In the Proud Tradition of 'Team America' and 'Robot Chicken' - Gjskier23dotcom
Friday, September 9
With blockbuster celebrity trials in catastrophic (though probably temporary) shortage, Court TV has had to get creative to feed the American viewing public's demand, if any, for famous people behaving badly.
So Court TV has turned to puppets. Or maybe they're marionettes. Whatever. In a show that closely resembles Cartoon Network's 'Robot Chicken', Court TV has created 'The Smoking Gun'.
The premise: Puppets and marionettes and bobblehead dolls that vaguely resemble celebrities act out the celebs' various real-life misdeeds, alleged and proven. The details are, as they say, ripped from the headlines, or rather from police records and legal documents, such as the arresting officer's account of Diana Ross's drunken-driving incident and David Gest's lawsuit against his allegedly physically abusive former wife, Liza Minnelli.
"SGTV" looks something like a backyard show staged by 7-year-olds, only with a smaller budget. It features hand-painted sets and props that probably took no more than an hour to create. It's all supposed to be slapdash and flimsy to enhance the devil-may-care spirit of the show, but it makes "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" look like a Spielberg production in comparison.
Court TV programming chief Marc Juris points out the obvious advantage of using puppets to re-create events: The events themselves weren't caught on tape (indeed, several involve disputed facts), and puppets work cheap. Besides, it's not like the celebrities were available. "Diana Ross wasn't too keen on re-creating the arrest," he said. "I think [using human look-alikes] doesn't bring any enhanced sensibility to a show."
Visit http://www.courttv.com/thesmokinggun/ to watch a clip of a bunch of elderly people (puppets of course) bar room brawl at a retirement home over the salad bar. The show isn't stupid funny, but the fact that it's a recreation true events is kind of funny. Like William Shatner narrating Rescue 911 and the reenactments were puppets. Ha. That'd be funny.
"Mystery Science Theatre 3000" it isn't.
So Court TV has turned to puppets. Or maybe they're marionettes. Whatever. In a show that closely resembles Cartoon Network's 'Robot Chicken', Court TV has created 'The Smoking Gun'.
The premise: Puppets and marionettes and bobblehead dolls that vaguely resemble celebrities act out the celebs' various real-life misdeeds, alleged and proven. The details are, as they say, ripped from the headlines, or rather from police records and legal documents, such as the arresting officer's account of Diana Ross's drunken-driving incident and David Gest's lawsuit against his allegedly physically abusive former wife, Liza Minnelli.
"SGTV" looks something like a backyard show staged by 7-year-olds, only with a smaller budget. It features hand-painted sets and props that probably took no more than an hour to create. It's all supposed to be slapdash and flimsy to enhance the devil-may-care spirit of the show, but it makes "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" look like a Spielberg production in comparison.
Court TV programming chief Marc Juris points out the obvious advantage of using puppets to re-create events: The events themselves weren't caught on tape (indeed, several involve disputed facts), and puppets work cheap. Besides, it's not like the celebrities were available. "Diana Ross wasn't too keen on re-creating the arrest," he said. "I think [using human look-alikes] doesn't bring any enhanced sensibility to a show."
Visit http://www.courttv.com/thesmokinggun/ to watch a clip of a bunch of elderly people (puppets of course) bar room brawl at a retirement home over the salad bar. The show isn't stupid funny, but the fact that it's a recreation true events is kind of funny. Like William Shatner narrating Rescue 911 and the reenactments were puppets. Ha. That'd be funny.
"Mystery Science Theatre 3000" it isn't.
