At The Commercials: This Is SportsCenter

To mix things up a bit, after my hating on the music selections of SportsCenter and ESPN the other day, I thought I'd focus on one aspect of life they unquestionably ace – commercials. Specifically, ESPN's This Is SportsCenter series of advertisements has been stellar for the past 16 years.

Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, almost all of the best commercials have been preserved for all of enternity. Highlighting some of the best ones, and providing some links where I can...

- My favorite one, which is probably the most famous overall and from which I use an image above, features ESPN preparing for any issues arising from Y2K. They try to perform a test, which causes the entire building to lose electricity. In a quaint scene now, just like his Simpsons episode, Mark McGwire freaks out and smashes a computer with a baseball bat, and general pandemonium breaks out. SportsCenter anchor Charley Steiner, in face paint and a tie as a headband, holds a lantern and screams, “Follow me to freedom!”

- Speaking of that funny dude... At one point, Steiner gets traded... To Melrose Place for Andrew Shue. Ah, good times, good times! While Shue sets up highlights, like any anchor in his situation would, Steiner is introduced as the new pool boy and asks if anyone wants to rub suntan lotion on his back. All class.

- The Syracuse Orange keeps bugging ESPN's Karl Ravech.

- Arnold Palmer makes... Arnold Palmers.

- The Oregon Duck looks longingly out the window... Aw. Poor guy.

- How ESPN keeps track of Brett Favre's retirement status.

- And finally, a six-minute compilation of This is SportsCenter, although with the caveat that the audio is a bit off in certain spots.

Inexplicable Television Review: Sportscenter, The Daily Show and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn

Hey, remember when talk show hosts were suave, sophisticated jerks? Oh, I do. Letterman kind of started the trend with his behavior on his show, but it was elevated to an art form with a host that only I seem to enjoy immensely – Craig Kilborn.

Of course, I was first exposed to Craiggers during his three-year stint as a Sportscenter anchor, from 1993 to 1996. It was at this point that he made his mark with his snark and smooth, smooth personality. There are still some of his This Is Sportscenter commercials floating around on YouTube, and they are still hilarious to me.

However, the reason why I'm writing this post is because of his work on The Daily Show. I recently stumbled across some random episodes of his on a long-lost CDR I had, and I realize I had forgotten what a silly, funny and random man he could be. Yes, he always had a bit of a smug air about him, but in reflection it was a kind of 1990s and early 2000s perversion of the attitude from the 1970s that would later be made popular by Anchorman.

The standout bit from Kilborn's time on The Daily Show was Five Questions, which was in every interview segment, and Kilborn transported it over to The Late Late Show with him. Random celebrities getting asked random quiz questions was always entertaining to me, especially on the rare occasions when they got all five right – or wrong. The Daily Show under Kilborn definitely had more of a bent toward entertainment news and celebrity gossip, and it was far less focused on politics.

Likewise, The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder reflected the sensibilities of its host at the time. It had a bit of a monologue, yes, but no skits really, and it had long interview segments instead. When Kilborn took over, he brought Five Questions with him, along with other bits like the Unnecessary Zoom. I found this to be the punchiest, zippiest verson of The Late Late Show, and although Craig Ferguson is good, I consider him closer to Snyder then Kilby.

Unfortunately for me and everyone else, Kilborn has kind of fallen off the face of the Earth since leaving his post on CBS. This site says that he was in Minnesota and had a beard, which is cool. He also had a nifty little part in Old School, as the sleazy boyfriend of Ellen Pompeo. “Okay. Good talk. I'll see you out there.”

The picture of Craig is from this site.

Dear ESPN, guys think Rihanna sucks.

I have no idea why, but every one of ESPN's bumper songs (the short bursts they play for highlight reels and before commercial breaks) seems to be Rihanna now. I don't have any idea why they play Rihanna, because no guy I know actually listens to Rihanna, except when we're watching ESPN.

This phenomenon was first noticed by the folks at Illiterate Blog. They then list 10 songs they hate, here and here, and I'm pretty sure ALL of them are used as ESPN bumper songs.

Rihanna sucks, ESPN. I'm sorry her ex-boyfriend beat her up, but that doesn't mean I want her on my television screen. Like, ever. Can't you just go back to pretending to be cool and playing Modest Mouse and other things? Please, for the sake of the children!

The picture at the top comes from this site - Warning! LOTS of images and loading needed!

I wish it was Christmas todayyy... Oh wait!

This is probably one of my most favorite Saturday Night Live sketches, just because of its simplicity. Watch carefully, and you'll notice that the only thing Tracy Morgan does is dance back and forth a bit, and Chris Katan only holds the keyboards and rocks his head back and forth. Neither one is really needed for the bit, but their presence adds some surrealism to the proceedings.

... Oh yeah, blogging. Anyway, the football picks are set to post later tonight, but as a warning, I'm changing up the formatting a bit for this week and future weeks, hopefully creating a shorter, tighter post. And, at long last, I have updated the standings.

Now, to take us out, my favorite Saturday Night Live clip ever. Sweet sassy molassy! Hey, try not to shoot that puck up my pooper! Jumanji!