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Author Topic: Supermarket Sweep contestant interviewed by The Onion's A.V. Club  (Read 6476 times)

tvrandywest

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Re: Supermarket Sweep contestant interviewed by The Onion's A.V. Club
« Reply #15 on: August 13, 2014, 01:16:24 PM »
How'd you know I'd get here eventually?    :)

Just some critical corrections to the former contestant's story - -

Ooops#1: AVC: They had to sell each episode? They didn’t have a contract? MF: Nope, not at all. When it aired, it was on PAX, which isn’t even a channel anymore. I don’t even know if that was a national channel.
>> I announced the 2001 season, they year he was on. We had a 26-week advance committment from PAX and taped all 130 shows. PAX was over-the-air on UHF channels in most markets. I believe it was born from a previous home shopping network and later went "Family Friendly." I think those stations are ION TV now.

Ooops #2: " I want to say they were taping something like eight shows."
>> Hey Skippy, you can want to say whatever you want, but we never did eight in a day. But there could have been 48 contestants because. as we all know, you always overbook for possible S&P problems and other potential issues.

Ooops #3: "none of the perishable stuff was real. Everything that was meat, cheese—all that was fake because they’d get the meat juices on their sweaters."
>> His history is correct that in the 1960s the meats and frozen food would bleed and melt when out of the refrigeration. So all those were props. And there were no real bread products, lest the set get a yeast infection! BUT the cheese was REAL! Imported Jarlsburg! Delicious! I got 3 giant wedges at the end of that season and had the neighbors over!! Seriously!

Ooops #4: " It’s very tiny. It looks huge, but it’s small."
>> He's talking about the market, not about when we met in the men's room! The market was the size of a Smart and Final (California reference) or an IGA (old but national reference); maybe 6 aisles, and the same width as normal aisles that accommodate two shopping carts.

Ooops #5: "They rolled this wardrobe rack around, but it only had 12 sets in different colored sweaters on it, so it was just kind of comical."
>> So... what's your point, Skippy?  ;)

Randy
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BrandonFG

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Re: Supermarket Sweep contestant interviewed by The Onion's A.V. Club
« Reply #16 on: August 13, 2014, 08:01:09 PM »
I believe it was born from a previous home shopping network and later went "Family Friendly." I think those stations are ION TV now.
Correct. Bud Paxson once owned HSN, and many of those channels became PAX stations. The one thing I remember is PAX even censoring "damn" and "hell" on some of its shows.

PAX also aired a severely edited version of The Sopranos. ;-)

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