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Friday, July 30, 2004
Fake candidate for fake election
For those who think George Bush and John Kerry aren’t enough of a choice, there’s Showtime’s new reality series “The American Candidate”, which debuts Sunday night at 8.
Created by R.J. Cutler, whose 1994 documentary “A Perfect Candidate” followed Oliver North’s losing campaign for the U.S. Senate, the new series isn’t intended to put a real name on the ballot come November. It’s a game.
Ten allegedly ordinary Americans were selected via Internet to compete for the virtual candidacy and a prize of $200,000 — small potatoes in today’s million-dollar contest world.
Among these ordinary folks are the lesbian daughter of Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Missouri, a former aide to President Clinton from St. Louis, a sheriff who opposes the Brady gun bill and a former official with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The other contestants, all of whom feel the two-party political system doesn’t offer enough choices, include a talk-radio host, a businessman, an animal-rights activist and a school teacher who supports President Bush.
During their made-for-TV campaign, the candidates compete by organizing rallies and other political-type exercises. Each week, the two pseudo-politicos who are voted the worst by the other contenders must debate each other, and then one gets the boot. When the field is whittled from 10 to 3, viewers get to cast the final ballot.
This is one of those concepts that probably sounded good after several drinks in a bar. We’re in the throes of a tight election season and all that. But fake candidates just aren’t all that interesting, and with Montel Williams as host, “The American Candidate” smacks of silliness. Tabloid TV with a prize.
Texas’ deadliest disaster
The History Channel debunks the notion that government weather forecaster Isaac Cline was a hero in the killer hurricane that struck Galveston in 1900.
“Isaac’s Storm” (Sunday at 7 p.m.) chronicles events leading up to the hurricane that practically washed away the Texas island, killing 6,000 people and going down in history as the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
The film, based on a book by Erik Larson, presents compelling evidence that Cline actually ignored early warning signs of the storm. Instead of evacuating the island when there was still time, he was so convinced that the storm would not hit Galveston that he waited until roads were under water and there was no chance of escape.
I’m a sucker for natural disasters, and the Galveston hurricane is a fascinating tale well-told.
Oh, no! They’re stuck!
The Democrats entered last night pleased that their convention went off without a major embarrassment or disaster.
But then the hoped-for dramatic conclusion of John Kerry’s acceptance speech ended with a pitiful bunch of balloons falling on the stage. TV cameras immediately shot up to the ceiling, where thousands of red, white and blue balloons were stuck in nets.
Eventually they all trickled down, along with a ton of confetti. But the impressive snowing of balloons on the crowd and the candidates didn’t happen as planned.
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