on that show in this newsletter already, one from our missing-in-action columnist William, and one from Jason who was so inspired that he wrote a guest article. I just thought it was funny that while some people were watching the latest game show from the UK premiere on NBC Monday night, others were watching Fyvush Finkel, on Boston Public on Fox, rant and rave about the arrogant snobs in England. I, of course, watched both, through the modern miracle of VCRs.

I've also now seen one episode of the new UPN show, Special Unit 2. So far, I wouldn't say that this is a quality show by any stretch, but it's entertaining, which I still believe is first and foremost the point of primetime television. If you've got nothing better to do on a Wednesday night, give it a try. You won't be bored.

Speaking of UPN, did you hear that Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be airing on the last-place network as of next fall? Apparently, this is a momentous occasion, because it's the first time a hit show has jumped networks simply for financial reasons. The WB wouldn't pay the vast amounts of money that Buffy's producers required to keep the Slayer on the Frog, but UPN was willing to shell out some serious cash to bring Buffy over to UPN in the wake of Star Trek: Voyager coming to an end.

My biggest concern is for the frequent Buffy/Angel crossovers. Now that the shows are going to be on different networks, will those be able to continue? The synergy between the two shows has always been remarkable and unique, and I'd hate to see that end over finances and politics. UPN has said that if the WB lets go of Angel, they'll pick the spin-off up for two years as well, but the WB hasn't yet said that they want to let go of it.

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2. Letters from the viewing audience

From Erin:
I just watched the beginning of Chains of Love. I am definitely not a fan, but I thought I'd let you know that Vanessa, who was voted off first, is Vanessa Branch, Middlebury class of '94 and former Miss Vermont.
Letters from the viewing audience are always welcome. Please email any opinions, questions, comments, or random thoughts to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "letters." Letters may be edited for length or content.

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3. The poll

Last week's poll found out which female actor you thought was most striking. Jessica Alba (Dark Angel) edged out Amanda Peet (Jack & Jill) by just a few percentage points for the win, with a little over 31% of the vote (Amanda got just under 29%). Portia de Rossi (Ally McBeal) got a close third with just under 25% of the vote, and Sharon Leal (Boston Public) and Terry Farrell (Becker) trailed with a little over 8% and a little under 7% respectively.

I'm not sure I could make a clear choice hear, because these are all very beautiful and unique women, but I'll admit I voted for Sharon Leal, just because every time she comes on screen when I'm watching Boston Public I turn to whomever else is in the room with me and insist that she is far too beautiful to be a high school teacher.

This week's poll finds out how you spend your Thursday nights. I'm also open to future poll suggestions if anyone has a TV question they think needs to be answered by the public at large.

As always, the TKTV weekly poll can be found right on the front page of the site.

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4. Don't Miss

For details and lots more fun TV to look forward to, see
http://www.tktv.net/index.html?/upcoming.html

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5. TV Trivia

Last week's question was: on what TV show did the woman who voices Pickles on "The Oblongs" co-star with Delta Burke, Annie Potts and Dixie Carter?

First prize goes to Elizabeth S. Congratulations!

Honorable mentions go to Amy S. and Anita B.

The correct answer was Designing Women (Jean Smart voices Pickles on "The Oblongs").

This week's question is a bit of a hard one, but it's a neat bit of trivia, so I couldn't resist. Winona Ryder, who will be guest starring on a future episode of Friends, shares a famous god-father with one of the regular stars of Friends. Who is Winona's god-father and who is the Friends star with whom she shares him?

Send answers to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of tvtrivia. Winners will be chosen at random from all the correct answers.

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6. The Weakest Quiz Show by Jason Gordon

If you haven't yet seen The Weakest Link, and you plan on checking it out, make a big pot of coffee or maybe bring along something else to do as you play the show in the background. This show, in my opinion, is the worst "modern game show" yet. Apparently, someone felt that just because "Millionaire" translated nicely from English to American (and tons of other languages for that matter) that this show would as well. Trust me, it doesn't.

First of all, the host is dreadful. If the show itself has a weakest link, she is it. She insults all the players after every round of questions, which I heard is supposed to be the appeal of the show. But not only are her insults not funny, she doesn't even show a hint of a smile the entire show. This makes her totally unlikeable to an American audience who wants to laugh with the star of their favorite show. I hated the star, which is a big reason I hated the show. Maybe a better choice would have been Sinbad or that guy from Malcolm and Eddie (not Malcolm), people who have built their standup career on making fun of people in the audience. The host of the show should be laughing at the contestants, not berating them.

The second problem I saw was the format. Every round, the players have a chance to "bank" a possible $125,000 toward a million dollar prize. After every round, instead of praising the contestants for getting "that much closer to a million dollars," she painstakingly points out how little money they have made. With every round, the game becomes less and less exciting because the big million dollar prize is nowhere in sight. In the first episode, for example, by the end of the show, I not longer cared about the last few players battling it out over a measly sixty-something thousand. Just about every contestant on "Millionaire" walks away with at least that much. Even if you do care about a prize that small, you have just sat in front of your TV for the past hour listening to the host tell you seven times in a row what a measly amount it is so you are conditioned to think it is a small amount. Talk about self sabotaging their own show: it is more exciting to watch a group of excited kids fighting it out for the set of twin BMX bikes on DoubleDare than it is to watch a couple of degraded and pissed off adults trying to scrounge for the repeatedly stated "pathetic, miserable, lousy" (grand?) prize on this show.

There are some other small details about the gameplay that I think don't work, but I won't even mention them so that I can give you my final major flaw. There is no clapping, cheering, booing, or otherwise for the contestants. After the host wastes a bunch of time belittling the contestants after every round, she ends with the show's catch phrase, "You are the weakest link. Goodbye." I will overlook the incredibly annoying way she says this for now, because the real problem is what happens immediately after a contestant is voted off the stage -- nothing. The contestant either looks uncomfortable or unsuccesfully searches for a good way to say FU to everyone without giving the finger (which would not be allowed on TV), and then they walk off the stage. I guess I understand the idea that you shouldn't clap for the loser (like they do on most other games shows), but they need something more dramatic. An old favorite, Remote Control, comes to mind. On RC, when the contestants were eliminated, their chair flew up into the wall, or there was some other way in which the old trap-door-in-the-floor was mimicked when someone was no longer useful. And to make matters worse, no one on The Weakest Link even claps for the winner! I mean, I wouldn't clap either for the winner of a measly $60,000 dollars, but clapping is usually good for the longevity of a TV show. They simply showed a 10 second interview like everyone else, off stage, away from the studio audience. I think the winner said something like "I am ecstatic. I loved it. It was much, much better that Cats."

TKTV is always looking for new guest writers. Do you have an idea for an article? Write to TK with the subject of "guestwriter."

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7. Slave to the Idiot Box by William Noetling

I guess I have a confession to make. I like game shows. Not all game shows mind you, usually the ones that have clever puzzles or are trivia based. My brain is so full of mindless trivia that some day I feel like I could be a contestant. I guess that's why I love Jeopardy so much, most of the time it seems attainable, unlike other shows. Lately, I've gone from watching endless reruns of The Simpsons and The Drew Carey Show, to watching new episodes of Jeopardy and *shudder* Wheel of Fortune. See, I get home from work around 6:30, and from 7:00 to 8:00 I usually watch the tube while I do chores or dishes or whatever. Recently, though, I grew tired of watching shows I've seen six or seven times over, and went to the game shows.

What does all this mean? Well, The Weakest Link premiered last Monday on NBC, and unlike that smarmy Regis Philbin on Millionaire, Anne Robinson really doesn't give a crap if the contestants win or lose, and she tells them so! I love it!

I watch Millionaire on an occasional basis. I'm not overly fond of the show, since it seems to reward idiots with cash, and tons of it. I wonder what the average dollar amount won on the show is. Probably around the $16,000 mark, and geeze, can they make it any easier? Each question is multiple guess, there's no time limit, and they give you three lifelines to make it even easier!

And I can't stand Regis. Did I mention that? I just can't stand him. I'd say nastier things about Regis, but this is a family newsletter.

So, like Millionaire, The Weakest Link is an import from the BBC, but unlike Millionaire, it has retained its BBC host, and more importantly, the show's identity. I suppose that the thrill of watching isn't so much the questions and answers, it's to see Anne Robinson verbally berate the losers, though in the premiere episode she seemed a bit tame. On several discussion boards I found, it appears that she's MUCH more acerbic in the UK.

So will Weakest Link win the ratings war with the slipping Millionaire? Well, so far, so good. The premiere episode won its timeslot over CBS's King of Queens and Yes, Dear, ABC's David Blaine Special (which I flipped to during commercials, all I can say is YUCK!), and Fox's Boston Public. NBC took first place in the overnights for the entire evening, with a strong Dateline and Third Watch following.

Oh, and the first Survivor cast members are set to appear during the May sweeps. Any bets that Richard Hatch, the original Survivor winner, will be voted off first?

I like it so much, I'm changing my answering machine message to ape Anne Robinson's signature catch-phrase: "You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye."

Wmnoe@yahoo.com
For more writing by William Noetling, check out his web site at www.geocities.com/wmnoe

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8. Favorite quotes of the week

From Third Watch
Jimmy: Three firefighters died that night. Some of them I knew, some of them I had never met. Some of them went back into an inferno to try to find me and never came out. They didn't ask if I was a good guy before going in. I think my mission statement starts with living every day of the rest of my life like I deserve what those men did for me.

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9. A totally unrelated link

Extreme Stick Death (you need flash for this one, but it's worth it)

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Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house. -Rod Stewart