The George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight premiere aired on Monday on the CBC with former Led Zeppelin (and Honeydrippers) lead singer Robert Plant. The show used to be called The Hour, but was reworked for the new season. I can understand the name change, Stroumboulopoulos may be a mouthful to say, but "Strombo" has built a big following, on TV and radio. Aside from Plant, the show had an interview with Canadian opposition leader Michael Ignatieff who stuck with the usual spin. The Liberal Party of Canada is in trouble with Ignatieff at the helm.
The Robert Plant interview was the highlight of the show. Plant spoke about his latest album "Band of Joy", named after his pre Zep group and of course, Led Zeppelin. The band announced their break up in 1980 shortly after drummer Jon Bonham's death. Plant was thirty-two years old at the time. The surviving band members, Jimmy Page, Plant and John Paul Jones decided the band could not go on without Bonham. Imagine stopping your career at the age of 32 years and starting over. I am not questioning the reasons for stopping. I was trying to imagine what I would have done if at the age of 32 I had decided to start a new career.
And then I realized, I did.
It was actually as a thirty-something that I decided to move on from the world of radio broadcasting and move into the world of the 9 to 5 job.
What a way to make a living.
- No more 3 AM wake up calls.
- No more eight cups of coffee a day.
- No more going for a beer at 11AM. Or 8AM.
Working 9 to 5, is the world of responsibility. And it isn't 9 to 5. What a load of horse shit. Stupid song. I work 8AM to 6:00PM. In my radio days 30 hours was considered full time. I love the job I do today. I do miss the shorter schedule.
But back to George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. I cannot understand why the CBC cut the show from one hour to 30 minutes this season. It's a terrific interview show and one of the freshest programs on TV. In August, the network announced the changes to the show, now in it's seventh season, and indicated the revamped shortened format was due to the "changing tastes in late-night television". Sure. You can watch repeat episode on the CBC site. Or check out the YouTube channel.
You know, I hadn't realized either that they whittled the show down to 1/2 an hour. Strombo has strongo interviewing skills. That said, the comedy writing on the show in the hourlong format was weak. I can see why they'd tweak the format to cut off some of the self-indulgent crap George's writing team came up with to fill space. Their sketches were forced and in my opinion, the best skits were the ones not scripted, such as the "Best Story Ever" bits.
ReplyDeleteStill, they could have salvaged the extra half hour with some creative input from other sources or what have you.
Watching Plant speak was cool. Hearing his high-pitched talking voice was a little weird though. Never realized he sounded so helium-esque.
Anony,
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's true. The skits were hit and miss. Mostly miss. I'll concede that point. Okay, they should have changed it to "The Forty" and made it a forty minute program. Thirty isn't enough.