Copycats
This weekend we lost our patience with WNYC's Ira-Glass-knockoff show, The Next Big Thing. It struck us as weird when the station announced the launching of a show whose creative mandate seemed to owe everything to that possibly overrated but still-great show they do at WBEZ.
But as of this week, the local product, which has been inserted into the late-AM-Saturday lineup where This American Life used to go (and which fit so nicely into my housecleaning/grocery shopping/running schedule), reached rock bottom, with a recounting of a weary meme, to wit, using the Web to see who else shares your name (in his case, a relatively common one). With nothing new to add, he gasbags it for a few minutes about the metaphysics of names, and then he's finished.
Now, we’re not suggesting you’re getting anything more valuable with this here website, but at least we haven’t advocated replacing, say, your subscription to Granta with our dim-witted meanderings. By all means, let Dean Ulsher have his show – but don’t give him my late Saturday morning just yet. Of course it could be worse: instead of ripping off TAL, the culture-mongers down at WNYC might have given another hour to the execrable Satellite Sisters.
**Shiver**
Posted by B T at January 28, 2002 12:32 PM