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NBC's Great American RV Wreck plumbs new depths

The latest installment of NBC’s Great American Road Trip amply illustrated that there is no end to the misery that the networks will inflict upon us in the name of entertainment. This was another stomach churning and toe curling, rollercoaster ride of an episode that had you rummaging through your closet for your treasured collection of airline vomit bags.

In one section of the show, that will live in infamy, the families were forced to take the stage in Branson in front of, what you truly hoped was an unsuspecting, audience of 200 locals. Surely these people would not have voluntarily placed themselves on the “rack” in this fashion? Reno Collier, the show’s host, who gleefully adopted the role of Witchfinder General , seemed to relish the pain and hideous discomfort endured by the audience, the tribunal of judges and the families. Poor Andy Williams, the chief judge, was at times left mute by the, generally, inane performances of the six remaining families. Presumably, NBC deemed that the performances were so bad that no one should be eliminated from this week’s show (too bad!). The winners, the Pollard family from Alabama, gave a rendition of “Old McDonald” that should have had them “pilloried” and not rewarded. For readers unfamiliar with the song it goes like this. What? Wait, no really! You know you want me to tell you:

 

 

It could so easily have been a different story. NBC, instead of devising new, and ever more gruesome, methods of torturing their audience could have better developed the Road Trip concept. Seven families, who in all probability have never driven an RV, traveling down the legendary Route 66. What a great idea! Sadly, we have not seen so much as a slide deployed in the two episodes to-date. Based on the strength of this performance, if NBC were an RV manufacturer they would already have filed Chapter 11.

 © Copyright 2009 Julian L. Gothard. Protected pursuant to the provisions of the Berne Convention. All rights reserved.

 

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