5:26 PM same day, early evening
I’m bored so I thought I’d share my feelings on “Call for Help” since I made a statement and really didn’t back it up in my last blog.
Call for Help Pros:
* Gnome, with polishing can be a good host, someday. Sometimes, when he’s working with someone that he has chemistry with (Brett, Laura, and Leo), he can really shine.
* Like the new format with Roger, Brett, a guest and a chat segment. It’s not the same boring same old same old of the Gnome and Becky shows. It’s more interesting and I like that they’re mixing up topics to appeal to more viewers.
* Brett is funny. From his hatred of Windows (“oh go buy a mac” should preface any of his segments), to his “unique” segments, he could be the breakout star of this show.
* Anything can happen on the show. With the Gnome being so weird, they should go with the idea that nothing is off-limits and anything can happen if you tune in. Make it sort of like the old “Late Night with David Letterman” — make it FUN after 8 or 9 hours of boring and serious TechLive … I’d tune in for that.
* As much as I don’t like to admit it, it’s a better show than it had been before the loss of Becky. I still miss Becky, and I’d love to see her back for her own segment, but the past is the past.
Call for Help Cons:
* Ripping off the Screen Saver’s crazy walk-in openings is lame. They should open the show with the Gnome doing a pitch for a funny segment or an interesting segment and have him on set already dressed or doing something weird. For example, if the segments on baseball on-line, he should be dressed as a baseball player for the coming-up hit and set and ready to go on set in his baseball player outfit when the show opens. No need for a lame walk-in (and they’ve been REALLY lame the last week), when he’s dressed weird or opening the show with something weird.
* There’s a chat person but that person is hardly ever in the room. It’s the same thing they face with “the Screen Savers,” they promote “come talk to a person” (Cat, etc.), but that person is never talking to the room. The only one who you know is actually going to be in the room is Laura, since she knows all those chat people. The rest (including Silicon one) either don’t try or don’t care. It’s a shame that they promote chat so heavily yet you can’t actually talk to people.
* Gnomie needs a LOT of work on his interviewing skills. He’s too hyper and he never lets people come on the show and often he cuts people off while they’re in mid-sentence. Gnomie is a poor-man’s Leo, so he should watch Leo’s interviews. Leo may make weird faces when it’s called for but he always lets people finish their thoughts and is strong enough to carry the conversation when the interviewee is less than forthcoming. He should also watch Regis.
* Gnomie acts inappropriately in serious segments; his interruption of the breast cancer segment with attempts at sitting down gags was not at all funny and he should have been reprimanded for it. If not fired for it. You DO NOT make gags when you’re doing a segment of that importance. At the very least the Gnome should have apologized on air. Shame on him and shame on TechTV’s management for allowing such a thing to happen.
* Roger Chang needs to work on his delivery. I like Roger but he’s not comfortable with the camera. He trips over his words a lot and he needs to slow down and relax when delivering his lines. I’m noticing it enough that if I get around to putting him in the strip it will be part of his character. So that’s quite a bit.
* Shares the same set with TechLive and it’s OLD after 8 hours or so of techlive. That’s a gimmie. Did they lie to us when they promised a new Call for Help set in the big summer “feedback” chats?
* Too many distractions. The glass set looks neat but watching Gnome only to be distracted by Brett Larson laughing with people or drinking a soda or just plain acting weird in the background is already getting old. I don’t even think the people in that area KNOW how much we see at home. It’s very distracting especially with all the people who have nothing to do with on-air in the background. One example, they had a lady named Finch on last week. While she was disturbingly attractive, it was very distracting to have her go into that room
* Embarrassingly bad segments. Oh god, I tuned into the “Crafting and Computers” segment a couple of weeks back because my best friend is into crafting. I’ve watched crafting shows in the past and I know how they should work. I went into the show expecting to be able to learn something from the segment. Instead the Gnome rolled over the poor crafting lady and interrupted her to the point where you could see she was afraid to say anything. This was highly inappropriate. It was like he was trying to sabotage the segment with his outlandish actions and dang it, I wanted to hear what she had to say. I was embarrassed for her. Was going to share the video with my best friend in v-mail so she could show her crafting friends (and they may have tuned into the channel because all of them have computers and are novices and would benefit from this show), but now, no way. I’m glad they don’t know about techtv, and I’m just going to quietly nuke it.
On those notes, I’m out.
— k9