Pajiba After Dark 2/24/10

Seriously, Who Is This Guy and Why Do I Recognize Him?

By Genevieve Burgess | Posted Under Miscellaneous | Comments (17)

There’s an interesting little television war happening right now between NBC and PBS. PBS has been airing specials called “Faces of America” all about the family origins of different prominent Americans and their family trees and all that feel good “get in touch with your roots” crap. Obviously, being that it’s on PBS, there’s not a huge budget so most of the promos are of people looking through old photos or records making excited or interested exclamations. Meanwhile, NBC is scrambling to fill up that 10 p.m. slot that Jay Leno moved out of and is premiering something called “Who Do You Think You Are” after the Olympics with basically the same premise, only with the budget to actually send celebrities out to meet their long lost relatives and have lots of TV-worthy “reunions.” (You can’t really call it a RE-union if you’ve never met, right? It’s just a union, which sounds weird.) Also, NBC has clearly made a huge misstep by naming a show with the title of a Who song that’s already being used as the theme song to another show currently on TV. Dumb. Anyway, I just felt like pointing that out to any of you who care about genealogy. Here’s Wednesday’s TV:

8:00 p.m.: “American Idol” on Fox. Two hour episode at a special time.

“Olympic Winter Games” on NBC.

“Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Making America” on PBS.

9:00 p.m.: “Meteorite Men: Ash Creek Fall, Texas” on Science. First season finale. I know what they’re going for, but every time I see this title I think “Oh, there’s a new sci fi series” and I’m always wrong.

9:30 p.m.: “The Inbetweeners” on BBCA. Second season premiere.

10:00 p.m.: “Nip/Tuck” on FX.

“Psych” on USA.

“The Real World” on MTV.

“The Robert Verdi Show Starring Robert Verdi” on Logo. I don’t know who Robert Verdi is or what he does but I know for damn sure that he’s got his own show that he’s starring in.

“Shear Genius” on Bravo.

“Solving History with Olly Steeds” on Discovery. Is anyone watching this? I suspect it sounds far more interesting than it actually is.

“Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” on TBS.

Intern Rusty is a Masters student at the University of Miami. You can learn more about her at Rusty’s Ventures. You can also follow her at twitter.com/rustyheadedgirl, but she’s bad at twitter so you probably don’t want to.

Follow @pajiba

← How Did I Get Here? | Blog Trends from My Bunk 02/24/10 →

Comments

No, really. Who's that guy up there? Does anyone know him? Is he a
celeb of some sort? A porn actor? Dad, is that you?

Posted by: Ms MoMo at February 24, 2010 7:08 PM

Women's Freestyle Aerial Finals tonight!! WHOOHOO!!

Posted by: Jelinas at February 24, 2010 7:11 PM

He's a stylist? I think. I remember him being on a show with a woman at some point telling people what to wear. I don't want to give in to google.

Posted by: michaelceratops at February 24, 2010 7:12 PM

Oh, and just to add - Men's Short Track 500m heats!!! And Women's 1000m finals (I think)

Posted by: michaelceratops at February 24, 2010 7:15 PM

NBC has clearly made a huge misstep by naming a show [“Who Do You Think You Are”] with the title of a Who song that’s already being used as the theme song to another show currently on TV. Dumb.

Honeysweetie, WTF are you talking about? The Who song is "Who Are You" and...

...How old are you?...Oh, never mind.

Posted by: Jerce at February 24, 2010 7:23 PM

Here's what happened:

I wrote the reference to the Who song when I was half remembering the name of the show and thought it was called "Who Are You". Then I finished the column, went and double checked the name, corrected the name of the show and… nothing else. Whoops.

However, looking at the corrected title, I can tell you that there is a perfectly good Spice Girls song that can be used for a theme song.

Posted by: Intern Rusty at February 24, 2010 7:34 PM

Robert Verdi is indeed a stylist. He hosts the Fashion Police show on E!, among other things.

I haven't watched Idol in years, but I'll be watching tonight. A local boy made the top 24 - Aaron Kelly - so I'll watch & if I like him I'll vote. But he's on his own if he makes the Top 12. I just can't get sucked back into that again.

Posted by: Meli Mel at February 24, 2010 7:58 PM

However, looking at the corrected title, I can tell you that there is a perfectly good Spice Girls song that can be used for a theme song.

I did not know that, and it goes a long way towards answering my question: You are waaaaaaay younger than me, and I...I am older than the forests, apparently.

Posted by: Jerce at February 24, 2010 8:06 PM

CNN is all over the Toyota guys apologizing for their crappy cars, and let me tell you, I've never seen such low standards of personal accountability. This world is going to hell in a Prius. Whatever happened to the good old days when Japanese leaders who fucked up fell on their swords? That would make great TV, preferably after they mock Congress:

"OUR brakes? Who are YOU to question us? When are YOU fucks gonna put the brakes on your out-of-control spending, huh? HUH? Japan just bought a bunch of T-bills from the Chi-coms and now we OWN your ass. Fuck YOU."

AIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAA!

*bloody executive falls on floor*

Posted by: , at February 24, 2010 8:50 PM

"Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when we bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough ... the tough get goin’! Who’s with me?"

*runs self through with sword, looks at other executives looking at him*

"What the fuck happened to the Japan I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts on a sword, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. 'Ooh, we're afraid to die with you, Toyoda, we might get in trouble.' Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Me, I'm a dead man! Me, dead! Meeeeee ..."

*falls to floor*

Posted by: , at February 24, 2010 9:08 PM

Well, I immediately thought of the Spice Girls song. But I was totally the target demographic for the Spice Girls -- I was in second grade when they were at their biggest, and I (am only a little embarrassed to admit that I) went to their reunion tour a few years ago.

It was awesome. And honestly, probably better than anything the Who could do these days (although I dearly love the Who).

Posted by: esme at February 24, 2010 9:40 PM

Esme I was 13 at their peak and I still love them. :)

Posted by: Sara at February 24, 2010 9:46 PM

who do you think you are? is an established UK show. NBC is trying to hop an established hit across the pond. We'll see how successful that is.

Posted by: koj at February 24, 2010 11:05 PM

Isn't Henry Louis Gates Jr. that Harvard professor who completely lost his shit with the cops last year? That was an entertaining story full of "Wild Things"-esque twists and turns. Hopefully his PBS special will do the same, only without Kevin Bacon's dick.

Posted by: Kballs at February 25, 2010 8:14 AM

Is that...Vin Disel?

Posted by: Steph at February 25, 2010 12:32 PM

no i have seen him too, i'm pretty sure he was a contestant on project runway. whenever you got that feeling that "who is that, face looks familiar but dunno why" its a reality tv contestant (yes i refuse to use the word 'star').

Posted by: Amy at February 25, 2010 2:28 PM

Who do you think you are is a BBC show, that has been airing there since 2004. An Australian version started airing in 2008, a Canadian one in 2007. So, the PBS show is a copy.

Posted by: Noo at February 27, 2010 6:23 AM

Pajiba

Pajiba: Reviews, Commentary, Angst

Seriously, Who Is This Guy and Why Do I Recognize Him?

Comments