The Best Damn Interruption'

At the beginning of the school year, in September or October, I don't really remember which, my co-editor and fellow columnist Elliott Wiley approached me with a new idea.

Now, Elliott gets new ideas from time to time, and they usually have to do with either, women, sports, or cupcakes, so naturally I was interested.

He told me that he was trying to start up a new sports show on TUTV, and asked if I wanted in on it. I have to say, I was more than a little disappointed that it had absolutely nothing to do with cupcakes, but I sat back and took some time to think about the proposal.

On the one hand were the reasons why I shouldn't do the show: I have been a slave to the pen for my whole life, I believe that the written word represents human expression in its truest form, that TV has corrupted sports from the innocent, virgin form that they once held, in a time when a high school basketball player couldn't have shoe companies drooling hundred dollar bills in his face, when summer afternoon meant watching your favorite ball players live out their boyhood dreams in the shadows of legends, when 'Joe' really was just 'Joe' and "those twins" hadn't even been thought of. Plus I'm a pretty ugly dude-why would I want my mug flashed all across campus?

But on the other hand were the reasons why I should do the show: TV's kinda neat.

So I sold out. Sue me. It's not the first time this has happened. Look at Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. The second they got the chance to get on TV they took it. This is the exact same thing. (Humor me). Besides, Elliott assured me that he was doing all of the work. All I had to do was just show up on Thursday nights and run my mouth the same way I do everyday. Couldn't be easier.

And so it was that I signed on to do a TV show. My life would never be the same. (That part's not exactly true. My life has actually been exactly the same since the show started, except for now instead of watching TV and eating cookies from 8:30 to 9:30 on Thursday nights, I tape a TV show. But I digress...)

Colin Stewart and Andy Katzenberg were slated to join Elliott and me on camera, and after a month or so of talking about how cool this show was going to be, we finally got together to tape the first episode. We decided to call it "The Best Damn Interruption." (Note to reader: try to look past the blatant unoriginality in the title.)

Before I go on, I'd like to explain a few things. There is a distinct difference between writing a column and appearing on a TV show. Being a halfway decent columnist doesn't necessarily make you any good on TV. You can see this everyday at 5 p.m. on ESPN on "Around the Horn"-a bunch of great columnists, all together, talking about what they know best, and the show sucks. The only one who's any good is Bob Ryan, and I still haven't been able to figure out how why he puts himself through the torture of listening to Max Kellerman every day. Unreal.

The key to columnists being good on TV is chemistry. Look and Kornheiser and Wilbon. "PTI" is the best sports-talk show on TV, because those two have great chemistry. It's that simple. When Wilbon is gone and it's just Kornheiser with some other random writer, the show stinks because the chemistry isn't there. It's the same reason why sometimes "The Sports Reporters" is great, and other times it's miserable-chemistry.

And I have to admit, I was a little bit worried about how the chemistry was going to be between the four of us. But we taped the first show, and we thought it went alright. And then we watched it.

You see, what tends to happen when you have four people on a TV show, and those four people each have strong opinions about sports, each person tends to talk, and talk, and talk. And it gets really boring. It didn't take long to realize that we needed to argue more, rather than just say our own opinions.

We fixed this problem over the next several weeks, and I have to say, the shows were getting better. They were getting less and less boring because we changed speakers more frequently, and they were even getting a little bit funnier. We even started to broadcast the show live. We all felt comfortable, the topics were usually good, and most importantly, the chemistry was there. Everything was good.

Then Colin threw a giant monkey wrench into the whole business and left for Australia. The chemistry was threatened, and we were in danger of turning into a Wilbon-less "PTI" episode-you know the potential is there, but there's just something missing.

Now we are in the process of trying to fill the void with different weekly guest hosts. It's a risky venture because with each guest the chemistry changes, but it seems to be working out well so far. Tonight we have Tufts Alumnus Larry Harris. (I think that speaks volumes by itself.)

And we're still broadcasting live at 9 p.m. (Does this seem a little bit crazy to anyone else? Trying to compete with all of the other lineups on the most popular night of TV? Maybe I'm wrong.)

And we recently added the most important component to the show-the studio audience. It adds a different feel to the show-the "wow there are actually people watching and reacting to this show" feel. It's really kind of nice.

So if you should happen to find yourself with nothing to do tonight around 9 p.m., head down to TUTV studios. Between me, Elliott, Katzenberg, and (most importantly) Larry Harris, there's bound to be something you'll like.