What's Alan Watching?: You read it here first

Thursday, April 27, 2006

You read it here first

Blog as column idea incubator, take 26: today's column about Terry, Shane, Cirie and the rest of the wacky folks on "Survivor: Bizarro Island."

8 comments:

Adam said...: Re: "we've never seen a combination of the two like Terry", Chris Daugherty (as opposed to AI's Chris Daughtry) did win four straight immunities at the end of his season when he was completely outnumbered.

That said, your teaser about Cirie has me giddy. Which leads me to think that she believes she's not in Shane's final three any more, or doesn't want to be, so she gets involved with Terry . . . ?

Give me a season full of Rob C's (without the misogyny), and I'll be thrilled.; 10:22 AM, April 27, 2006
Alan Sepinwall said...: Well, Kelly did a similar thing in season one, as did Jenna in the Amazon. But that happened at a much later stage. We've never seen anybody who's had this enormous target on his back since the merge just keep winning and winning and winning and winning...

And the Cirie thing is very cool, if she can pull it off. (The CBS tapes always cut off before Jeff reads the votes, so I have to wait for the final five minutes to find out exactly what happens.); 10:28 AM, April 27, 2006
Louis said...: Alan, I compliment you on your remarkable powers of recall. How do you keep all of these Survivor historical details straight? Palau was my first season, and I can't even remember most of the participants and challenges I've seen in just three seasons.

I like Terry, but he's no Tom. (I remember enough to know that.) Tom was great at the game and generally a gracious person. Which leads me to a story . . .

Last summer, my family and I went on vacation to the beach in North Carolina. My wife went for a walk on the beach one morning, and when she came back she said, "I just saw Tom from Survivor."

Not believing, I did my own scouting and, yes, she was right: there was Tom, with what I took to be his family.

Well, I told my 9-year-old son, and he was beside himself. He and my wife again walked in Tom's general direction and bumped right into him as he walked by the water with his own kids. My wife said, "Excuse me, but aren't you --"

Anticipating her question, he said, "Tom from Survivor." He shook her hand and my son's, and chatted with them for about five minutes. He was very nice and answered my son's "balut" questions with good humor.

So, a brush with greatness.; 11:34 AM, April 27, 2006
Alan Sepinwall said...: I have near-perfect recall on certain subjects, and TV is one of them. If I was more interested in science, maybe I could've gone to med school or worked in Mission Control or something, but my tastes led me to this. Sigh...

I had such an enormous man-crush on Tom that I did something I would never have done with any other Survivor contestant, and maybe any other celebrity. During upfront week, when the networks announce their fall schedule, there's always a party afterwards where the low-level advertising people get to mingle with the stars of the new shows -- or, at least, get to line up and pose for a Polaroid with them. So I was at CBS' event last spring, and I noticed a Survivor booth. I asked one of my publicist friends who'd be standing there, and she said, "Oh, Tom, Ian, Stephenie, and I think Katie." And I actually got in the freaking line (at the front, no less) to have my picture taken with Tom (and, to a lesser extent, Ian and Steph). I felt like such a colossal dork, but I still have the picture.

Tom did have that one bad episode right near the very end where he basically guilted Ian into quitting, but overall, he's the most likable winner ever. Whether he was more deserving than, say, Hatch or PornoBrian, who relied on brains more than brawn, I can't say, but Tom's leadership during the team phase was a huge part of his wining strategy.

I miss him. God, I feel like J.D. talking about how fierce Turk's body is...; 1:25 PM, April 27, 2006
Adam said...: Tom's guilt-trip on Ian was bad for humanity, but great television. Shakespearean. I still can't believe how long that buoy challenge lasted.; 10:49 PM, April 27, 2006
Alan Sepinwall said...: You couldn't believe how long it lasted? Try being Jeff Probst. He was so cocky that they would all be home before dark, and then he eventually fell asleep in mid-challenge.

And, yeah, it was great television, but once, just once I was hoping there might be a winner I could feel absolutely, 100% happy about. Rich and Brian were master strategists and complete assholes. And every other winner needed to rely on luck, the bitterness/stupidity of the jury, or both, to win. Tom would have been the first guy to earn the win while still being completely likable throughout, and the Ian guilt trip tainted that a little bit.; 11:01 PM, April 27, 2006
Louis said...: Ian was kind of a pussy to fall for it, though, don't you think?; 9:27 AM, April 28, 2006
Anonymous said...: Ian was definitely an idiot for falling for Tom's manipulation, especially since it favored the odious Katie, but Tom was a jerk for manipulating Ian at all. Still love the guy.

And I guess I'm the only person I know who was 100% happy with Richard's win in S1. He was such a gleefully evil mastermind that I couldn't help but want his machinations to succeed, unlike with Porno Brian, who was far too oily.; 1:42 PM, April 28, 2006