FAILwatchâ„¢ (1)

A couple of posts I was planning are probably not going to work out.

  • I know who the designer of the commoncase CBC font is: Aaron King of Pure NY, a motion-graphics house also responsible for the credits for New Amsterdam (using Mrs Eaves typeset outside the NTSC safe area). There is the dim possibility of a future interview. There’s also a useful and relevant document I’m probably not going to get.

  • Promos for The Hour exhort us to “come for the celebrities.”

    Screenshot of promo showing John Cusack

    But there’s nothing else to come for. The Hour is a wall-to-wall celebrity-interview show. It’s nothing more than that. People pretend it somehow isn’t in the same category as E<bang> Talk Daily with Rick the Temp.

    But it was not always thus. I had an idea to do a monthly post (I am thinking months ahead here, people) comparing present-day guest rosters with rosters from Season 1. After extensive digging, the only way I’d be able to come up with early guest rosters would be to laboriously read microfilmed copies of Starweek.

    Unless of course somebody on the inside has access to the relevant files. Here is where you get to point out that Alphonse Ouimet was replete with inside sources and could have handled this effortlessly. Except that A. Ouimet was replete with sources mostly inside Fort Dork, and didn’t know everybody, and was not exactly well-situated to overhear three-year-old guest lists in the plum elevator, so let’s not overstate the case.

12 Comments

  • Dwight Williams says:

    As for that font…if there’s a chance of purchasing a license for my own use, I’d be interested in the linkage.

  • Dwight Williams says:

    If I had the gall to suggest that I’ve never felt insulted by The Hour, how well might that be taken here?

    Mind you, the behaviour of individual guests is another matter. Take Mr. Charles McVety for instance…

  • Anonymous says:

    according to a search of their website, brooke hogan has never been on the hour

  • Anonymous says:

    The Hour and Q are two versions of the same piece of garbage.

  • Fake Ouimet says:

    Who or what is a Brooke Hogan?

    Don’t make me Google here.

  • Wandering Coyote says:

    OK, OK. Point taken! I see your point, yet I disagree.

    Gee, tell me how you REALLY feel!

    Like I said, I’m tired of debating this with you, and I think we just need to agree to disagree.

  • Allan says:

    The invitation I just got from The Hour says that they are going to have “the strongest showing of A-List talent and top thinkers from all over the world lined up for another incredible year.”
    Does this mean Brooke Hogan won’t be back?

    I will always be fond of you, Wandering, your blog is fantastic and it comes from out of your head. Outstanding.
    But disliking The Hour is nothing to joke about.
    That show is insulting. Insulting to the entire country.
    It’s insulting to you. George’s act is insulting.

    Everything about that show says they do not care about you.
    When it first came on they were reading emails and you could sense that they were concerned what their peer group thought of them.
    But before the year was up they had learned which side their bread was buttered on, and that side was celebrities, any celebrity, every celebrity. The show’s fortunes rested on drawing people’s attention with brand names, and any creativity or original projects (and there were a lot of stupid ones but at least they tried) went out the window because the only thing paying the bills and keeping the show alive was celebrities.
    The Hour cares about you as much as E! and Entertainment Tonight cares about you. In other words not in the least.
    So why should anyone care about The Hour? Answer: No one does.
    It’s a meaningless show that doesn’t even rise to the level of appeal of cotton candy with equivalent nutritional value.

    So why then get worked up about it at all?
    Why does it still bug me when I’m not even watching it?
    Because they pretend that they are doing a different show than what’s on the screen.
    That it has depth and meaning and balls. None of which are in evidence.
    If anything, this show is afraid of it’s own shadow, certainly afraid of sinking, of offending, of getting the wrong attention. So nothing that happens on that show ever makes it over to News or print. Because it’s content is meaningless. Totally a promotional book tour.
    So don’t insult me by suggesting that Brooke Hogan has sociological value.
    So does a boardwalk.

    When I see a potential in George, a very specific characteristic that I value, and he says to me “this is the best I can do”, I have to say bullshit.
    When George tells me to wait and see, I have to say bullshit, because there’s no guarantee that either of us will be around when the day comes that he finally does the show he’s capable of doing.
    When George says he’s already doing exactly what he wants to do, that he’s free, that he’s doing it his way, I have to say bullshit. He’s doing exactly what his superiors allow him to do and nothing more.

    George is not calling Conrad Black, he’s not interviewing people in prison, he’s not interested in the homeless or the Tim Horton worker or anything other than well-known personalities. Cause that’s what pays the bills, and that’s what he sold out to – Brooke Hogan’s new CD and promotional appearances by actors in upcoming CBC TV shows. exactly the way Richard Stursberg likes it.
    “Good boy, George, can we interest you in seeing yourself on more billboards and magazine covers until you can finally land that real job you’re looking for in the US market?”

    I do not envy George his success. I have plenty of women fawning all over me. Too many.
    I am just so very disappointed with that little butterball twit for taking the easy way to get there.

    I believe that even an airhead can make a profound difference in the world, but that what George is doing is shallow and witless.

    Relax, Wandering.
    (Frankie Say “Relax”)
    Nothing I say is going to have any impact on that show, that staff or that young man. They’re insulated in thick layers of smugness and ignorance and paycheques.
    Twenty years from now you’ll wonder what you ever saw in that show, and it’ll come down to the same thing we both see.
    He’s adorable.
    And that’s all he has to offer.
    He’d be great to host your next Sock Hop, but not as a substitute teacher in Public Affairs.

    Come to think of it, George had better start growing up fast or landing a better gig, because he’s not getting any younger, and there are plenty of VJ’s waiting in the wings.

    By the way, Wandering, have you noticed the echo in here?
    I think we’re the only ones left.

  • Wandering Coyote says:

    Anecdotally, the people I know who watch the show are my age (30 something) and a mixture of male and female. When I attended a taping back in January, there was a real mixture of ages, but many were my age or even 10 years younger, and equally male & female.

  • Anonymous says:

    This is purely anecdotal but from those I’ve talked to who watch the show, very few were under 40 and the vast majority over 50 and almost all women.

  • Wandering Coyote says:

    The show is not specifically aimed at cougars – or boomers. The target demographic is ages 24 – 54.

  • Anonymous says:

    It’s not entirely a celebrity-interview show.

    Most of their guests aren’t really celebs anymore, just people who used to be. But the show is primarily aimed at boomers (specifically at cougars) so..maybe they they don’t know that Anne Murray isn’t ‘hip’ anymore?

  • Wandering Coyote says:

    Oh dear.

    “The Hour is a wall-to-wall celebrity-interview show”

    SLIGHT exaggeration, there. I’m sick of debating this issue with Allan, though, so that’s all I’m going to say about that.

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