aw!tte
08-09-2005, 08:07 PM
OK-- this probably could have gone onto the end of the Minding the Store thread, but I thought it interesting enough to pull in more than those just paying attention to that post.
WRT: the validity of Minding the Store as real Reality TV, the answer is officially no (if there was a doubt) because I just got the movie Pauly Shore is Dead in the mail, and many of the smaller character roles in the TV show are played by people from this film.
But an even bigger surprise was that the film was really pretty funny. It clearly inspired the much less inspired show, but it was really well done. The plot is Pauly Shore realizes his career is a wreck (he loses his house and fucking Carrot-Top moves in-- how symbolically brilliant is that?), and decides to fake his death, which has the desired effect of elevating him from "Has Been" to "Genius Who Died Before His Time", only now he has to figure out how to cash in on a newly revived fame based on his death. A pickle, that.
Dozens of guest folks show up as MTV talking heads responding to the news that Pauly Shore has died (including Ellen Degeneres, Perry Farrell, Kurt Loder), but even better are those former fifteen-minute celebrities who appear as themselves after the world has rejected them (Rico Suave selling oranges on the LA freeway, Kato Kaelin as night manager of motel).
I stand by what I said about Encino Man, and it is a shame he is squandering the quality of Pauly Shore is Dead by basically redoing the show for Comedy Central, but this movie was tops.
Response?
WRT: the validity of Minding the Store as real Reality TV, the answer is officially no (if there was a doubt) because I just got the movie Pauly Shore is Dead in the mail, and many of the smaller character roles in the TV show are played by people from this film.
But an even bigger surprise was that the film was really pretty funny. It clearly inspired the much less inspired show, but it was really well done. The plot is Pauly Shore realizes his career is a wreck (he loses his house and fucking Carrot-Top moves in-- how symbolically brilliant is that?), and decides to fake his death, which has the desired effect of elevating him from "Has Been" to "Genius Who Died Before His Time", only now he has to figure out how to cash in on a newly revived fame based on his death. A pickle, that.
Dozens of guest folks show up as MTV talking heads responding to the news that Pauly Shore has died (including Ellen Degeneres, Perry Farrell, Kurt Loder), but even better are those former fifteen-minute celebrities who appear as themselves after the world has rejected them (Rico Suave selling oranges on the LA freeway, Kato Kaelin as night manager of motel).
I stand by what I said about Encino Man, and it is a shame he is squandering the quality of Pauly Shore is Dead by basically redoing the show for Comedy Central, but this movie was tops.
Response?