Three years ago, before The Amazing Race and before The Simple Life 2: Road Trip, USA aired a little reality show that managed to make little to no impact on the pop cultural radar. It was called Cannonball Run 2001, and before you start groaning - okay, you can groan a little bit - it was quite the fun piece of entertainment. Unfortunately, USA bungled it's marketing for the series (READ: provided no promos whatsoever) and this quirky cross-country lark was sent to the reality graveyard without ever getting a real shot. Part of the problem was that USA aired all five or six installments of the show in one week. That right, an episode per night. Not really a great way to build up word of mouth. But dagnabbit, it was a good show! Mismatched teams of three (ie: two frat guys with an old black lady, two Playboy bunnies with a seminary student) piled into old jalopies that often overheated and raced across country, stopping at various places to perform challenges etc. The show was like a lighter, campier version of Amazing Race, except instead of the Hermitage or the Great Pyramids, we had truckstops and BBQ pits. Obviously, it wasn't as good as the Phil Koegan globe trotting adventure, but it had moments of similar ingenuity, which leads me to believe it deserves a spot in the current reality landscape. Check out more info on the show at its website here.

Did anyone else see this show? What do you think?