Summertime Television

Since I don't watch a whole lot of regular network series, I really don't care that they are in re-runs. I'm just mad that I'm stuck in the deadzone between the end of basketball and football. A lot of summers, the best sport on was the Great Outdoor Games which unfortunately is on hiatus this year which is probably why I ended up watching the World Cup. Still, there was some interesting crap on, and I figured I would review what I had on this past weekend (not necessarily watching because sometimes it was background noise while I did something else).

What I probably would have liked to watch is some classic college football. With digital cable, I have about five Fox Sports Channels, and they like to show classic college football games. Except, Fox Sports Atlantic only seems to show games between Florida and Tennessee. That would be fine except they play once a year so there's not a ton of different games. Fox Sports Pacific is worse. They show two games period. One is last year's Southern Cal/Fresno State which was very good game. Fresno St. led over halfway through the fourth quarter before USC came back to win. Still, I can't even watch it that many times. The other game they show is Southern Cal/Arkansas which was not a good game. USC won by 53 points. Wasn't that interesting. Yet, I can probably catch this game at least once every day of the week if I want.

I did catch some of VH1's top 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, and too often, I had to wonder what the Hell were people thinking when some of these songs became hits. I also have to wonder who came up with order. Quite a study in contrast when Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" is followed by Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life". Plus, how was "Macarena" number one, but "The Safety Dance" was only 83? Still, I must say the show was a learning experience. I had heard "Hot Child In The City" a million times while growing up. Yet, I didn't know that it was about a teenage hooker. And I thought a woman sang it. To be honest, after watching a clip of him singing, it's a good thing that they mentioned his name was Nick or else I might still be under my original misperception.

Actually, any singer who thinks they can write "message music" and change people's minds should watch this show. I could not believe how many songs were hits in spite of no one really knowing what they were about. "Hot Child In The City" wasn't the only song to be a hit because people didn't realize just how risqué or downright dirty the song really was. There was also "Afternoon Delight", "Turning Japanese" and of course "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Then there was "99 Luftballoons" which was a huge hit in this country even though it was completely in German.

While not really a golf fan, I did have the last round of the British Open on (I knew Sergio Garcia was toast when I saw he was dressed like a banana). What got me was just what a Prima Donna Tiger Woods is. He bogeyed a hole because he was agitated over someone in the gallery taking his picture with a camera phone. Give me a break, he's got about 20 photographers from news organizations following him around the course taking pictures, but a little camera phone takes him off his game? He's hitting a stationary ball. I saw Aaron Boone hit an 11th inning homerun in game 7 to win the American League Championship while flashbulbs are popping and the crowd is so loud he couldn't carry on a conversation with the catcher. I've seen Adam Vinatieri kick a 45 yard field goal in a driving snow storm to tie Oakland in front of a screaming crowd during the AFC Championship. He would later win it in overtime, and then kick two 40 plus yard last second field goals to win Super Bowls. If they can do that, why can't a pro golfer hit a ball with a little click in the background?

I didn't catch a whole lot of the Tour De France (I wasn't sure where OLN was on my cable), but I did watch the last day to see a guy in need of hip replacement win a bicycle race. Shouldn't the other riders be embarrassed to lose to someone who is riding with a leg injury?
As one who likes trivia, I normally would like a show like VH1's World Series of Pop Culture, but then I saw an episode with a team called Cheetara. Apparently, they were improv actresses which must be a euphemism for "unfunny chicks led by a mouthy midget who makes bizarre facial expressions."

When the NASCAR race I was watching went to commercial, I flipped over to the IRL one on ESPN. It also was in commercial, but they do a split screen so they don't actually leave the race. So, I stuck around to catch the running order, and it suddenly occurred to me that the commercial they were running was the Old Spice one that takes place at a NASCAR race. Considering how condescending hardcore IRL fans are about NASCAR on ESPN.com message boards, I'm not sure this was a good advertising decision. Of course, what I really can't figure out is why Saturday's Busch race was on NBC, but the Nextel Cup race was on TNT.

Then damned if the one show I do normally make a point to watch, The Simpsons, was a rerun.

Fortunately, The Discovery Channel has become a life saver with multiple showings of Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs and apparently more than one show about crab fishermen in Alaska. I thought they were just building tension when the focus was on the rookie crabman working a dangerous spot. Then he fell overboard and I realized it was foreshadowing.