Hellivision

I had high, or should I say low (very low), hopes for Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns. The Magliozzi brothers’ Car Talk is an institution of American Radio and Tom and Ray are masters of corny, so-bad-it’s-good humor. But I guess their humor only works in an off-the-cuff, conversational way because this scripted TV program was just plain bad and not entertaining at all.

I guess expecting good TV from radio personalities is like expecting an accurate rectal exam from your dentist. I haven’t gotten one yet. But hey, they’re free.

Don’t get me wrong, I like PBS plenty. But I’m really getting sick of all the pledge drives they’ve been having over the last few years. It’s not the actual interruptions and begging that gets under my skin though, as much as the fact that more and more often, PBS channels are showing special programming during these near weekly pledge drives.

Why are they intent on alienating their regular viewers by constantly preempting the very shows that draw them in? If I tune in every week to see the hijinx at Grace Bros., I’m not going to be happy when I tune in one Saturday and instead see the corpses of ’60s era pop stars wheezing through their old anthems, or the spectacle of Suze Orman’s prodigious choppers yelling at me about being smart with money, or some lame Celtic Woman concert.

If you want my money to continue bringing me the shows I want to see, show me the shows I want to see—not some special program that’s not even remotely related.

Tonight I saw this documentary about rockstar explorer Ferdinand Magellan on PBS. It was alright as far as documentaries go. Among other facts, I learned Magellan was a hard-ass who executed one of his captains to put down a mutiny, and died chopping up Filipinos who wouldn’t accept Christ as their savior.

The most interesting thing though was how the craggy faced Australian narrator pronounced Magellan with a hard G (as in good). I always thought it was pronounced with a soft G (as in gellin’). That’s how they say it on the classic Dr. Scholls commercial…

Who should I believe? PBS or Dr. Scholls?

BTW: I couldn’t find video of the Dr. Scholls commercial, but I did find this reasonable facsimile.