Fat Guys On ...: Hey KEET, WTF?

So Wednesday's are a long day for me, putting together Northern Lights and all, so when I get home and take care of domestic duties I want to just sit back and take in a little TV.

Having no cable or satellite or any of those fancy fandangled TV watchin' luxuries, my options are limited.

So with expectations low, I began flipping around the channels.

So imagine my glee when I come across some footage of Sam and Dave getting down to "Soul Man."
What's this?

Oh, there's Otis Redding.

Yes! This is a soul music documentary.

It didn't take long to realize that the focus of the program was Memphis' Stax Records.

I love you KEET. I proclaimed I would — now, for the first time ever, even after countless guilt-trip pledge drives, donate to public television.

So I watched as Atlantic stole the Stax catalog out from under them, one of the founders was asked to leave, Issac Hayes (RIP) stepped on the scene and the plate was set for the rise of Stax in the '70s, starting with Wattstax.

And then, with no warning or credit or "Next time on..." the show just ended. Some country fiddlers popped up on the screen followed by a promo for Masterpiece Theater or something like that.

What?

Where'd Black Moses go?

What happened to Rufus Thomas?

Why is there a dude with a cowboy hat playing banjo in front of me when just saw the Bar-Kays play "Son of Shaft?" There were no cowboy hats or banjos at Stax.

So I began to panic.

This is just some technical goof, Stax will be back in a minute. Some overnight intern at KEET must have bumped into some button that changed feeds or something TV-ish like that.

But no, Stax never came back.

Before too long a documentary about some Iranian poet started and I officially gave up hope.
That $5 check I had written out to KEET to a soundtrack of Booker T and the MGs was instantly torn up.

How are you going to just stop a show with no explanation?

It was like some unseen person came into my room and grabbed my remote and changed it. Hey, I was watching that.

Today, Thursday, I tell everyone of my harrowing public television experience and come to find out it probably had something to do with PBS' coverage of the Republican National Convention.

So.

Let the Stax doc finish. You're telling me more people would want to watch a bunch of professors from England talk about some ancient Iranian poet than Mavis Staples sing "Respect Yourself?"

Please.

Shame on you KEET — there's $5 you won't be getting.

Fat Guys On ...

Getting free tickets — and milking press privileges — in the name of journalism.

Hey KEET, WTF?

Comments

Post a comment