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Sep 28

2008

"HUCKABEE" Reviewed. LOL, Change the Station

Posted by The Mad Irish Man in Untagged

Here is a 1000% Honest and un-biased Review of Mike Huckabee’s new show on FOX

(trust me you won’t get one of these ANYWHERE else.)

Well folks the mostly un-anticipated show of former POTUS candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee ‘premiered’ on FOX this weekend, as a result here is my ‘review’.

Now mind you this ‘review’ isn’t for you . . . it’s for me, however a few folks asked to see what I thought . . . and well . . . here it is.

First off I’m not even really comfortable calling it a ‘premiere’, what with it showing up without any fanfare whatsoever.

I’m not going to lie Huck is popular in Middle America. Not quite as much as he was at his peak, but still . . . folks like him.

Why then did the announcement come on Huckabee's personal Web site - not, as is customary, and from the network?

A Fox News spokesperson declined to give any information about the show, referring calls to Huckabee's agent. In fact, Fox News ‘Spokespeople’ have done that for the past month. I can tell you first hand FOX in general seems ‘uncomfortable’ with Huckabee.

If that is the case why in the hell have the guy on your network? Ratings aren’t a good enough answer. (You can check the sad ratings yourself). In any event ratings are not a good enough answer because if the network does not try to help promote the man and the show and is in fact uncomfortable with him or the show that IS going to show through and subsequently hurt any ratings potential.

They haven’t even updated Huck to their site yet. WTF? That takes all of 3 minutes. Come on guys.

So in my opinion if FOX isn’t ‘ready’ or ‘willing’ to go out on a limb for Huck as much as he is for them then they should just end it. I am certain Huck could have a show on another network and have the support and promotion he would need to be successful.

Perhaps that may happen as the grapevine in the ‘TV World’ (thanks cuz!) has it that FOX has been ‘re-thinking’ this move even before launching the show prematurely and may very well be looking to end it as quickly as it began. To be fair there is also the rumor of a different hosting position at FOX for Huck.

Any who enough about that weirdness . . . (it is odd though dontya’ think?)

The show itself . . .

Well the beginning was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. One of the WORST show openers I have seen on television in this genre in a long long time. Hell Chevy Chase was better. (That’s sad).

Huck’s monologue was slow, forced, weak and COMPLETELY UNFUNNY. It was as painful to watch him beleaguer through it as it was to listen to the handful of ‘forced’ chuckles from the audience.

*Note To The Producers and Directors* “If you are going to have the man read ‘garbage’ off of a teleprompter, at least get him comfortable with doing so! Dear God put him in a room and just have him read aloud from a teleprompter for a day or two until it is at least something he is capable of doing without making himself look like a complete dolt. Heck, send him on the road with Obama for a week he will become a genuine teleprompter messiah!”

When finally the horrid monologue came to an end there was an abysmal seg-way to the remainder of the show. *sigh*. (Now here I have to get on Huck’s case, I mean come on . . . even I can orate a seg-way from one situation to another)

Panning through the audience one could EASILY pick out the ‘friends’ (literally his friends and supporters brought in to be the audience) and the ‘regular’ folks with somewhat confused tired looks on their faces . . . as if to say . . .”I know these tickets were free, but this is NOT the guy we saw at town hall events during the campaign, really . . . a whole hour?”

The format was nothing we haven’t seen a million times before. Nothing really to talk about in that regard. However; one aspect of the format did keep my attention both from a political standpoint and pure entertainment standpoint . . . the “Q&A” portion.

Now THAT was the Huckabee that folks gravitated to and enjoyed on a national level.

That was the Huckabee that I met several times in New Hampshire. Hell they should’ve began the show with that and skipped the abominable monologue! Huck took several questions from the audience, granted none of them very ‘pressing’ or difficult, but random unrehearsed out of the blue questions none the less. Huck answered them directly, with humor, honesty, compassion and wisdom. Good job Huck.

Let’s move on to the ‘interview’ portion of the show.

Let’s put it this way . . . it was like Ellen without the energy, Like Oprah without the interest, like Springer without the action, like . . . well you get the idea.

Don’t get me wrong. Huck maintained some of his humor, but it seemed as though something was holding him back. Perhaps merely nerves being the first show and all, perfectly understandable. He was warm, but too warm . . . even for Huck it was an over the top sense of warmth. His first guess was the lovely Elisabeth Hasselbeck just in case you were curious. Now once the conversation took place betwixt the two it was good!

Huck seemed more at ease, Elisabeth was her usual self. You could tell she was genuinely happy for mike and pleased to be there, that was good. They had a good lil’ interview that was more than likely more than most expected. I think folks may have been expecting something with less substance, if so they were most assuredly pleasantly surprised.

As for the rest of the ‘guests’ well that was basically a joke. Not to take away from these accomplished folks by any means . . . but it just wasn’t enough.

There was David Ramsey (you all know his business show), Geraldine Ferraro (no really she was there) and Alexis Glick (2^nd in command over at Fox Business)

This line-up brings me back to the fact that FOX just isn’t helping Huck make this show a success. I know for a fact Huck himself could’ve made a phone call and had better guests then that for a panel discussing the current ‘crisis’ with the economy.

In any event . . . this segment/interview . . . panel whatever it is you wish to label it didn’t go as well as the Hasselbeck interview.

Ferraro made feeble attempts at backing Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s lunatic ideology concerning the ‘bail-out’. I have a lot of respect for Geraldine however; I think these days she is quite out of her element in such discussions and it was painfully obvious.

During the discussion there were some great points made. These points were made by Ramsey and Huck. Ramsey pontificated on the fear tactics of folks in Washington and the ending of the world as we know it….and Huck suggested alternate solutions to the problem other than a ‘bail out’. Neither of them was off base and in fact if you were to throw Michael Pence from Indiana into the mix I bet you the three of them could’ve come up with a MUCH better proposal then we have been force fed now.

Still, the movement between segments was VERY amateurish at best. The total lack of control by Huck was unnerving. He (Huck) had NO concept of the ‘time’ constraints at any period during this portion of the show. He let his guests babble on foolishly when they had already made their point or simply didn’t have one. He showed no ability to move the conversation into the directions he wished them neither to go nor to prevent them from becoming stagnant. Now, again this is the guy’s first show, much of that can simply be attributed to nerves and experience . . . give him a break. Still, I will submit that he should have zipped through that at least a lil’ cleaner.

Another suggestion . . . TALK. You are the host. Sitting back fawning, smiling and winking whilst your guests talk for a half hour without you saying nearly anything is begging for cancellation. TALK. You are good at it. The folks that are bothering to watch most of them are there for that purpose . . . Dear God Mike Talk!

Again the audience participated sparsely throughout. This once again was a highlight.

Heck I’m nearly convinced you could simply have a rotunda room full of folks put Huck on a lil’ circle stage in the center with a stool a mic and a couch and do nothing other than converse with the audience and occasional guests and you would have yourself a MUCH better program. But what do I know; I don’t work in TV anymore. (Thank God)

The show ended with a ‘special secret surprise’. Yes you know what it is, we all did there was NO surprise. The ‘house band’ played, with of course . . . Huck on bass.

The House band consisted of Lauren Green Fox News Religious Correspondent (shocking) on Keyboards and some goofballs that worked back stage on various FOX programs. It was goofy, amateurish to the point that it wasn’t even ‘fun’. In theory a fairly nifty idea . . . in reality a boring onslaught of slightly off-beat (yep they were off-beat, watch it again I’m not lying) musicianship accompanied by vocals that I swear came off of one of the American Idol reject tapes.

This whole “House Band” segment harkens back to the monologue, it was painful, ill-rehearsed, poorly written and poorly performed. I’ve seen Huck play twice in person here in New Hampshire Once was pretty darned good and the other time he rocked. Playing with these folks he looked Old, uncomfortable and unsure of himself.

So far the ‘net’ is really the only feedback (other then the hint from the TV network world that ratings were low) other than online…net-commentary. It is mixed, mostly leaning towards the negative. You can do several simple searches to check that for yourself if you don’t have all the necessary feeds running.

Of course over on HuckPAC (Which is an abomination and utter joke. don’t go there they won’t like you, more importantly you won’t like them) the Huck-aide fanatics are hysterical with glee giving the show great acclaim with comments and commentary far more absurd then even some of their primary rants if you can believe that.

If you are interested in talking to Huck folks do it via the Huck’s Army sites, there are some decent respectful and insightful folk still involved over there. (don't get me wrong you will still find the nutbags or they'll find you I should say) I am sure most of them were a lil’ more keen on the show ‘premiere’ then I was but hey we would be the same way if it were Mac out there.

All in all, as I stated in a comment somewhere on McCainNOW.com in response to some fanatical idiotic despicable Huckabee chatter, (in fact you can read that also, it will if anything make you laugh at the utter ignorance of some folks) this is a role in which Huck can and should excel.

My “opinion” (based on my personal intuition and feelings from watching the show and from information in the ‘TV’ world combined with attempts to get ‘any’ positive comment from FOX officials) is that this show will not be around very long. Personally I think that is a shame.

I think if FOX dishes out a few bucks (they have plenty) and Huck polishes up a bit, drops some of the segments and just acts like . . . well like Huck…then he can very well have a profitable and successful show. Other than running/contributing to his organizations he should be perfecting his ‘on-air’ abilities . . . he has the time as he won’t be serving in any office again.

Slainte’