Cheap Seats

Cheap Seats is a television program broadcast on ESPN Classic hosted by brothers Jason and Randy Sklar. The brothers appear as fictional ESPN archivists who amuse themselves by watching old, campy sports broadcasts and wisecracking about them.

Related Topics:
Television - ESPN Classic - Jason - Randy Sklar - ESPN - Campy

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Cheap Seats debuted on February 4, 2004, with an episode that showed ESPN sportscaster "Ron Parker" (supposedly the intended host for the show) getting buried under a shelf full of tapes, forcing the Sklars to fill in. Cheap Seats was originally a hour-long program. In the hour-long format, there were two different segments of sports events that ran a half-hour each. There were at least 10 hour-long episodes in the first season. All of these episodes have subsequently been cut down to fit a 30 minute time slot.

Related Topics:
February 4 - 2004

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During the show, while not cutting in to add humorous comments or ironic insights, the show features several segments, such as Do You Care? (in which the Sklar brothers inform you of extremely obscure facts related to the show they are watching) and The Cheapies (in which awards are granted for outrageous categories, such as "Most Uncomfortable Moment" and "Least Valuable Celebrity").

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Most of the broadcasts are from ESPN's archives. Among them:

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• "Steve Garvey's Celebrity Billfishing Tournament"
• Wide World of Sports broadcasts
• Professional Wrestling

In addition to ESPN's archives, many of the episodes have concentrated on segments of ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Related Topics:
ABC - Wide World of Sports

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The show is influenced chiefly by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and MTV's Beavis and Butt-head. A recent episode featured Mike Nelson, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000, in their "Theatre" silhouette form, cracking wise on sketches the Brothers performed.

Related Topics:
Mystery Science Theater 3000 - MTV - Beavis and Butt-head - Mike Nelson - Tom Servo - Crow T. Robot

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Cheap Seats is shot in New York City (with segments filmed in Los Angeles) and had made use of local comedians as guest stars in its sketches, including Ed Helms of The Daily Show, Michael Showalter of The State and Ian Roberts of The Upright Citizens Brigade. Most of the bit parts are played by stand-up comics whom Jason and Randy met during their years on the road as standups themselves.

Related Topics:
New York City - Los Angeles - Comedians - Guest star - Sketches - Ed Helms - The Daily Show - Michael Showalter - The State - Ian Roberts - The Upright Citizens Brigade - Stand-up comics

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ESPN Classic broadcasted an all-day marathon of Cheap Seats episodes on Thanksgiving Day 2004.

Related Topics:
Marathon - Thanksgiving - 2004

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Shortly into the second season, Cheap Seats slighty changed its format by giving Randy and Jason a live studio audiencehttp://www.cheapseats.tv/tickets.html (and virtual "laugh track") to play off of. The first episode of this particular format focused on the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Fans of the show have already considered this particular moment as the period where Cheap Seats has come the closest to jumping the shark. However, the audience were removed as of the premiere of the third season, which premiered on September 19, 2005. The Sklar's opening segment joked on the fact that they had removed the audience and acknowledged the complaints from the fans. It should also be noted that the episodes with the live audience have been re-edited in the sound department so that they can not be heard, or minimally heard, during the regular segments of the show.

Related Topics:
Laugh track - 1980 - Major League Baseball All-Star Game - Jumping the shark - September 19 - 2005

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