Chicago - A message from the station manager

What I Watched Last Night

By Pat Bataillon

I’ll keep this short and sweet. Last night I struggled to find anything worth watching. Instead of baseball there was rain. Instead of a new Mythbusters they covered old myths and retried them. The Wednesday before a Halloween weekend one would think there would be some decent television on – you know, something scary or haunted or what have you. I had some dinner and relaxed in front of the boob tube and . . . nothing but the same old stuff. Until I hit upon an unexpected source of entertainment for an hour on ESPN2. Thank you Christopher Guest.


And thank the Deuce, because where else would you get the Champions Cup dog show from Lakeland, Florida? I am not a dog aficionado or even own a dog-owner, but I love a good dog because of Christopher Guest. Guest created and starred in Best In Show, a movie about dogs and their owners making it to the big dog show. It’s hard to watch dog shows on TV now without half-believing the whole thing is just a parody. I could see a little taste of each character in each contestant last night.
I often confuse movies and reality. Tom Cruise is not Tom Cruise, he is Maverick or Pete Mitchell. Morgan Freeman is Azeem. Harrison Ford is Han Solo. And Kevin Costner is Ray Kinsella. When I see them in other roles or in real-life situations, I get confused. I wonder, Why is Maverick is getting married to Dawson’s girlfriend? Why is Ray Kinsella such a terrible actor? When did Azeem move to the city to and start solving mysteries? And why is Han Solo so cool? Wait he is Han Solo, of course he would be a bad ass.
So watching the bloodhound dogs prance last night, I wondered what happened to Harlan Pepper. And when the shiatsus went round the track, I wondered what ever happened to Scott Donlan.
So thank you, Christopher Guest, for saving my night last night – and this column this morning.

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Posted on October 26, 2006