It's been over two months since the finale of the first season of Dancing With the Stars, the reality show that took the first month of the summer reality season by storm. If you haven't been keeping up with what's going on, it goes like this. A bunch of celebrities learn to dance with professional ballroom dancers. Judges score and viewers vote, whittling the field of six down to only two teams, Kelly Monaco and Alec Mazo and John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen. Kelly wins, John thinks he got robbed, ABC believes it can make some money with a rematch, and so they get the two back onto the parquet and return to their grueling training. A final dance-off, decided by just the viewers, will determine who is the actual daddy mack, or mack daddy if you prefer, of the ballroom. And who wouldn't want to brag about that for all eternity?
As much as I am going to make fun of this obvious attempt by ABC to distract viewers from the Big Brother finale, I do have to say that I really loved hearing that music once again. If you need a reminder, listen to it again. And then we have the return of our hosts, Tom Bergeron and Lisa Canning. Who would dare laugh at their desperate attempts at legitimacy? You know who? THIS GUY!
But to be completely honest, it's not like we need to pick on Tom and Lisa, because the dancers are enough entertainment on their own. Take Kelly Monaco (please!). Her first outfit consisted of a red dress that sort of looked like she painted licorice on herself, except that Rachael Ray had seen it first and nibbled a bunch of holes in it. But there I go getting ahead of myself again. We can't have a dancing segment unless we first do a flashback and look at all the hard work it took to get there.
For Kelly Monaco, Dancing With the Stars was a real accomplishment. I know nothing about her career, so maybe I am wrong when I say that her career was headed towards Daytime Emmy levels of prestige. In other words, she would only be popular amongst a subset of our society that considers a recurring role on General Hospital and appearances in Playboy lingerie shoots as the pinnacle of show business. Kelly learned something else when she became a dancing star, and she was not the only one. The viewers at home learned a lesson when she won, namely the people that consider a recurring role on General Hospital and appearances in Playboy lingerie shoots as the pinnacle of show business outnumber the people who think J Peterman rocks. These are sad times we live in.
In defense of Ms. Monaco, I can say that it is probably bullshit that this whole rematch is going on. Then again, it is probably not going to hurt her any. Whatever prime time exposure she gets is more than she ever expected to receive in her lifetime. You also have to remember that she won the fan voting the first time, and her fans were just as mad that people would dare challenge her championship as the O'Hurley fans were about the final outcome. Why would anything be different? Well, for one the producers decided to show us Kelly's gross feet after she had been practicing for a while. I would have posted a picture, but seriously, who wants to look at gross bloody feet? Thankfully, there are plenty of shots of her in those cute boyshorts, which has an odd balancing effect with the nausea caused by her feet.
« Thanks For The Memories, Big Brother | Main | A Walk in the Park »
Comments (6)
John O'Hurley was on General Hospital yesterday. Coincidence? I think not.
1 of 6 | Posted by Victoria | Posted on September 21, 2005 11:58 AM
I think this show is great and so are your recaps!
However, as much I like John O' Hurley I think he is taking this a bit too serious! Poor guy! Maybe he doesn't have much other work going on and wants to in some way have that claim, that he is the champion of DANCING WITH THE STARS! His wife definitel was way younger and pretty, maybe a d-list groupie!
I must agree the kids were entertaining but a bit creepy!
FInally, overall its a good show. ITs different than anything else thats on and definitely family oriented. We don't seem to have much of that these days. Heck, I can hardly watch anything on tv because my 2 year old is around. But last night we were both able to watch this.
Finally, you made a mistake on one of the professional dancers name. You called her Stephanie and her name is Ashly Del Grosso.
2 of 6 | Posted by RenDAWG | Posted on September 21, 2005 12:01 PM
J-Unit -
Great review on Dancing with the Stars -- I only disagreed with you on one comment... there WAS internet voting available! I know because I used it to vote for John several times. Keep up the great work!
3 of 6 | Posted by Ruth | Posted on September 21, 2005 1:12 PM
I think this review will have more viewers than the actual show. I think these people have never been accused of being celebrities before ABC got a hold of them. Kelly "I'm more than a playboy spread, no, seriously" Monaco? John "I need another schtick" O'Hurley? What happened, was Corky from "Life Goes On" too busy to take their call?
4 of 6 | Posted by whothehellarethesepeople? | Posted on September 21, 2005 1:43 PM
I skipped the show. I think it's BS that they only let the viewers decide when her fanbase was the only reason she won in the first place. If you want a rematch, do it right! Have the judges decide.
5 of 6 | Posted by tv freak | Posted on September 22, 2005 1:39 PM
I really want John to win. I don't hate Kelly...I don't think she sucks or anything, but the three "perfect scores" they received last time was just crap.
Thx for the re-cap...I'm with you, I'm curious how they're going to fill the timeslot on Thursday.
6 of 6 | Posted by Christy | Posted on September 22, 2005 2:21 PM