How Much More Money Do We Need to See?

How Much More Money Do We Need to See? by Roxanne McDonald

Give it a chance? I did, I have, and I am not yet impressed.

I watched about twenty minutes of Show Me the Money before I had to turn myself off from the volume, the pomposity, the futility, even. I know. I know. You need a much larger representative sampling to pass any kind of fair, balanced, and valid judgment. But I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.

Not that I begrudge William Shatner any dual roles or multiplied celebrity. (He kicks ASS on Boston Legal.) He has paid and continues to pay his dues, climbing out of the iconography of the Star Trek Phenomenon—something typed performers rarely can transition so smoothly and so well. But the premise of the show is old, the din is mind-numbing, the dancing girls concept is either an amnesiac’s version of misogynistic TV or someone’s trying to bring to viewers a bizarre and bastardized version of The Gong Show, and the namesaking has been done already…overdone.

Reality Shack’s Christina Marie gushes over

Show Me the Money—which she has every right to, of course—but she says, “First Jerry Maguire, Now This,” as if the two are the only delightful renditions using the now tired phrase. Writers all over the Web/Net are suing it (in one more sober usage format, for example, a writer for Metavision incorporates it into a white paper on themed entertainment). Reporters in need of a condensed but catchy (paper-selling) headline have used it for everything from brand new cars to free speech. And even cartoon prodigies like Jimmy Neutron are parodying and playing on the four words that were first so adorably and originally wrought and delivered, by being part of the episode his creators titled, “Show Me the Mummy.”

I grew up with—boo-hoo—three working channels, all of which aired insipid game shows that drove me nuts, considering I had to watch something. Save for the (at the time) novelty of such shows as What’s My Line or the substantiveness of game shows like Jeopardy!, most are re-makes of re-makes of re-makes of some redundant sort or another, anyway. And it’s not that we don’t need more game shows to balance out the overabundance of “reality”. But how bout bringing back Solitary? Or that extreme psycho show where the contestants were strapped to a spinning chair in neo-silver and flashing splendor? (That’s how memorable that was). Even Regis Philbin had a trans-generational charm appreciated by millions.

Again, I may have been working when Show Me the Money debuted that night. I may have had a headache or ass-ache. And so, I may just have to give old tongue-in-cheek game show hell another peek. I’ll let you know.
SirLInksAlot Show Me the Money Links

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