March 12, 2005
LIKE BRADY FOR BLEDSOE
The site explains the premise of the show:
Cheap Seats, a new show hosted by Ron Parker, was slated for launch on ESPN Classic. But a horrible tragedy in the ESPN Tape Library derailed the smug sportscaster's career. Longtime tape librarians Randy and Jason were forced to take over.Like Brady for Bledsoe and Gehrig for Pip, Randy and Jason had just one, single-minded focus: Get the job done. And get it done funny. And get better haircuts. And clean up the tape library a little.
The result: two guys with a lot of time on their hands and a lot of videotapes at their disposal.
With searing commentary, guest appearances, sketch comedy and features, Randy and Jason provide a new look at the old games on "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker."
The New York Times has a story about the twin brothers who host the show, Randy and Jason Sklar. [Link]
In person, the twins are fast-talking pop-culture enthusiasts who tend to finish each other's sentences - perhaps a result of doing stand-up together for nearly 20 years. They grew up in suburban St. Louis, loving absurdist comic films like "Airplane!," and share obsessions with television series like "MST3K," "Mr. Show" and "Arrested Development." Their musical tastes, on the other hand, diverge slightly, as Jason Sklar noted. "Randy loved Wilco's 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,' " he said, "and I liked Wilco's 'A Ghost Is Born.' "Posted by Jeff at March 12, 2005 06:03 AMThe brothers spent their first season of "Cheap Seats" fine-tuning the format of the show (it was reduced from an hour to a half-hour) and shaping its sardonic sensibility. Having it broadcast on ESPN Classic - not exactly a cable ratings powerhouse - has been a boon, the brothers said. "It's half the number of viewers as ESPN, but I still think it has been great for us because we've been able to hone it," Randy Sklar said.
Jason Sklar then interrupted, "We've been able to develop it, and that's such a rare thing in TV, where, if it's not an instant hit, then it's gone."
Part of the challenge has been identifying their audience. As Randy Sklar self-deprecatingly joked last week in a hilarious send-up of ESPN's Emmy Award-winning biography show "Sports Century," "We thought we had our audience pegged - we were convinced it was going to be senior women and honorably discharged marines."
Jokes aside, the Sklars said their audience was potentially rather broad. They're adamant that the show is not just for sports people; it's for anyone who likes a good laugh at the expense of, say, a competitive lawn mower. As Jason Sklar said, "We want to do a show that comedy people say is a great comedy show, and sports people say is a great comedy show."
Last season they became so hungry for a larger audience that they almost spent their own money to buy a promotional ad in the satirical newspaper The Onion. There was no need: the paper gave the show a glowing review that week.
Where does "Cheap Seats" go from here? Randy Sklar tried to answer that in an episode last week. "I don't know where we're going to be tomorrow - actually I do know where we're going to be tomorrow," he said, "but in an abstract sense I don't know - so don't press me. But I do know this: If there are Germans riding on bikes playing soccer, 'Cheap Seats' will be there to make fun of it."