I am home sick from work tonight and boy am I glad. If I were at work I would have missed the latest Reality Train Wreck. Hit Me Baby One More Time is a "talent" contest of former stars. Competing tonight are Loverboy, Cece Peniston, Flock of Seagulls, Arrested Development and Tiffany. Only Cece came out of the first half relatively unscathed. They performed their biggest hit (Loverboy-Working for the Weekend, Cece-Finally, Flock of Seagulls-I Ran, Arrested Development-Tennessee, Tiffany-I Think We're Alone Now) during their first performance and will cover a current hit for their second number.

The host nis perhaps the biggest tool in reality show history.

Other acts in coming shows will be: The Knack, Wang Chung, Irene Cara, Sophie B Hawkins, Cameo, Tommy Tutone, Vanilla Ice and The Motels.

Where are Corey Hart and Kim Carnes?


Oh my God! Loverboy's cover song is Enrique Iglesia's Hero!!!

[ June 02, 2005, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: George_Twinsfan ]

Well Arrested Develpoment won tonight. They actually sounded pretty good during their cover song. Tiffany covered a Kelly Clarkson song. A former bubble gum teeny bopper covering a song by a winner of a reality TV talent contest while preforming on a reality show talent contest. Surely this is one of the signs of the apocalypse!

There is now officially too much television.

LXN

This show was hilarious. The whole 'Hero' thing just could not be topped. Man, that guy looked like a tool.

If some of these people had a clue what songs to cover, they might actually "win".

"On the Way Down" with a synthesizer? Oh man.

And what was with the old dude with Arrested Development? He sat in a rocking chair and clapped along during one of the songs!

When I saw the commercial for this earlier today, I immediately knew that watching episode 2 of KEPT on VH-1 would be more fun and guess what...it was!

Oh my, what a train wreck. Noting sadder than seeing a rocker in a form fitting shirt with his big ole gut hanging out. Mike Reno, although one could question if he was ever hot, looked totally different than his glory days. Sad sad sad. The other Mike (from A Flock of Seagulls) was equally sad. And what was up with his wife, Tammy Lynn Ho-bag? Talk about trashy!

Tiffany needs a better bra...actually, she needed a bra. The girls were almost down to her belly button!

Arrested Development could be recording today.

I think they should have grouped the singers by decades or years. 1980 - 1984, 1985-1989, etc... The 90's singers definitely had the edge over the 80's singers.

It will be interesting to see Vanilla Ice. He said he would never do "that song" the way he recorded it. If he does do Ice Ice Baby, I wonder if he will do the heavy metal version that he has been performing?

[ June 02, 2005, 10:13 PM: Message edited by: Mariner Duck Boy ]

I have to admit I bought Tiffany's last CD (I think it was released in either '99 or 2000) and it was... great. I'm serious. It was even well-received by the critics. She (along with Cee Cee Peniston) are two of my guiltiest pleasures.

Seeing Tiffany tonight was a bit on the sad side though. I would've much rather heard her sing her own material than "Breakaway."

The show was kind of fun in a "it's practically summer and there's nothing else on" kind of way. If NBC needed some summer filler, I wish they would've brought back Fame instead. That was a fun show.

That's quite a bold statement when you include Ryan Seacrest in the mix...

...but I LOVE Cece Peniston!!

This guy makes Ryan Seacrest seem like Johnny Carson. First he kind of resembles that annoying alien Cojo. Second he must have gone to the "Yell As Loud As You Can" School of Reality Show Hosting.

The previous point abot the 90s acts having an advantage is true in that the 80s acts have seen the ravages of time take a much bigger toll. Also the acts that had to perform vocals and instruments (Loverboy and Flock of Seagulls) came across much worse.

[ June 03, 2005, 05:01 AM: Message edited by: George_Twinsfan ]

Wow ... it looked like the leader singer of Loverboy ate one of his band members.

I really had fun watching this last night. Tiffany sounded great last night. CeCe was pretty damn good ... not as good as I've heard her before at Pride, but still A LOT better than Loverboy and A Flock of SeaGulls.

Arrested Development ... wow!! I totally forgot how great they are and that old guy still wanders around aimlessly on the stage. This is definitely a fun and frivilous summer show.

BTW ... can the audience vote off the host? Please??

The only thing that would have made this even harder to watch is if Mike reno came strutting down those stairs in his famous red leather pants!

And is it me? Or did the host sound an awful lot like Robin Leach?

I didn't see "Hit Me Baby", but listen guys, if you thought this was bad...you should have seen "Dancing With The Stars" Wednesday night. Stink-o!!!

The show idea, seeing groups sing their hit, is kind of a cool idea, although it went kinda bad. The show was, as someone already said, a complete train wreck. The host was horrible, he sounded like he was trying to fake a horrible British accent and go way overboard.

But CeCe Peniston did pretty good!!

Okay, don't spank me (well at least not very hard), but I kind a liked Dancing With The Stars. First off Joey MacIntyre was so adorable. And even though Evander Holifield looked like he was trying to pass a stone or something, he filled out those pants quite nicely. I'm a sometime fan of ballroom dancing, so it was kind of interesting to watch.

ALL OF YOU!! eek! PUT DOWN THE ROMOTE AND STEP AWAY FROM THE TELEVISION !!!

This show rebroadcasts Sunday at 6 eastern time on Bravo.

Mike Reno was scary!! So was Mike Score with AFOS! YIKES!!

Kim Carnes: Bette Davis Eyes!!!! among a lot else. And I'll bet you don't remember Woodstock either.

Corey Hart: Sunglasses at Night.

Yeah... I thought so, too. ...and, unfortunately, the more Mike Reno smiled, the worse he looked. I also thought that Loverboy and A Flock Of Seagulls sounded pretty awful, too. I don't know how I will look in 20 years, and I really don't want to think about it. But, I will say that there is more of a shocking difference when you haven't seen someone in 15-20 years as supposed to seeing someone all along, like Bono, Sting, and Bruce Springsteen (who all obviously have more talent). However, I hadn't seen guys like Morrissey, Rick Springfield, and Simon LeBon as much over the years, and they have aged well. ...especially, Morrissey (WOOF!). As for the music, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of these artists covering something modern. But, I think some artists, such as Tiffany and Arrested Development, actually sounded better doing the latter material. There was no saving Loverboy, CeCe Peniston, and A Flock Of Seagulls, though, who had clearly lost it. As for the host, I agree with the other guys, that he was pretty annoying. He reminded me of a British Rick Dees (only more obnoxious and uglier). I will probably keep watching, though, just to see some artists whose albums I actually bought in the past. I am really looking forward to seeing Wang Chung. I think some of the material off great albums, such as Points on the Curve and Mosaic, was taken away by the success of the lightweight song, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". I also like the idea that the money (hopefully!) goes to charity.

[ June 03, 2005, 09:15 AM: Message edited by: Cattledog ]

Agreed - that host was the worst casting choice since Bob Sagat did AFV. And, it was obvious who was going to win - the quality of the acts went truly according to their reverse chronological order. Arrested Development recorded in 2004. Tiffany was pretty good - she actually has a damn good voice!

If you recall ( and if you saw it), Arrested Development appeared in a performance on "Amish In the City" last year on UPN.

LMAO...OMG, I thought I was the only one who remembered seeing Arrested Development on "Amish in the City"...hahaha I totally thought of that episode when they came on stage last night. They did perform very well...as did CeCe Peniston. Iwas embarrassed for Flock of Seagulls.

....And I Ran, I Ran so far away from the TV when he came on...eewwwww! LOL

Just out of curiousity, I wonder if the creators of the show had to give Mizzzzzz Federline a boat load of money for the title.....

I was kind of traumatized by this show. I should not have been eating supper while watching it either. I may not be able to watch television without fear for a while. I didn't sleep well.

She didn't write it so if they're not using her recording they don't owe her a cent.

This is the US version of a show from the UK, in which Tiffany also appeared. And she got to the finals, before losing to Shakin' Stephens. Poor, poor Tiffany.

Edit to add -- Oh my lord. I've been looking at that site. The few names I recognize I mostly feel sad for, but the rest....who?? Here are the other contestants:

Week 1: Tiffany (winner), Howard Jones, Gloria Gaynor, The Honeyz, Limahl
Week 2: Shakin' Stephens (winner), Haddaway, Jaki Graham, Doctor & The Medics, Belinda Carlisle (ACK!)
Week 3: Carol Decker (winner), Mica Paris, Nick Heyward, Baccara, The Pasadenas
Week 4: Hue & Cry (winner), Sinitta, China Black, Hazel O'Connor, The Real Thing
Week 5: Shalamar (winner -- and oh, I hope Jody Watley didn't reunite with them for this), Jordan Knight (Ha!), Sabrina, Rozalla, Junior
Week 6: Chesney Hawkes (winner), Nick Van Eede, Kellie-Marie, Sybil, Cleopatra
Week 7: 911 (winner), Princess, Ultra Nate, Kenny Thomas, Nathan Moore

[ June 03, 2005, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

No offense to Tiffany, but I could have finished second among that group! wink

This show was better when it was on VH1 as "Bands Reunited." A Crap of Seagulls was on that, too, and they were equally ghastly there. They can't possibly have been good live back in the day, much less 20 years and 80 pounds later.

I laughed my ass off when i saw the old guy from AD was still alive and still just kinda sat there. Dionne Farris was not with them, although i guess she could have been a contestant on her own. They really did do "Heaven" well.

I would have loved to see Carol Decker on the British version. She was the tartlet in T'Pau, whom i was briefly obssessed with in 10th grade.

Okay, so the group wasn't performing and I have to edit my above post (again). The website's writeups were really confusing and poorly formatted. Really poorly done.

Tonight it is ...

Word to your Mother!



Ice, ice baby.

I was hoping the Motels would win tonight but I knew there wasn't much of a chance going up against Vanilla Ice. Martha Davis still has an amazing voice.

I'm looking forward to Irene Cara next week.

I was also disappointed that The Motels lost, too. Martha Davis has a wonderful voice, and she definitely has not lost it. Unlike the other artists last night, The Motels never had that huge defining single. As a result, they were able to maintain a longer, stabile career with such well-written, well-sung hits as "Only The Lonely", "Suddenly Last Summer" and "Shame". It was no surprise that Vanilla Ice won--they wanted to see a flashy freakshow, and they got one. They pitted three 1980's artists who cancelled each other out, and Ice had very little 1990's competition against Haddaway. They really need to make this a bit more fair and just schedule 1980's artists. While Tommy Tu-Tone was as horrible (Blink 182's "All the Small Things" may never walk again) as I remember them being in the early 1980's, I thought The Motels sounded great and I enjoyed the way The Knack didn't take themselves so seriously.

As for next week, one of my all-time favorite male artists, Howard Jones, is performing probably either "Things Can Only Get Better" (#05, 1985) or "No One is to Blame" (#04, 1986). I own over 11 of his cd's, and have seem him in concert twice since the 1980's were over. By the way, Jones stopped dying his hair (he's a brunette), and don't expect the large blondish hair that you saw in his 1980's videos. While his albums are now more serious since the Human's Lib and Dream Into Action days, he sounds as good as ever. I am also looking forward to seeing Wang Chung and Irene Cara as well.

TiVo recorded the first episode, and I finally took the plunge and started watching.

Painful.

Yeah, the host is mega-annoying...and since he's about eight inches taller than everyone else on the planet, it looks like everyone else on the show is tiny. It almost looks like Ed McMahon interviewing the kids on StarSearch.

Yeah, some of the artists are horrible. I own "The Best of a Flock of Seagulls" on CD (to replace the vinyl), but they have always sucked live. I heard them live in 1983 and thought they were horrible...and all they've gained in the 22 interim years is a modicum of competence.

I found it rather blatantly unfair that the actual "bands" played live, whereas the singers (Tiffany and CeCe Penniston) got backing tracks. This isn't to take anything away from them - they were still good - but why not force them to staff an actual band, and increase their chances of screwing up? Seeing as how the first two "winners" were from the "no band" category, I wonder how that would affect the outcome. No, wait, I really don't, now that I think of it.

But the most annoying, most horrifying thing by far in this entire exercise is the studio audience (or perhaps the post-production thereof). About 500 cheerful folk who apparently were slipped some Ecstacy or something on their way in. It's not that they cheered each and every performance - that's polite - but they screamed and applauded absolutely everything in exactly the same manner. A Flock of Seagulls just did a substandard performance of a song they've been playing every night for the last 22 years? YAY! Tiffany's up right after these messages? YAY! A short film about what Ce Ce Penniston's been up to? YAY! Loverboy just managed to make me hate an Enrique Iglesias song even more than I did previously? YAY!

TiVo asked, "Do you want to delete this recording?" I said, YAY!

LXN

I haven't watched last night's episode yet since we went out to the movies and didn't get back in time.

Darn, I was hoping the Motels would win. FSU, don't forget one of my favorite Motels songs, "Take The L".

"Take the L out of Lover, and it's Over"

Cattledog. I was also a huge HoJo fan in the 80's. It will be nice to see Irene Cara. ""Fame" or "Flashdance"? I think she will sing "Fame". I still listen to DJ Bobo's update of "Flashdance" on my ipod.

And I still think they should have divided the show into singers by Decades.

So they mix in prerecorded applause. What's the big deal? wink

the problem isn't their applause... it's that most of them were, like, 3 years old (or not yet born) when the Knack were on the charts. Which explains why Vanilla Ice -- perhaps the biggest moron ever to sell 7 million copies of an LP -- won last nite. Word to your mother, indeed.

Exactly! That's why they should not combine 1980's and 1990's artists. I may have been 9 when "My Sharona" hit #01 and 12 when "Only the Lonely" peaked at #09, so at least I have a frame of reference of where I was when I first heard a particular song. But, I doubt most of these hyped-up young individuals in the audience have even heard of The Knack or The Motels. However, they've all heard of Vanilla Ice (unfortunately).

[ June 10, 2005, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: Cattledog ]

I was 3 years old when the Knack did "My Sharona."

That's crazy!!

How do they decide who wins? An actual vote, I hope, and not an applause-o-meter?

They have these little hand-held devices to vote. Although I heard about this little controversy last night that the buttons are so small and close together that you could accidentally vote for Haddaway when you really wanted The Motels . As a result, you threw your vote away for Haddaway (who didn't have a chance) and Vanilla Ice ended up winning. The Supreme Court is looking into it .

It's not that the applause is dubbed in - it's that the applause/scream-o-meter is set on eleven every time they use it.

"Oh my God! Squeal! It's Loverboy!"
"Oh my God! Squeal! It's a short film about Tiffany!"
"Oh my God! Squeal! We're back from commercial!"

Imagine your favorite sitcom with exactly the same explosive, knee-slapping, "oh-my-God-I'm-gonna-pee-my-pants" laughter after every single joke, every five or ten seconds. That's what it was like.

LXN

I agree that the audience is way, way over the top. It almost is as if the show is edited and spliced in such a way that it's actually the same audience reaction (wild clapping, huge collective screaming) used time and again.

MDB, I loved "Take the L"... one of my faves. I bought the Motels' "All Four One" CD a few years ago. It was remastered with a bunch of added extra tracks too (including a really good live version of "Only the Lonely.")

So what did I end up doing today? I ordered Tiffany's just-released club/dance CD "Dust Off And Dance." Here is a preview if anyone is interested. Also, Tiffany is performing at L.A. Pride this weekend.

Get "Hit" again, if you dare: NBC is repeating the first two shows on Tuesday night.

Oh man... Was the entire studio audience completely tone deaf? Irene Cara was so off-key that it was embarrassing. In addition, she adds her new back-up singers "Hot Caramel" or whatever the hell their name was to coverup Cara's lack of talent. Yet, she beats Howard Jones who was absolutely fantastic. HoJo not only covered his own song well, but he did a beautiful rendition of Dido's "White Flag". He was clearly the most talented person on the stage. As someone who has seen him twice in concert, he is not about flash and pomp. He just plays the piano masterfully and sings with a sweet tenor voice. After HoJo, I would have to say Wang Chung did a pretty good job. Sophie B. Hawkins was a major disappointment. I love how she wore a t-shirt that said "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" just in case we forgot the name of the song. ...and maybe I should loan her my copy of Five For Fighting's The Battle For Everything so that she knows how "100 Years" is actually supposed to sound. Cameo was okay. But, Cara winning with that off-key voice was just ridiculous. My boyfriend was in the other room listening (not watching) and he even grimaced during her performances. With the silliness of it all, I don't know if this baby get hit this show one more time.

Wang Chung was hilarious. They deserved it, just for being 50 year old British guys and pulling off "Hot In Herrrre."

"Fame! I'm gonna live forever!" Well, sure, but you're not going to sound that great.

I watched it last night

I hadn't been drinking or doing any drugs, so I have no valid excuse for doing so

it was like a train wreck--as bad as it was, I couldn't help myself

Another show that's limping to the finish...

It seemed like a fun idea in week one but now it's just sad.

Gah! As if it wasn't bad enough, check out next week's lineup:

Animotion
Juice Newton
Missing Persons
Shannon
Coming Soon

Ooh! i love Coming Soon! That Song They Did was my favorite! Hopefully, Warren Cuccerillo (sp) will be with MP, and will demonstrate what he's been up to lately. Namely his adult website.

It's definitely gone downhill in terms of people you actually remember.

As embarrassing as it is for me to say, Thelma Houston was pretty good last night.

The only thing I seriously appreciate about this show is that these people are (well most of these people are done with a serious career in music) doing this for fun. You can tell that they are having a good time, even though they may be making complete nutcases out of themselves.

And even though the songs aren't all the greatest, it's nice to hear people actually sing live and sound like the recording of the song.