Last Sunday, Comic Book Men premiered on AMC, sliding right into the time slot right after the comic book-based Walking Dead series. It's a reality show masterminded by filmmaker and occasional comic book writer Kevin Smith that follows four employees at his New Jersey comic book shop, the Secret Stash, as they deal with the world of comics retail. If the intent is to show comic shop employees as anything other than obnoxious walking sterotypes, it's a complete failure. If, however, it's meant to be the most compelling argument I've ever seen for never setting foot in a comic book store, I have to admit that it's a smashing success. -
Chris Sims reviews Comic Book Men. Remember,
no chicks allowed.
posted by Artw
on Feb 16, 2012 -
112 comments
After appearing last month on the ABC reality television show '
Wife Swap,' "San Francisco resident
Stephen Fowler was forced to resign from the boards of two nonprofits, allegedly received e-mailed death threats and stood on the sidelines as his wife, Renee Stephens, issued a public statement condemning his behavior and asking him to get '
professional help.'...Thanks to online TV and easy access to private information, Fowler's 15 minutes of fame have snowballed beyond his control." "What has generated such wrath is
Fowler's condescending treatment of Gayla Long, a mother of four from rural Missouri....In wince-producing remarks, Fowler, who is British, wrote off middle America with such pronouncements as 'Your two languages seem to be bad English and redneck.'" Video highlights -
1,
2.
[more inside]
posted by ericb
on Feb 21, 2009 -
168 comments
And the apprentice is: Kwame Jackson! Trump fired Bill for how he ran a tournament at Trump National Golf Club and hired Kwame for the way he put together a Jessica Simpson concert at the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
USA Today makes an ooopsie.
posted by riffola
on Apr 16, 2004 -
38 comments
Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol. Gap-toothed and described by judges as "with the looks of a hobbit," the Norwegian plumber with the voice of an angel proves that there's hope for all of us to become popstars. True talent triumphs!
posted by dagny
on Jan 1, 2004 -
20 comments
Survivor Sucks A nice little site which rips every reality show apart quite nicely, but my favorite is the
"Off Topic" section where threads on any subject offer up some of the best trolling/flamebait and some very funny comments. More inside...
posted by Mack Twain
on Apr 15, 2003 -
9 comments
David wins Fame Academy! Mix Big Brother with Pop/American Idol and you get the
Fame Academy, where 12
gorgeous under-30s are thrown into a
glorified stage school for a few months, and only one emerges an idol. The prize? Supposedly the 'biggest TV prize ever.' A £1 million recording contract, a fancy apartment in London, a personal shopper, chauffeur, and more. All is not lost for the 'losers' though, as they've all gained professional management and
Mercury Records is considering them all for solo careers.
In contrast to the 'Idol' shows, being couped up for weeks on end has caused even the
wackiest contestants to grow in their singing and songwriting abilities. So will this show reach the US? Probably, given
these other crossover shows.
posted by wackybrit
on Dec 13, 2002 -
8 comments
Beverly Hillbillies, Redux! No... not a new movie, but a reality series under development by the shiny and shimmering
Tiffany Network. CBS scouts are scouring for a "rural, rustically telegenic" family to be whisked to a brand new home in Beverly Hills, and have a life of luxury bestowed upon them for a period of a year... cameras following them all the way. Crass exploitation of the poor when the gap between rich and poor gets larger and larger? Fun idea to see what happens when someone's dreams come true? Somewhere in the middle? What do people think?
posted by tittergrrl
on Aug 28, 2002 -
33 comments
Survive This! Last week the Los Angeles
New Times reported that NBC had signed teenage kidnap/rape victims Tamara Brooks and Jackie Marris to
star in a midseason replacement "reality show", to be entitled "Survive This!"
After the initial jaw-drops of this revelation and alleged quotes from therapists and sex crime experts that "NBC may actually be doing the teens a service by exposing them to worldwide publicity", further along in the article we get this description of what the show will entail:
'Survive This!' contestants will be briefed by the girls before they are helicoptered to a remote, secret location. If things go according to plan, NBC will have placed several paroled repeat sex offenders in various locations miles from the drop zone. The contestants will have 48 hours to find safety at a remote building made to resemble a rural sheriff's station.
People were outraged. Protests were planned. There was just one catch.
The author of the article made up the whole thing.
One wonders how this ever got past the editors.
posted by chuq
on Aug 22, 2002 -
26 comments
The East Coast knows... Survivor Africa is over. You may not have noticed it ever starting...
But Kim, Lex, Ethan, or Tom won.
I'll let someone else spoil the surprise for those West Coast viewers.
posted by jacobw
on Jan 10, 2002 -
11 comments
CBS posts 'Survivor: Africa' cast profiles If reality TV is even marginally relevant to anyone anymore, the bios of the latest Survivor contestants have been posted. My questions are: 1. are these people representative of the American population at large? Almost all of the women list In Style magazine as their favorite and one picks "shopping and ads" as her favorite section of the newspaper... and 2. will more or less people be watching Survivor post-WTC tragedy?
posted by popvulture
on Sep 25, 2001 -
26 comments
Who wants to be a Princess? Remember "Who wants to marry a Multimillionaire?" Remember how it turned into a big scandal? Remember how Fox promised they wouldn't do it again? Well, they're doing it again this coming Monday.
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Sep 22, 2001 -
36 comments
"He doesn't say please, he doesn't say thank you." Yeah, it's
Survivor, British-style. A natural leader with survival experience emerges, gets his tribe organised, and is promptly voted out in the quietest of revolutions. My American girlfriend, who'd watched Colby marshal his people through the Outback season, is visibly gobsmacked. ("I really couldn't do psychology in this country.") Different levels of
power distance at work?
posted by holgate
on May 22, 2001 -
12 comments
Somehow We Survived Survivor 2 "Sunshine"
Tina wins, for
those who care and
for those who don't. Poor Bryant Gumbel... I can't believe he got conned into hosting last night's "special." And we'll never understand why
Colby didn't pick Keith to go up against in the final vote, which would've all but guaranteed his own win of the $1 million grand prize. And now, back to your regularly scheduled summer reruns...
posted by yarf
on May 4, 2001 -
30 comments
Reality tv with a neato science lesson curve. Plus the mom claims to be "one of the ugleist women in Britain."
posted by thc
on Oct 14, 2000 -
2 comments
Big Brother may be even more Orwellian than I thought. It may not be so much about constant surveillance, as about manipulating public perception of events.
posted by harmful
on Aug 22, 2000 -
9 comments
Last One Standing. Now this is reality tv. Just came on at 8PST on USA. About 10 people have to keep a hand on a car in order to win it. After 3 days awake, they started losing their wits and begin to imagine that they're being plotted against. What Big Brother
should have been.
posted by owillis
on Aug 13, 2000 -
11 comments
RealityRun is apparently real; 'Roger', the world's first 'Reality Runner', starts evading the masses on the 14th of this month. He has a 10K USD bounty on his head.
posted by dplanet
on Aug 11, 2000 -
12 comments
