Yes, I remember him as a contestant – but ever since then, he’s popped up to do color commentary, usually at the end of the season, which is why I wasn’t expecting him last night.
I didn’t see the whole thing, but him, Penn Gillette, and the comedienne that ended up in an eyepatch did a bit about the “Loser’s Club” for contestants thrown out first.
Doesn’t seem to be on YouTube yet.
Me again. Chiming in with a few issues I didn’t think were serious enough to warrant a new thread.
Is it just me, or is the show starting to take itself too seriously? I mean, so many injuries that it became necessary to mandate rest time? The increasingly vicious snark against the judges? (I’m sorry, but implying that Bruno Tonioli could be brutalized for a 4, no matter how j/k-ish it was, was crossing a line.) A few pros have two championships…no one’s running away with it, just two…and people are actually worried about this? I don’t like this; we’re talking the 24-carat lead pipe stone cold shark jump for a reality show.
Did the judges ever comment on what it’s like to be on a show like that? These are dedicated professionals, different interpretations, of course, but they definitely know their stuff. I have to assume that they’re used to audiences that understand what they’re talking about, and, more importantly, remain quiet while they’re giving their judgments. And contestants (and hosts) that accept said judgments without snarking or sniping or backbiting. If I were a professional judge, I would never in a million years accept the conditions of DWTS. Nonetheless, these three have stuck it out thick and thin, so they obviously know something I don’t.
And I’m not sure what the whole point of the “Losers’ Club” skit was, but I call BFD. It’s a consequence of the last man standing format, no more, no less. Even more so with viewer votes involved, meaning that the voters have a plethora of choices, they’ve only seen one performance and don’t know who’s really good, they don’t know who’s safe or in trouble, and they don’t know how good the contestants are at all those other styles. It’s a crapshoot, and some people are just plain unlucky. Furthermore, you never know what might have been. How many times have you seen someone nearly get bounced early and then go on a tear, a la Rudy Bosch?
Let’s face it, there are the contenders, and there are also-rans. For the latter, it doesn’t matter if they’re first out, second out, or tenth out, their chances of winning were all the same.
Oh, re. Tom Delay: I don’t think his role in the Bush Administration is going to be as much of an albatross as most of seem to. Dubya had fanatical support with a sizable chunk of our country, and I guarantee you that, one and all, they will defend him to their last breath. Voting-wise, this translates to at worst a wash for Delay, and he may actually get a slight bump if someone like Rush Limbaugh really gets behind him. What really hurts that what you saw in the first week is pretty much as good as he’ll ever be. He’s old. He has no background in dancing. No matter how hard he hits the gym now, there are serious limits to what he can do. As soon as he does something requiring even a modicum of speed or precision (and lord forbid he ever attempt a lift), he’s toast. Not too surprised that he survived the first week, but I’d be stunned if he was still around after the third.
Olympic caliber athletes were injuring themselves from overtraining for this competition, so I’d go out on a limb and say, yeah, you know what, mandated rest time probably not a bad idea. But I see that as a sign of the competition not taking itself entirely seriously. They’re basically saying ‘Duh. It’s a mirror ball trophy. Don’t kill your real career for it.’
Similarly, the jokes about the judging. It’s all done to heighten the drama and silliness of the show. If they were taking themselves seriously everyone would stand quietly and respectfully and do their crying in private.
Likewise, the Losers Club skit. It was all just tongue-in-cheek, and it’s clear that everyone involved has a good sense of humour about the whole thing. The people who get eliminated first actually get more place in later seasons of the show and are more widely remembered than the people who are bounced 2nd and 3rd and such.
Also, the audience has been boo-ing the judges for low scores for as long as I’ve watched the show. And I gather in the real world of competitive ballroom dancing, audiences are pretty raucous. Not the level of pro-wrestling, but this isn’t the Ascot.
Yes, that’s correct. But couples don’t get live feedback in real competition, either - the judges write their rankings on a piece of paper (or nowadays sometimes a PDA), it gets carried (or the data gets beamed) up to a central location, and the results are announced. After the event, the scoresheets are posted so that you can see who scored what, but the judges are not accessible at that time. If you want to find out why they marked you the way they did, you book a lesson with them and talk about it then.
The raucous stuff at competition is during the dances. Very rarely booing, but lots of screaming and shouting and carrying on during the dancing, to the point where it can be difficult to hear the music. Occasionally there will be booing during the results announcement if a popular couple places lower than expected.
Baz Luhrmann – !!! – is going to be a guest judge tonight. Do you think he’ll be a fourth judge or is one of the regulars going to be elsewhere? Have they ever had a guest judge before? I don’t remember any but my memory is definitely crap on stuff like that.
I remember them having Michael Flatley on as a guest judge when Len had to miss a week. I’m not sure if they’ve used other guest judges.
Michael Flatley replaced Len Goodman for a couple of weeks during the fall 2008 competition. It appears Luhrmann will agains replace Goodman.
So, I guess the connection is that Luhrmann directed the film ‘Strictly Ballroom’ (which I’ve never seen). Does that sufficiently qualify him? No idear.
I believe that his parents also had a ballroom studio, and much of Strictly Ballroom is based on his observations there. So he has at least been exposed to “real” ballroom dancing. Hopefully he’s not as mealymouthed as Flatley was. I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with.
Strictly Ballroom is a lot of fun – typical Baz Luhrmann cartoony goodness. Anyone who watches this show regularly would enjoy it.
Right, Michael Flatley, I remember now.
I am notoriously bad at remembering names, so those famous celebs that I never heard of will be called how I think of them in my head, just so’s you know.
The lady who had the fringe last week needs to wear fringe every week. She spent far too much time just standing there. The swinging hair wasn’t enough to mask it this week.
Aaron Copeland should suffer a non-painful, dance career ending injury. He’s very good and he may stay after my two favorite guys, Iron Chef and Donny Osmond. He’s almost assured to outlast the Dancing Hobbit and that would upset me too.
Debbie Mazar’s partner was being a right bastard to her. Instead of a smack in the face, I think he should have made it up to her by training her while naked. Kathie Ireland would win hands down if this competion was held in a retirement home in Boca Raton.
Sabrina the Teenaged Witch has improved and continues to be a trooper, Mya is a ringer and should be disqualified. Kelly was a disappointment, I want her to do much better.
And my being an Atheist mean old bitch isn’t why I’m going straight to non-existent hell. Nope, it’s the fact that I can’t help but like Satan’s Minority Whip/Majority Leader better than Michael I-Can’t-Bend-My-Knees Irvin.
Who’ll be eliminated? I think either Satan, Tatoo’d Head or Michael. Lord help me, I hope it’s Michael.
First off-- props to Baz Luhrmann. He is knowledgeable enough about dance that his comments made sense and were helpful, but he brought a different sensibility to it, reflecting his background in storytelling, etc. Plus he clearly watched last week’s shows carefully, which you’d think would be a given but in today’s world, when celebrities show up for these things pretty damn randomly, isn’t.
Doing the “Roxanne” tango might have been meant as a compliment, but it was one that inevitably showed the shortcomings of the celeb doing it.
Mya may be a ringer, but that was some damn fine dancing. I look forward to seeing her straight through to the final three.
Aaron Carter (not Copland, hee!) will probably join her there – don’t like him, don’t hate him, he’s good. As will Donny Osmond, I think – he’s doing a good job and his fan base is enormous.
I thought Mark was really good last night, and I think he could go far. Also in the second tier: Kelly and Joanna (fringe girl). Both of these were badly affected by the short practice time this week – we’ll find out if they’re going to make the effort or if the first week was just a fluke for them both.
Solidly middle of the pack: Louie (who’s just as cute as a freaking button), Melissa, Natalie.
Soon to leave: Tom DeLay (sorry, that tango was just fucking pathetic), Chuck (though last night was okay, they can’t get away with a lumbering snarl every week), Kathy, and Michael.
I agree, biggirl. Detest Satan though I do, he did a pretty good tango. I can only hope that bad foot of his will lead him to do the right thing for his own well-being, which is to leave the contest. Unfortunatly, he’s made a career out of doing the wrong things, so I can’t expect him to change now. But for his age, he’s dancing quite well.
Boy, the judges are leaning over backwards to avoid score inflation, aren’t they? In previous years, they were throwing around eights, nines, and even tens like candy, even by the second show. But last season and even more this one, they really toughened up. Well, either that, or the contestants have been significantly worse dancers, which doesn’t seem to me to be the case.
The problem is, they seem almost equally reluctant to give poor scores. The worst score that was given last night was a six. Somehow, Carrie Ann found Kathy Ireland’s performance as good as that of Joanna Krupa, and both worse than Debi Mazar’s wobbly effort. As a result, we had all but three of the fourteen contestants ranging in score from eighteen to twenty-one.
eta: I agree with you, twicky. Baz not only knew his stuff, but he’d done his homework and I was impressed.
Aaron Carter: pop boy singer.
Aaron Copland: grown-up composer (“Fanfare for the Common Man”)
Oy: I know what you’re saying about the scores. About 8 dancers in, I think the scores ranged all the way from 16 to 21. Perhaps they were “leaving room” for an actual good dancer later in the show.
It won’t matter how many times you all correct me, in my head he’s Aaron Copeland and that’s the way he’s gonna stay. It’s a mental defect.
Maks has an episode like that with his partner every year. Some years, it ends up working and some years, they just fall apart. Sadly, he never ends up training naked (shirtless, yes). As for the dance, Debi didn’t seem to have the strength that I think the dance takes.
The Muppet Show. Huh. And the band murdered the Roxanne Tango. And what on earth did Mya dance to?
The hobbit needs to wear different clothes - the hoodie didn’t help his lines.
I can still see the swimmer thinking about it (she had to remember to point her toes, twice). But if she did well.
At the risk of revealing my geezerhood, I truly think the hobbit would look better with a haircut. As it is, he looks like a little kid playing dress-up.
I thought it was interesting how Natalie revealed that she doesn’t breathe. Probably a competition-born habit – when the bell rings and the competitive fires are lit, she stops breathing, because swimmers don’t breathe very much.
She went to Berkeley…she’ll figger it out.
I missed the first couple of dances and the first half of the dancing hobbit due to childcare responsibilities.
I was very, very impressed with Aaron’s feet. It’s too bad Len wasn’t there to comment on them. Not only were his heel and toe leads in the correct places, but he wasn’t doing them artificially to please Len - he was actually using his feet correctly to create the rise and fall of the dance. I don’t know why that’s such a rarity on this show - I can generally get total beginners doing it in a couple of hours - but it’s almost unheard of. I’m particularly surprised to see it on Karina’s partner, since she’s pretty much just a Latin person, and I just don’t expect her to understand the "why"s of standard technique. If either Anna’s partner had done it, I wouldn’t have blinked, but Karina? Who knew?