Gotta get this off my chest. Yeah, I know it’s just a stupid TV show, but I admire creativity and good writing and storytelling in my favorite show. When it goes to crap, I’m chiming in there as well.

Unlike some fans of Doctor Who, I did not abandon the show when Chris Chibnall took over as showrunner and brought in Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor. I’ve sat through them all and been mostly disappointed with S11. This series (12), has shown some improvement, as whether by hook or by crook, or BBC threat, certain things did improve a bit. Is it still a show worthy of the name Doctor Who? It has its moments.

One of the biggest problems it has is the disingenuous current Doctor. The blame is shared by Whitaker and Chibnall. Chibs mostly loads her lines up with meaningless platitudes, things a wacky Doctor *should* say and do, but they usually land flat because Chibnall doesn’t seem to have the faintest idea how people actually communicate. Whitaker, for her part, seldom lends the part any gravity, mostly just breathless chirping. But Chibs inability to write well for his characters mostly impacts the Doctor’s pets. I mean, human companions, who the Doctor is *always* referring to as her FAM. DYS FAM might be more appropriate.

This incarnation of the Doctor seems aware that she usually has had companions in the past, so *she* has them. Her FAM irritates her whenever they ask questions about her personal life. They traveled with her –unquestioningly — for two years, never thinking to actually ask who she is (!). They just meekly follow her around like obedient baby ducks, while she teaches them lessons. They have proven to be highly incapable and useless in every scenario.

The relationship with these people she dubbed her FAMILY, is more akin to this:  say, your son is having friends stay over night at the house. Then the next day, for whatever reason, your son goes to school, but the friends go to another school and happens to have the day off, and you’ve got to drag them around on your errands. And you barely know them. That’s the “feel” here in today’s TARDIS.

The Doctor seemingly has no need or care for these people (her FAMILY). They don’t even seem that excited by the prospect of all the myriad wonders the universe shows them. Maybe because everywhere they go, they have this disconnected schoolmarm constantly lecturing them, morning, noon and night. You really get the feeling that they are in actuality, little more than an annoyance. This is all down to how Chibnall presents them and how Whitaker reacts in these scenarios. 

The worst was this past Sunday in “Can You Hear Me?”, a story that started out decently enough with an interesting set up. An immortal creature making dreams come alive and torturing people in their dreams, etc. There was a message hidden within the narrative about mental health and how it’s good to talk to people. Suffice to say it wasn’t clear what any of the perceived ailments were and what was affliction and what was actually caused by the bald guy invading their dreams. 

Sadly, this inability to tell a clear story, mixed with Chib’s inability to script real exchanges between characters, especially the Doctor’s “beloved” and “important” FAMILY came to a head at the end of the ep. Graham, played by beloved actor Bradley Walsh, was actually trying to have an important heart to heart conversation with the Doctor, talking earnestly about his fears regarding the possibility of his cancer coming back. He bared his soul to her. This was a moment. Between two people who’d been traveling together for years. Faced death together. A man the Doctor consider’s family. Any sincere or heartfelt reassurance, no matter how small, would have meant a lot.

She simply stared at him, then said, “I’m socially awkward. How about I just go over here and do some things and in a few minutes, you can pretend I said something good.” She basically treated Graham like some stranger at a bus stop. Abominable. 

Some apologists for the show will say she’s alien, she doesn’t know better. Or this incarnation didn’t know any better. Nonsense. There’s nothing wrong with her memory of the last 2,000 years. She had 13 previous incarnations who were all alien, some tetchy, some rude and crude. But when the chips were down and the companion was in trouble, or needed to talk, the Doctor was always there and showed he cared. Always showed compassion. 

Let’s take the example of twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi. That incarnation could be very rude and blunt to strangers. He could be brusque with anyone. But when Clara needed him, he was there with compassion. Clara’s boyfriend Danny had been killed and she was in a very bad place. She knocked out the Doctor with a sleeping drug, then gathered all the TARDIS keys and went to a volcano. When the Doctor woke, Clara shakily stated her intention that she would destroy all the keys unless the Doctor agreed to take her to heaven to bring Danny back. As I say, she was in bad shape. The Doctor managed to turn the tables on her, gained control of the scenario and said he’d help her. She was aghast. “After everything I’ve done?” And the Doctor responded: “Clara, do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” Now THAT’s a moment, that’s writing and that’s the Doctor. Been around over two thousand years and even with all the faults, the alien “otherness”, there is compassion. 

Except, evidently, with the current incarnation. Ironically, she’s just a dick. A disingenuous, extraterrestrial creep who has shown she doesn’t care one whit about these lowly pets she carts around. I expect better. 

I quite enjoyed the villains tonight, especially Zellin and the name checking of The Guardians, Eternals and the Celestial Toymaker. The finger thing was quite daft but hey, that might just be how these immortals roll. Once again, an interesting set up! Regarding the follow through—As we got deeper into the ep, and the Doctor and co. were locked up, I figured with half the episode left, this was going to be one epic confrontation, battle of wills, back and forth, trials and tribulations– no, she dispatches them quite quickly and remarkably easily. I won’t lie, this disappointed me but didn’t surprise me. It would have been nice to have a match up in the vein of the fourth Doctor and Sutekh but that’s a lot to ask for. Probably an unreasonable ask. 

Still had plenty of ep left, so we go to—Yaz hitchhiking 3 years previous. Seems like this was an attempt to start fleshing out Yaz’s character. I guess this was really a fam episode, prepping us for their departure. Okay.

The presentation of what Graham and Ryan have waiting for them at home seems unimpressive compared to the universe, Time, space, etc. —Occasional chips and poker nights? Yaz has her family, but it seems like something’s not right there either. Some trouble with the folks? I really don’t know because I can’t understand her and her sister at all. Seems like they’d want to keep seeing the universe but then again, they never really get that excited about any of it, so I guess they’d rather go back for poker nights and chips. That’s okay too, I suppose.

Last but not least, now we have a better idea why after two years, the FAM doesn’t talk or open up to the Doctor. Graham lays bare his soul to her regarding his fear about his cancer coming back. She just stares at him like an idiot. This wasn’t Ryan asking for dating advice. Nor was this a topic that lends itself to her being her wacky, annoying self. I thought to myself, “Oh Chris, if ever there was a time for this incarnation to step up and show that these creatures are more than just wayward pets to her, to maybe, in some way, show a little bit of heart toward this person you’ve been traveling with all this time, now would be that moment.” 

Nope, played for laughs.

Honestly, you know what? If that were me, I guess I *would* head back to the poker game. I currently think less of 13 than I did before. 

Having released all the individual stories on DVD, the BBC has started releasing entire *seasons* of classic Doctor Who on Blu-ray. In many cases, they’ve updated effects on some of the stories at the DVD level. Nice touches the original producers would have done had they the budget. Sometimes, they’ve gone to great lengths! The two best examples were Day of the Daleks and Kinda. 

Day of the Daleks was the season 9 premiere featuring Jon Pertwee beginning his third year and due to the budget, the big climactic battle between UNIT and the Dalek forces featured a few soldiers, three Daleks and couple explosions. It worked but was a bit lacking due to budget. For the DVD, they hired new stuntmen for the UNIT troops, built several more Daleks and added CGI effects and shot a whole new battle! 

While for Davison’s first season, Kinda was an interesting psychological terror tale on an alien planet that ended with a tribe confronting the The Mara, an evil entity that was represented in the form of a giant snake. Originally, it was a ridiculous looking paper mache creature on strings, whose only teal threat was giving out paper cuts. But on the DVD, they went in and replaced the aberration with a fully realized, brilliant looking CGI snake. It was amazing and really helped elevate the entire story, as opposed to ending on an eye rolling, head shaking, sad note. 

Now, all these effects will be grandfathered in to the Blu-ray editions, along with whatever cutting edge remastering can be done at this level– keeping in mind that there’s only so far they can take these original visuals, even at a BR stage. Still, there are some effects that must be addressed with this new opportunity.

There are a few classic era stories that desperately need some of this digital salvation. None more so than the second story of Jon Pertwee’s final season, “Invasion of the Dinosaurs”.

Dear BBC, PLEASE FIX THE F*****G DINO PUPPETS!

See, IOTD was a wonderfully written, directed and performed story about a group of scientists who were hatching a plot to bring about a new golden age, which was in actuality very sinister and involved some time travel shenanigans. To discourage an investigation by the Doctor and UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), from breaking up the party, the bad guys would scoop dinosaurs out from the past and bring them to present day to threaten our heroes. There in lay the problem. 

The company the studio hired to do the dinosaur model work assured them they’d be getting quality stuff and I guess they had good references. But when the production team got the footage back at the eleventh hour, they were devastated at how phenomenally horrible and laughable the dinos were. Even for 1973, these were the bottom of the barrel. The “rampaging” T-Rex could actually be the worst realized prop in the entirety of the 26 years of classic Doctor Who. To say Barry Letts (then producer) and Terrance Dicks (script writer) were embarrassed beyond words was an understatement but there was nothing to be done. 

10 years later, it was probably released on VHS. Another 15 or 20 some odd years later, the story was released on DVD. That was probably their first opportunity to fix the problem. Nope. In some cases, they even re-released special editions of the DVD’s with the updated effects I mentioned earlier. Even the bloody snake in Kinda. But they never touched those dinos! Seriously?!? We’ve now been stuck with these things messing up a perfectly good story for almost 50 years.

But now… you’d think they’d HAVE to rework those feeble puppets for the new format……….right? There’s no way on God’s green earth they can expect people to RE-buy a further remastered story on Blu-ray without fixing the damn puppets……right? 

After all, at this point, they’re going to the trouble and expense of animating ALL the missing 1960’s bxw episodes, one story at a time. They have time and they should have money for this story’s needs. Invasion of the Dinosaurs is easily one of the very best of the entire Pertwee era. Probably the best story of season 11, but it’s never talked about too highly because the puppets hurt the story. They’re everywhere and they’re crap. 

So far, of the Pertwee era, only his fourth season (10), has been announced and released. If season 11 is announced as coming next year or if it’s the last one they ever release, I don’t care. 

Just… just fix the damn puppets, man. 

These days, anyone cracking open a new issue of a Batman comic will see the phrase “Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger”. That’s a fairly recent development, no doubt allowed by DC comics at the beseeching of friends, fans and family of the late Mr. Finger, but  80 years overdue. For decades, starting in 1939, every comic that had Batman in it read “Batman created by Bob Kane”. So of course everyone thought it was all Bob. In the ’40’s and ’50’s no credits were listed for the artist of the book, as Bob Kane ran a studio and thought it better if the world believed it was all him. In truth, he hadn’t done much but the business end of things for years and years. He wasn’t a very good illustrator either, that’s why he quickly farmed out art duties to guys like Sheldon Moldoff and Dick Sprang. They didn’t get credit in the books though. But for the longest time, Kane was able to maintain the illusion, that it was all him. At least until the ’60’s, when the comic world was changing. Over at Marvel, Stan Lee was putting up big credit boxes in each issue giving credit to the writer, penciler, inker, and letterer.

Bill Finger, a talented writer, creator of Batman, ended up dying penniless. 

Bob Kane knew how to dress up and act like a smooth character, had a relative who was a lawyer and set up a smart business plan calling himself the creator of Batman. He was worth multimillions, basically for coming up with the name “Batman”.

Vin Sullivan gave a detailed interview a number of years ago about who actually created what with the character– he was the editor back then and still alive 20 years ago to share the actual details. 

When drawing up the character, what Bob Kane created looked nothing like the character we know. His version was a guy in red long johns, a small black domino mask and actual batwings sticking out his back. He did provide the name Batman though.

Bill Finger came up with everything else. The blue and gray color scheme, the pointed ears, the scalloped cape, the utility belt. He came up with Bruce Wayne’s entire backstory. And Bruce Wayne. But he worked for Kane. 

Kane, through the decades enjoyed the notoriety, fame, parties and of course the money. He basically lived the carefree life the fictitious millionaire Bruce Wayne pretended to live, using it as a disguise for his true persona, The Batman.

It’s said that years after Finger died in poverty, that then and only then, did Kane reportedly say that maybe he should have given Bill Finger some credit for creating Batman. But that it was too late now. 

And now Bob Kane’s dead too. (Douche)

But now you know the rest of the story.

Good day. 

It’s long been known that my two favorite comic books are Batman and the Fantastic Four. The first thing I ever drew was Batman, and I’ve got a 150 piece Thing collection of toys and art. I’m going to say a big part of it was those being the first comics I ever picked up, circa 1971. FF #112 (Stan Lee/John Buscema) and a Batman treasury edition which reprinted his first encounter with Ras Al Ghul. (Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams). As life changing and earth shattering as those comics were in my life, I’d seen both on tv years earlier. I was a big fan of the live action Batman tv series, but he also had a cartoon, as did the FF. Actually, there were a number of superheroes that had cartoons on in the ’60’s. Cap, Iron man, Hulk, Thor, Sub mariner and especially Spidey, that of the excellent theme song. There were probably various Superman, Aquaman and other DC characters I remember as well, and I eventually visited all these characters again later in comic form. But Batman and the FF always stood head and shoulders above the rest. Somehow, in those very early days, I “imprinted” on those two franchises, if you will.

I’m now going to put on my psychologist hat. Keep in mind that I’m not only NOT a psychologist, I don’t even play one on TV. But I *do* find it interesting to root around in my brain and try and figure things out. But it’s weird in my brain. Best to wear shoes.

Delving down into the psychology of it, maybe it’s a family thing. folks split up when I was two. Mom and I lived with my grandparents and then my grandparents moved away. I’m starting to think I should’ve taken this personally — because of course it’s all about me. So, folks and family? Abandonment? Yeah, I know, >wah wah wah<. No, I’m not whining, I’m investigating. To do that, I have to ask questions and evidently, I simply don’t have that type of inner monologue.

*Important note—this solitary year of blogging is all about self discovery. You can watch through the window or not. But by the end of this year, you’ll have a more frightening understanding of me. 

Anyway, young Bruce Wayne lost his parents to crime, but Bruce trained himself to be ultimately prepared, always efficient, as near perfect in mind and body as possible and the world’s greatest detective. I can’t see too much connection there as I have neither the money, physique or the training. But efficiency….. if anything, there’s the efficiency and preparedness. That does seem to ring true. I do admire efficiency. 

Meanwhile, the FF were a built in family, as well as superheroes, which seemed nice. 

I’m sure I’m not the only kid who sought escape in these stories. I guess I sought family, too. 

People compliment me on my vocabulary. That’s got a lot to do with Reed Richards. I deflect and complain with humor. — Ben. Probably my all time low with the FF back then was when Reed and Sue got divorced, leaving Franklin, their son, with a broken home. Oooof, this did not sit well with 11 year old me. How was that “escaping” for me? Thankfully, Reed and Sue eventually got back together again.

Or maybe it’s just that the FF has a very unique team dynamic, or that the personalities injected into them by Stan resonated. *Maybe* Ben reminded me of my grandfather, who i was very close to. They had similar personalities and my grandfather was pretty strong. Back in the old old days, he used to be able to bend iron bars (!). Also, the way Jack Kirby drew the Thing, there was a certain sadness in his eyes, a certain look. Yeah, there was a couple things that reminded me of my grandpa or “Gapa” as I used to call him. That might be one of the reasons I was so taken by the FF and the Thing in general.

I don’t know. It would take a far greater psychological degree than my non existent one to suss out all the mental ins and outs of why I’m in so deep on those characters. Will I revisit this? Probably…

I usually like to stay on top of the snowfall. Get out there early, put a dent in it. but then you get a day like today, when there’s a couple inches on the ground, another inch comin’ and I’m still Peggy Phlegmy and I just can’t be bothered to slog out there and possibly make it worse. 

I’ve never been that guy who just shrugs it off and says “ah, it’ll melt eventually (in 5 weeks if you’re lucky)” but I’m just real tired of being sick. REAL tired.

So time to check on how Matthew’s feelin’…..he’d have to do ours and the neighbors—but he gets paid for that. He knows the risks…..

It’s funny how your opinion can change regarding a character or a movie, depending on your perspective, or even how the character or franchise had itself changed since you last watched the particular character or movie. 

In 2006, not quite yet that controversial director Bryan Singer brought us the next chapter of the Richard Donner Superman universe. He cast a young Brandon Routh as Clark/Superman, an even younger Kate Bosworth as Lois and the really, not nearly that controversial yet Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. The John Williams magnificent theme music was still in place and as inspirational as ever. 

Basically, Supes has been gone 5 years, but is back to find out Lois has a new guy and a kid. He’s got to adjust, Lex hatches a new plan, which Supes eventually foils but it damn near kills him but not. He survives and the kid is his after all.

When first watching it back in 2006, there was some great stuff in there — Supes saving the plane at the baseball field was incredible and every bit as joyous as the Reeve stuff a generation ago. In fact, Routh did a great job as Supes, easily worthy of Reeve himself but his Clark was simply refreshing and wonderful. Spacey was great as Luthor too. Not as camp as Hackman but great style. Actually, all the performances were great when I think about it.

But there were some concerning issues back then. First, it takes place five years down the road, yet Supes and Lois actually look a LOT younger than Reeve and Kidder. Bosworth actually looked like she could be Kidder’s daughter, not a five year older Lois. Next, the peeping Tom scene, where Supes flies over to Lois and boyfriend Richard’s house to see WTF happened here, using x-ray vision. A bit creepy? Superman’s costume was another thing. Gone was the bright and bold red, replaced by a dark maroon. Hey made the S Shield smaller as well. The new design took some getting used to. And the real elephant in the room, Supes had a kid now. And the circumstances around him felt a bit off. Kinda left a bad taste in your mouth. But aside from that, a pretty good film. 

Flash forward another decade. Warner bros puts out the dark and dour Man of Steel, directed by Zach Snyder. The studio figured if Dark Knight worked so well, let’s go really dark with Supes too. What followed was a great sci fi alien movie with violence and massive destruction porn. It just wasn’t really a “Superman” film. This was followed up and compacted with Batman v Superman.

Meanwhile, over in the comics, long story short, thanks to some dimension skipping and time hopping in one crossover event, Clark and Lois now had a son, Jon, who was about 10. DC comics had since had the new 52 reboot and the Rebirth reboot and things were different. 

So now it’s 2019 and I revisit Superman Returns. Boy. After Man of Steel and BVS, this is a helluva lot brighter and more fun all the way around. And when you can say that about a movie in which Supes gets stabbed with a sharp chunk of Kryptonite, it just goes to show you how dark everything else got. The kid was also cute and a decent actor. Suddenly, after all the changes in the comics over the last several years, him having a kid hardly registered a blip. Even the peeping Tom scene was harmless when you really think about it. He’s concerned about Lois and wants to make sure she’s ok, as well as the kid, because Supes is good at math. It’s not like he stayed and watched bathroom or bedroom antics. He left a minute or two after he got there. After five years, was that really such an offense? Making sure the woman you love and your new found kid are alright?

Yes, Bosworth was still too young but aside from that, this film not only holds up very well but I think is deserving of another look, because the thing is…

…it’s all a matter of perspective. 

Epilogue: it’s not often a certain “take” on a character gets a second chance, much less a third. The Routh version of Superman never got a proper sequel, but it did get a certain kind of closure. In the recent Crisis on Infinite Earths TV miniseries on the CW, we got to see an older version of the Donnerverse Superman played by Routh again. Touching on different points in comics history in the midst of the Crisis, he embodied the Kingdom Come Superman, beset by tragedy, but as the universe realigned after the Crisis, all was set right and this particular Superman was given his happily ever after ending. It was good to see.

Albert Einstein is hilarious in his films

I’ve yet to get The whole family history because the kids don’t talk about it a lot, so I’ll tell you what I know. Many years ago there was a comedian named Harry Einstein, who moved about in the Hollywood circles and in the famed Friar’s club. He socialized with the likes of Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, and the like (look ’em up, kids). By all accounts, he was a quick witted, very funny guy and really beloved by the comedy community and participated in many comedy roasts at the Friar’s club back in the day. In fact, *during* one roast in 1958 in honor of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, after doing his routine and leaving the podium, Harry collapsed into the arms of milton Berle, who, sensing immediately that this was no gag, shouted for a doctor. Turns out, there were five in the crowd, who got up on stage and after they brought Harry behind the curtain, one doctor cut open his chest with a pen knife and tried to massage his heart. Another doctor tried to use to ends of an electric cord to shock the heart into action again. Then more medical personnel arrived and was working on reviving Einstein for two hours, employing a “pulmonary motor” as they went. Berle had the band play and George Burns began to sing but at every break, the audience heard the sound of the pulmonary motor hard at work behind the curtain. In the end, it was too late and Harry was pronounced dead in the wee hours of the morning. As you can imagine, everyone was devastated, none more so than his wife and oldest son Clifford, who were in attendance. 

One of his sons was named Bob, who was about 14 at the time of Harry’s death. When he was old enough to get a job, he went into advertising. He also did a bit of sketch comedy on the side until getting a call from Tommy Smothers of The Smothers Brothers fame (again kids…), in the late ’60’s, who offered him a writing job on their variety show. A program which would later turn out to be one of the most popular and controversial shows of the era, as they took on the establishment and publicly denounced the Vietnam Nam war every chance they got. Another writer Bob was working with on the TSB was a young man named Steve Martin. After Nixon canceled the Smothers Brothers, Bob Einstein went on to write and produce many other variety shows through the ’70’s and into the ’80’s. Along the way, he created a new character, a daredevil stunt rider named Super Dave Osborne and appeared mainly in six seasons of Showtime’s “Bizarre” with John Byner. Bob had been most recently been appearing on HBO’s Curb your enthusiasm as Marty Funkhouser. Bob sadly passed in January of 2019 but if you ever get a chance to see or hear an old interview with Bob, don’t hesitate, he was one of the funniest guys on the planet. And then there was his brother, Albert.

Albert was only 11 when his father died. As for the name, I guess maybe it was Harry’s sense of humor or a cruel streak somewhere in the family but they named one of their sons Albert Einstein. That had to be tough. Well, at some point, he changed his last name to Brooks and was producing short film clips for Saturday Night live at the very beginning of the show’s run in ’75. Odds are, you know about Albert Brooks but if not, A) shame on you and B) go buy, rent or download Lost in America, Broadcast News and Defending Your Life. Start there. Watch those three in that order. You’re welcome. Then just start looking through his IMDB page. Albert is also one of the funniest guys on the planet.

Just a strange, fascinating, funny family, that happens to have Albert Einstein in it. 

Professor Xanax stepped out into the sun, over the bodies of the slumbering security force as he and his goons exited the bank, their duffels stuffed with cash. The plan had proceeded smoothly. Like any summer Sunday morning at 5AM, the city was deserted. The bank vaults combination and security protocols extracted from the former teller were spot on. His supply of sleep gas was ready. The perfect canvas for a Xanax crime masterpiece. 

Loading their overstuffed duffels into their van, they felt it. A vibration. Low, steady, building. Xanax froze.

“No, it can’t be. He couldn’t know!” 

One of the goons — suddenly sick to his stomach–turned to another and asked “What is that? Everything’s shakin’!”

His pal, now bent over, face screwed up in pain managed to respond..”It’s that… humming guy…..destroys stuff…with…vibrations” and hit the ground, unconscious. The humming grew more devastating -mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Defiant to the last, Professor Xanax, legs like jello, head throbbing, managed to get out in the open, away from the van, as its tires split with successive BANG-BANGBANGBANG!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Xanax raised his fists high in the air, shaking them at the rooftops, screaming at his unseen foe.

“I know you’re there, you humming freak! One of… one.. of…these days… I’ll….. I’ll*”  and unable to continue, the spasming villain collapsed onto the pavement.

With the perpetrators down for the count, the vibrations stopped. The coast clear, the police rounded the corner, lights flashing. As they mopped up the scene, the captain picked up his communicator and flicked it on “I think we’ve got things in hand here, um… Purple Throbber, thanks again.”

The communicator crackled back: “My pleasure captain. Guess the professor’s information on the silent alarms weren’t all up to date. Take care now.”

The captain looked up at a nearby rooftop and saw only a flash of purple as the hero disappeared once again. 

One of his officers stepped up. “I guess he did it again, saved the day, huh Cap?” 

“I guess he did,” the captain said as he turned back toward the clean up “but really, he’s got to think about changing that name.”

Companies pay millions and millions and MILLIONS of dollars to air 30, 60, or 120 second commercials *during* the Super Bowl. It is definitely an event, seeing the alleged best of the best, most creative commercials of the year. Even if you’re not a football fan, it is fun seeing the whole state of the art technological presentation of the game, an excuse for getting people together at a SB party, the whole shebang. It’s a fun time! The only negative being having to go to work Monday morning if the party was too successful. Really, Super Bowl Sunday night is a well crafted production on every level. The fans win, the advertisers win, the networks win. And some years, like this one, there’s the extra added bonus of this being a very anticipated match up. Even if you’re not a huge football fan (me), watching the two best teams go at it on the ultimate stage is usually worth watching.

But what I cannot figure out — is why, the last few years, that they’ve started showing the big, Super Bowl commercials ahead of time. Why spill the beans before the big moment? You, the advertisers, are paying 5.6 million for a 30 second commercial to be shown specifically during the Super Bowl, watched each year, fairly consistently, by over 100 million people worldwide. 

Now, I’ve worked in promotion in the past. I’ve drawn literally thousands of storyboards for ad agencies over the decades. Some of them have gone on to be produced and shown during the big game itself. You want maximum impact and you want your product to be remembered and memorable. The Super Bowl gives you the spotlight, a true moment to shine. And don’t forget the 5.6 mil you spent for every 30 second chunk of that spotlight. And you know there are people who watch the SB *just* for the commercials.

So sorry, but it seems the height of idiocy to me to take away from that spotlight and throw your babies out there on the Internet a couple days early. After the SB, the commercials are out there forever. Why spoil your big moment two days earlier? Lessens the impact. It just mystifies me. 

Hey, some of the smaller companies out there? Who can’t afford the ad prices during the big game? You should throw a couple new commercials out on line a couple days before the big game. If nothing else, it might make it seem as if you’re big-ballin’ it with the Doritos, Coca Cola, Chevy or Budweiser elite commercials. It might up your profile, you knows?

Hell, *somebody* should do something clever here.