I think it might be a little different
this year.
In just a few minutes I'm heading over
to Public TV 13 to shoot the first episode of "High School Bowl" for the 2018-2019 season. It should be a lot of fun; for the first
show, we've set up rivals going up against each other (Negaunee takes
on Ishpeming, for example), and we'll be trying a few new things to
freshen up the show for its 41st year.
So that should be fun.
What might be different, though, is
this. This will be my fifth season hosting the show. When I started
the gig back in 2014, there were a large number of freshmen also
starting the show, and over the first four years of hosting I was
able to get to know those young people. In a way, we kind of grew up
together, they as humans and me as a dorky TV show host. Many of us
developed a certain chemistry on the air, and Id like to think that
familiarity made for some fun TV. But now as I enter my fifth year
of the show, they've all grown up and have moved on to bigger and
better things.
My original “crew” is now gone.
That's not to say that the kids
appearing on the show this year are total strangers or aren't fun.
They aren't, and they are. In fact, I'm looking forward to chatting
with some of them on the air, because I know it'll make for
interesting TV. But the original group of kids with whom I started
five years ago—the young people who made up the bulk of the good
teams last year from Ironwood, the Soo, Escanaba, and
elsewhere—aren't on the show any more. For the most part, they're
now amazingly smart college students, and their places have been
taken by their brothers & sisters, or the friends who served as
alternates last year.
It'll be different. I mean, it'll be
the same, but it'll be different, if that makes any sense.
I have no doubt the kids taking their
place will do a great job, just as I have no doubt that several of
them will be just as strange—if not more—than the students
they're replacing. I'm also sure that over the next few years
they'll help me make some fun (if not downright absurd) moments on an
otherwise staid TV show. So even though they're not the exact young
people who started at the same time as I, I'm sure we'll have just as
much fun as ever.
Even if, for the first time since I
started hosting the show, a lot of the faces will be different.
****
And on that note, I need to head over
and shoot that aforementioned first episode of the year. But before
I have to do that I also have to wish my favorite sister in the world
a happy birthday! That's right; Mel's another year older, although
you'd never believe it if you spend any time with her. And she
actually has a great birthday lined up this year. Her three amazing
daughters, one of whom lives here, one in Florida, and one in
Minnesota, are all gathering along with their mom in St. Paul for a
little family reunion in honor of Melanie's birthday.
So if I don't get the chance to say it
in person, Mel, happy birthday!!!!!
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