The Rose Parade Masquerade
As I have grown up in a household that emphasizes “family,” we have always had the tradition of waking up on New Years and watching the Rose Parade. Of course, this year the Rose Parade was on Augustian 2, but that makes no difference really, except hundreds of people are able to rejoice in their respective religious homes located on Colorado Boulevard. So our family gathered around the television to enjoy KTLA’s Rose Parade coverage, without commercial interruptions.
Past years have been difficult for me to sit and watch the entire parade, but I did anyways for the simple obligation of family togetherness in silence around a talking picture. This year’s parade seemed to go fast. Maybe it was because it was funny to watch people leave the stands because of the rain, or perhaps it was fun to point out every flaw in the Rose Parade coverage. I think it was both, but mainly the latter.
My beef started when Stephanie Edwards was not up in the booth with Bob Eubanks giving the play by play like it has been as long as I have been alive. Instead she was replaced by some new, younger hoochie - Michaela Pereira. Poor Stephanie had to sit in the rain and got about 5 minutes of air time. Stephanie is so much more fun to listen to than Michaela was - the whole time Michaela was just trying to make love to the camera rather than read the script. At this point, Bob interrupts asking “How do you like my sweater?” Bob knows how to work the ladies. Kudos to that. I understand this was probably and attempt to slowly wean Stephanie Edwards off the Rose Parade broadcast (as she is aging beautifully and has had a long successful career), they should at least give her the benefit of going out with style and class, rather than sitting on cold bleachers in the rain alone. Of course it could always be that Bob and Steph had a bit of a tiff. As far as I am concerned, their television chemistry was as strong as ever, as Bob was willing to cling to anything but the trollop next to him (Bob is a happily married man, Michaela).
The big deal about watching the Rose Parade on KTLA is the fact that there are no commercial interruptions. That is true to a point. During the broadcast “shout-outs” go out to all the sponsors who pay money for the ad which keeps KTLA from cutting to a commercial. The problem is, someone involved in the parade production decides to put the ad in the middle of a band, in which case the audio from the parade is cut out to thank the sponsor. Now I am no big city lawyer, but the only time anyone would care to hear the parade is when a musical group goes down Colorado - there is not much to hear when an equestrian unit goes by, or a float for that matter.
The director also must not have been anything that great. Cuts were slow when anything happened; I know Robert was upset he didn’t get to see the fireworks on the Disney float. “It is okay son, at least you got to see Mickey for an hour-long shot.” While I understand this is a live event, everything is on the fly, the director of the Rose Bowl this evening did a great job. Why can’t KTLA bring someone knowledgeable in? Oh that is right, Wienerschnitzel is a corporate sponsor, they are about as successful a company as USC is at bringing Texas’ Vince Young down. But while I am thinking about it, “Join the Chili Dog Diet!”
I hope next year proves a better year for the Rose Parade coverage, as I know they are going to/have received many letters of complaint (two from my house). At this rate, it might be more enjoyable to watch the Rose Parade live on the cold street than the horrible coverage in my warm house.
Categorized as Personal
14 Comments
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Stephane Edwards - A Fine Wine at Jon Shoemaker
[...] Last year a wrote a little recap of the 2006 Rose Parade. In it I complained a lot, which I so often do, about problems with the coverage and the demoting of legendary Stephanie Edwards to the bleachers to cover to parade. Because of this article, I have been receiving dozens of hits to my site from people searching for what will become of Stephanie at the 2007 Rose Parade. Since people are looking for it, I might as well give it to them straight: [...]
well jonathan…thon….w/e i dunno. as a language art teacher perons thing i approve…. A+ no grammatical errors that i was able to detect…then again i cant even spell ur name right so i dont think my say really means much but oh well!
There was one grammatical error, the last sentence on the second paragraph you typed “maily” instead of mainly. Not that I care, but this Ashley character seems to be pretty jerky.
I see one too. Sorry Jon, but as long as they’re at it, I guess you should catch all your errors. In the last sentence in the 4th paragraph, “here” should be spelled “hear.” I agree that it was sad to see Stephanie out in the rain. I don’t see why they have to get rid of her. I’d prefer that they replace Bob instead of Stephanie.
We all know who the nerds are…
Bethany: I think if they were to replace anyone, the “newbie” should be the “roving” reporter and leave the “old married couple” in the booth. I vote to keep Bob for his sweaters, and because he tells kids that the disney characters are not real.
Remember when Stephanie used to be the spokesperson for Lucky’s Grocery Stores?
Those were the days.
ohhhh my aaron (if that really is your name) u call me a jerk! jon this is so a good example of what we talked about last nite! a person being labeled a jerk by a simple sentence. lol. harsh aaron harsh!l
word!
First of all, I refuse to have my real name published online and second of all I have a disorder, so I can label people after just a few words.
umm, ashley, I dont think you talked to me about that…it must have been some other stud who comes close, but does not compare to me…
jon hello we so talked baout this did i not say before camp i thot u were a jerk based on what u had written in a post on this very website….? yeah i believe so!
This whole dialogue about who is or is not a jerk is tired. I’ll settle this. Jon is a geek, ashley is goofy and aaron is too smart even by his standards. By the way shouldn’t you be back at school by now ashley? Pretty soon you highschool kids will only go to school one day a week. No wonder most kids graduate highschool with a first grade reading level.
ABECCA!!!! its winter break istart school on monday and im at leastat a second grade reading level!
It’s true. I was so upset I sent a letter to KTLA complaining about that very problem (along with some other issues of direction and hosting). I didn’t swear even once.