Globex Corporation Newsletter

I came home from my sophomore year in college with everything I owned in a 1974 Ford Pinto. I've never been able to decide whether it was sadder that everything I owned fit into a 1974 Ford Pinto or that I owned a 1974 Ford Pinto.

I was just flipping through the channels and I saw something called Battle of the Network Reality Stars, which begs the question: Is it sadder that there is a show called Battle of the Network Reality Stars or that there have been enough reality TV shows to have a Battle of the Network Reality Stars. One can only hope that this "battle" is to the death.

I was a fan of the original Battle of the Network Stars, but, then again, I was 10 years old. I appreciate those old shows for their camp value, but otherwise, it was a pointless exercise. Perhaps some ringers would have made it worth while, like ABC signing "Mean Joe" Greene to a multi show run on Barney Miller so he could represent the network in the flag football competition. Alas, nobody really gave a damn, not the networks, not the public, not anybody.

So in a summer of remakes at the box office, TV also reamkes something that wasn't really that big a deal to begin with. Worse, I'm not sure that it is possible to be a "reality star." Isn't that the drawing point of these reality shows, that these are real people? It's probably pretty obvious that I'm not a fan of so-called reality TV. I can argue that entire genre' is a joke, and do so using the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. More to the point, these people have already had their shot on TV, why the hell or we giving them more time on TV? I doubt that anyone was clambering to see the guy who was voted off the island third on the original Survivor again. But here it is. At least most of the people on the original Battle of the Network Stars were somewhat deserving of the title. No one from Big Brother III could be described as a "star" by any stretch of the term.


So what's next, Battle of the High Speed Chase Stars? Battle of the Police Stand-Off Stars? I'd kind of like to see the Battle of the Cable Public Access Stars, but we probably won't see that happen. It's every bit as compelling as the crap that's running on Bravo right now.....

BOJ