Chicago - A message from the station manager

What I Watched Last Night

By Pat Bataillon

Monday nights have been a trouble spot for me the last few months; at one time the programming got so bad I decided to never write Tuesday columns again. But a friend recommended that I view a television show about the Carter family, so here I am.
Apparently, this show is about Aaron Carter and his brothers and sisters. Aaron Carter is famous for being, I think, the little brother of a Backstreet Boy. The Backstreet Boys were guys who danced and made teen-age girls excited about life. The Backstreet Boys were popular for a while but now they have faded into obscurity.
I did not watch the show, but I think I get the idea. It’s kind of like Meet the Barkers or The Osbournes or the one with that Kiss guy or that guy from the Partridge Family with all the mental problems.


Problem: It’s hard to see the Carters measuring up.
Take Bonaduce. He is completely out of his mind; he has attempted suicide a few times, drinks heavily, takes steroids, and wants to beat the shit out of his marriage counselor. He has gone from lovable child star to a manic depressive drunkard. And if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have a “career.”
Or take another of the celebreality bunch, Hulk Hogan. His daughter that is trying to be attractive and wants to be a singer because she is the daughter of Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan is a former actor – I mean, wrestler – from the popular soap opera WWF. He left that cast and joined the cast at WCW for awhile and is now washed up trying to pay the bills with his reality show.
This celebreality thing is getting repetitive; how much alcoholism and egomania from washed-up C-listers can we take? Having a bad case of self-importance and a drinking habit will keep you thinking that you are still an important person in this society. It is good to see that the popular personas of each television generation are staying the course with their decisions to get involved in hairbrained ideas like working for a television studio that is parading washed up celebs for the entertainment of the masses.
So, as far as The Carters is concerned, I am sure that the show went like this: There was a fight; the producers were called in to prevent the situation from escalating, though cameras kept rolling hoping the situation would escalate; there was plenty of alcohol made available to the cast; the situation escalated. I’m sure things were said that were better left unsaid. There were probably scenes from the next episode promising more fights, and strange objects hurled through the air. It’s almost as if this sort of thing sells.
Remember the Kramer Reality Tour? Well, that’s been extended too. You can bet the next Michael Richards gig will be standing room only. He’s back. Hey, if washed-up celebrities and their wannabe relatives want to extend their 15 minutes of fame into 20, who can blame them? We can only blame ourselves for giving it to them.

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Posted on November 21, 2006