Last night I experienced a surreal mass media double take as my roommate watched a show that nobody's watching, "Brothers and Sisters" on ABC. It's Nielsens are comparable to SNL's all-time worst ratings, in the 4's, and because I watch television based strictly on ratings, I'd never seen it before.
But last night, my roommate calls me in and says, "They just said 'Tucker Booth' on this show." Obviously the writers had struck on some hot-button formula to hike the ratings, and it involved the ever-incendiary name, Tucker Booth. For those that don't know, Tucker Booth is quite the non-fiction artist who calls the Frozen Food Section and St. Louis home. He has, however, spent some legendary times living on the beaches on of LA.
So I come in to watch, and the characters start spouting off "Tucker Booth" like it was "Paris Hilton", and in the most fitting ways ...."She lost her virginity to a guy named Tucker Booth!" and "I got high for the first time with a guy named Tucker Booth" and "What should we do now? Google Tucker Booth!"
My roommate and I are looking at each other in disbelief. It was as if the legendary underground had poked it's head up into mass media and looked around for a bit. It's not too much of a stretch for me to think that some writer in LA actually has heard about Tucker Booth and decided to throw it in just for kicks. The name is comic, and people frequently ask him if it's a stage name, which it isn't. And The Frozen Food Section does have the peeps in LA who perpetuate the myths. (We pay them to.) But to see it pop up on a middling Sunday-evening snoozer about red state-blue state family tensions was surreal.
In the final scene, the whole family of 10 or more is sitting around the table in awkward conversation, and someone says "Tucker Booth?" and everyone busts out laughing, like it's a in-joke between the whole family. Which, I guess, is what they call art mirroring life.
If the show was more of a hit, I'm sure you could find some clips on YouTube. But on the odd chance that somebody TiVoed it by accident, upload that gold! The Frozen Food Section needs a copyright cause to fight!
UDPATE:
Here's a link to a transcript with video. Somehow I missed the gay sex implications while watching it live.
And it's popped up in a number of blogs this morning too. Search Google Blogs.
But last night, my roommate calls me in and says, "They just said 'Tucker Booth' on this show." Obviously the writers had struck on some hot-button formula to hike the ratings, and it involved the ever-incendiary name, Tucker Booth. For those that don't know, Tucker Booth is quite the non-fiction artist who calls the Frozen Food Section and St. Louis home. He has, however, spent some legendary times living on the beaches on of LA.
So I come in to watch, and the characters start spouting off "Tucker Booth" like it was "Paris Hilton", and in the most fitting ways ...."She lost her virginity to a guy named Tucker Booth!" and "I got high for the first time with a guy named Tucker Booth" and "What should we do now? Google Tucker Booth!"
My roommate and I are looking at each other in disbelief. It was as if the legendary underground had poked it's head up into mass media and looked around for a bit. It's not too much of a stretch for me to think that some writer in LA actually has heard about Tucker Booth and decided to throw it in just for kicks. The name is comic, and people frequently ask him if it's a stage name, which it isn't. And The Frozen Food Section does have the peeps in LA who perpetuate the myths. (We pay them to.) But to see it pop up on a middling Sunday-evening snoozer about red state-blue state family tensions was surreal.
In the final scene, the whole family of 10 or more is sitting around the table in awkward conversation, and someone says "Tucker Booth?" and everyone busts out laughing, like it's a in-joke between the whole family. Which, I guess, is what they call art mirroring life.
If the show was more of a hit, I'm sure you could find some clips on YouTube. But on the odd chance that somebody TiVoed it by accident, upload that gold! The Frozen Food Section needs a copyright cause to fight!
UDPATE:
Here's a link to a transcript with video. Somehow I missed the gay sex implications while watching it live.
And it's popped up in a number of blogs this morning too. Search Google Blogs.
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