[Bianculli here: Memorial Day weekend is over, and so is Tom Brinkmoeller's TV WORTH WATCHING contest. He'll take over from here, to explain and award the winner...]
The Envelope, Please
"They were both poisoned. I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder."
That's how Cary Elwes' Westley, in The Princess Bride, explained how he outwitted Wallace Shawn's Vizzini in the showdown over the poisoned cup.
Perhaps the same thing applies to many TVWW viewers, who have endured enough TV that is not worth watching that the bad stuff no longer affects them. That could explain why the entries for last week's grouse-along about television irritants numbered many less than those in the month's earlier Star Trek box-office poll.
But that doesn't mean there was nothing of merit entered. Eileen's complaint about how the Viva Viagra commercial must haunt the ghost of Elvis probably would have won in a much larger field.
And Chris Collins, another entrant, complained about hollow news anchors -- and, in a later e-mail, told how he wrote a song called "Katie Couric Used to be a Journalist" to try to persuade his mother away from watching Today. Had he only shared the lyrics, it would have been a photo finish.
Congratulations, Eileen. And unless it's a trade secret, would one of you non-contestants please reveal to me how you built up that wondrous immunity.
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I, like Peter Sellers' Chauncey Gardner character in the film Being There, unapologetically "like to watch." My almost-a-geezer status gives me more time than ever to watch the lesser-hyped areas of television, where I often find some wonderful gems. Sharing those finds is even more fun than watching.