Friday, March 28, 2008

without a trace

Yesterday, I weighed in with another installment of "students say the darndest things." When I casually asked my wife if she read it, she informed me that she thinks the "students say the darndest things" entries are--and I'm quoting--"snoozers." Feelings were definitely hurt. Anyway, she requested that I make it up to her by writing about The Celebrity Apprentice, so I feel that I owe it to her.

As I've mentioned before, I watched the first season of The Apprentice religously. I didn't really pay much attention again until this season, but when Gene Simmons, Stephen Baldwin, and Nadia Comaneci are going to be in the same boardroom, you watch. And before long, it became appointment television. My early pick for the winner was ex-supermodel Carol Alt, but before long, the Baker family became serious fans of Mr. Trace Adkins. This has been pretty standard with me and reality television. I like the normal ones--Rebecca from The Real World: Seattle, Tamyra Gray from the first season of American Idol, etc. And Trace, in the context of The Celebrity Apprentice, was the normal one. But last night, Donal Trump fired him, thereby putting the exclamation point on reality television's worst week ever. (See yesterday's entry for more on that.)

Here's the thing: For the last week, NBC had been promoting the showdown between Trace and Piers Morgan (who, along with Tiffany Fallon, was one of the only two "celebrities" I'd never heard of before the show began) as the battle of "Good v. Evil." Trace is the laid-back cowboy who did everything with dignity; Piers is the sneaky, underhanded British guy. Now, they didn't need to do it that way. Those shows are obviously mostly about editing, so they could have edited it in a way that didn't make everyone pro-Trace. But once they made that decision, I think it was Donald Trump's responsibility to make Trace the celebrity apprentice. Why would you pit good versus evil and give the job to evil?! And I'm not the only one that thinks so--on the NBC web site, the web poll question is "Did the Donald make the right decision?" and 65% of America said no. Infuriating.

So here's what came of my experience with The Celebrity Apprentice: 1) I have a new-found respect for Trace Adkins; 2) I have a new level of loathing for all things British; 3) I've realized that Ivanka Trump is actually fairly normal--much more than any other Trumps; 4) I do not like Marilu Henner; 5) I don't understand how someone as blah as Lennox Lewis wins a heavyweight title; and 6) there is nothing funnier than watching Trace Adkins deal with the Backstreet Boys. Plus, this mildly angry blog entry. Damn Brits.

Later gators.

3 comments:

The Ben Show said...

Donald Trump makes me want to throw up a little so I also have not watched since the first season (which I Loved!). But I have to comment b/c I can totally see Sara saying that. Awww... miss her!

Anonymous said...

I said the students one was a snoozer because I read comments like that all the time! I could write that entry each time I grade papers... PS - I heart Trace, and his daughters are cute. Boo Donald.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the "snoozers" comment for the same reason...those comments are no longer funny to me. They are just annoying. [Does that comment make it sound like I am becoming a bitter old professor??]

The first season of the Apprentice was really good - go Bill who is married to the girl from E now!