I caught a couple of minutes of the latest iteration of ABC’s The Bachelor this evening and was surprised to see a familiar face: Jerry O’Connell. Thing is, it turned out not to be Jerry, but his younger brother, Charlie.
You may recall that several years ago Charlie took Jerry’s place on the show Sliders about the time SciFi started airing the syndicated series. Or not. The show pretty much blew and everyone (save me, for a brief time) figured out it wasn’t Jerry playing the lead anymore.
I got lured in to the show because of the amazing amount of rampant cleavage being flaunted for Charlie’s pleasure. If one of those bachelorettes came into that room without a plunging neckline, I didn’t see it. Plus, Charlie took full advantage of the situation barely hiding his chest-ward glances and even going so far as resting his head on the shoulder of one young lady just to get a better view of her decollotage. Suave.
But here’s my point, if there is one: I’m now that much closer in the universal scheme of things to Wil Wheaton. A random thought, to be sure, but stick with me.
1) I saw Charlie O’Connell on The Bachelor
2) Charlie is Jerry O’Connell’s brother
3) Jerry was in Stand By Me with Wil Wheaton, feverishly running from a train that, in all likelihood, wasn’t going to squash them like bugs.
Of course, I already link to Wil’s blog, so that’s really only one degree of separation. Oh, and I watched him a few weeks ago on CSI, so that makes me only, what, 3/4 or 1/2 a degree away?
Who cares.
My point here, and I’m getting there, I’m getting there, is that today was completely random and off-kilter. Started out making less than no sense and will end much the same.
The only saving grace of this entire, trivial nonsense is that I’ll let you in on the cobweb-covered process that is my mind.
See, Jerry got me to realize he was actually Charlie.
Charlie got me thinking about the last time they switched roles.
This made me think of SciFi and their awesome use of blogs and podcasts.
Before I got to that thought, though, I took a detour into Wil Wheaton fawning.
Now I’m back and here’s my grand, unifying thought: SciFi is doing an awesome job on their website.
How awesome? Well, I’m putting together a deck (biz-slang for slide presentation) talking about emerging technologies (blogs & podcasts, mostly) and SciFi is a great example of a television show getting it right with their producer’s blog and multiple podcasts. Although the boobies on parade on The Bachelor aren’t half bad either.
I should be institutionalized. I need more sleep. Or both.
Actually, I’m going to totally geek out here for a moment, but Charlie never replaced Jerry on Sliders. See, Charlie played Colin, the long-lost brother of Quinn (Jerry’s character). Apparently, Colin and Quinn’s parents were scientists who lived on an alternate earth that was being overrun by the Kromaggs (dimension-hopping conquerors). They used their sliding technology to hide Colin and Quinn on separate earths. Colin was placed with a bunch of Amish people on an earth stuck in the 1800’s, where he developed a rep for being a madcap inventor of the Da Vinci type. Quinn found him using a chip that was hidden in lockets each of them wore. For a season and a half, the two were on the show at the same time, until Jerry O’Connell chose to leave. When that happened, he WAS replaced, but by an unknown actor. The way they explained it was that Quinn accidentally merged with one of his alternate selves during a slide, keeping the alternate’s appearance but most of the original Quinn’s memories. Colin (Charlie O’Connell) stayed on the show for a while after that, but eventually wandered off. The show began getting bad from the time Colin appeared (Charlie’s one of the worst TV actors in history), but it got REALLY bad when the Quinn replacement came on.
By the way, it’s ironic that Charlie O’Connell is the new bachelor, considering his brother has quite the reputation for dating celebs (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rebecca Romijn, Geri Halliwell, Olympic Gold medalist Janet Evans…he even dated Debbie Gibson!)
Bill, I bow down to your vast television knowledge. Thanks for setting me straight.
I think you also win the award for longest informative comment. Congrats!