Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The Stu Osborn Show

Tonight I Tivo'd two episodes of "Thank God You're Here," which is like Improv-lite. One of the benefits of living in LA is you can always see top-flight improv groups, and the nature of TGYH, with its costumes, props, and sets, seems to limit the imagination of the performances.

That said I prefer it to no improv-on-TV at all, and at least it gives a platform to the many talented yet overlooked comedians around.

I'm skipping thru the commercials thinking, "How in the world do these networks make money thesedays?" Later... on cue, I'm flipping thru the TiVo guide on DirecTV and see "Microsoft presents The Stu Osborn Show."

It's a 3 minute episode (webisode?) with Michael Hitchcock and Fred Willard directed by Christopher Guest. That's automatic must-see for me.

I'm close to Microsoft's target audience - the business development-side of Microsoft - I say close because I do not make decisions regarding software. (MS's other divisions, like XBOX, had me pegged years ago.) But I know the handful of readers of this blog (and maybe the people clicking from China) are target demos. So someone from MS marketing is onto something here.

Hat tip to Christopher Guest & Crew for taking MS's money and running with it. I have no problem with sponsors, in fact I prefer it to silly commercials aimed at aging baby-boomers (snap!). I hope they do more.

From Stu Osborn's bio:

Stu Osborn is a journalist, raconteur, and Penny Farthing bicycle enthusiast as well as the host of the eponymous Stu Osborn Show, broadcast from the studios of KFQF, “The Beacon of Palmdale.”
And if you're like me and need a refresher on Penny Farthing bicycles click here.

Classic.

3 comments:

Jeff said...

How was "Thank God You're Here"? I forgot to set the DVR.

scott said...

Has potential, definitely worth recording, but don't expect Groundlings.

Anonymous said...

This is a turn in the right direction for MS.
Better then the Groundlings....these folks invented funny.