Return to the Airwaves!

By now the show has aired, but here's my belated report on the Crook & Chase show that taped today at the Grand Ole Opry House.

The show is taped in Studio A, which I know as the "Party Room" (Because they have schmooze fests there during big nights at the Opry House) but was actually the home to many TNN shows, as well as Hee Haw! The set was very simple, but versitile, and there was a live house band. All but one of the band members were from their Music City Tonight band.

It was old home week for me too - I of course looked around at all the TV crew, and four of them were my old crew from when I directed Predators hockey. So it was a nice bonus to catch up with them.

The show taped at 3pm, and it truly was live to tape -- they rolled the commercials right into it. I got there about 2:30ish, and picked out a nice safe back row seat behind the cameras. The audience was about half invited guests and half general public. Hopefully in future shows it will be more public - that way it's a little rowdier.

Lorianne & Charlie are such pros, it was cool to watch them work. It was very loose and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants -- they'd be like 20 seconds from coming back and they'd say - who's starting? I'll start. Ok. and they'd be back! The writer's strike won't be affecting these two!

I guess what y'all really want to hear about is his Garthness. After the intro / welcome from C&C, they introduced Garth and the backdrop they'd been standing in front of raised up, and there he was! He had Johnny, Mark, Mike and Dave playing with him, and they did "More Than A Memory."

After a break they had "couch time" with him which was mostly general chit chat and silliness, then Garth introduced George Jones, who came out. When he came out Garth first moved to the other end of the couch - way far away - and then went out and sat in the audience for a second, then finally sat next to him on the couch.

If you've ever been through the Country Music Hall of Fame you've seen the video of Garth talking about George, and the first time he met him in award show rehearsals, and how he couldn't talk to him. What you don't hear is George's side of the story -- he thought Garth was stuck up! LOL

My notes from Garth's portion of the show:

Lorianne asked him about how he prepared for his back to back to back shows in LA, what kind of food he'd be eating. "In L.A.? In & Out Burger. Anna's. Pizza, burgers - do you think it's easy to stay this big?" (Someone's going to have to explain to me what In & Out Burger is.

Other things you'll hear when watching this show:

Laundry: The secret to "pillow case putting on" and what he absolutely can't fold.
Troy Aikman: "Winning three Super Bowls wasn't enough for him, he's got to go out and save the planet."
His opinion: "We can differ all you want, but this is my opinion, and it ought to be yours."

The show felt a little disjointed to me... after segment 2, Garth left, there was no closing or goodbye to him, but he never came back. At the end Lorianne said he had to get on a plane back to his girls. Really - would 30 more minutes have hurt? The other guests on the show were the Oak Ridge Boys (who sang "Bobbie Sue" and one from their latest album "Did I Make A Difference" - google those lyrics if you don't know it, it's awesome!) and George Jones' daughter Georgette (with Tammy) who performed a song.

They talked about a movie Georgette was making where she played her mother, and they showed a picture, but never gave the name / timeline or any details. It sounded interesting. They were supposed to show some photos she brought from her personal photo album, but they had trouble getting them up, not sure if they will be edited in later or not.

There I go back seat producing again. It's a disease.

It was very cool that Garth took the time during the breaks to go over and say hello and hug people he knew - Lorianne's mom was there, someone in the band... no one else was doing that. The cutest though was an interaction he had with someone I didn't know in the audience...

They called out to him and he turned and said hello and was obviously pleased to see them. He said "Did you go to Kansas City?" And I could see them hold up their hands and he held up seven fingers and asked "seven?" Then he thumped his chest and held up nine fingers. "I was at nine." It was pretty cute.

This is a weekly show they are taping each Thursday in Studio A, and it airs each Thursday night at 8pm CT / Friday at 10am CT / Saturday 6pm CT. I'm very interested to see how it develops. It was very Leno-ish interview / performance based... not really any news / topical stuff. They told us it airs on DirecTV Channel 379 and Dish Network Channel 231. The audience co-ordinator started suggesting people write to Comcast to get RFD carried in Nashville and they interupted him to say that the Comcast guy was in the audience, and it would be coming soon.

If you are in Nashville and go out to the show, I recommend sitting in the balcony. The floor seating is all level, and the stage is really wide, so unless you are dying to be on camera and want to be in the first couple of rows, I'd say go high.

Let me know if you saw the show air tonight and what you thought of it.