The finale of 'Surreal Life Fame Games' will go down as one of the top five most outrageous TV moments and depending on how you classify the series, the last episode of the inaugural season should definitely garner the top spot the next time Bob Eubanks and Chuck Woolery put together another 'Most Outrageous Game Show Moments.'
What's the hot fuss? Rob 'Vanilla Ice' Van Winkle trashed the set. For those of you familiar with his previous set-trashing antics, I'm sure you're thinking 'been there, done that.' After all, he did smack the set around a little bit even the week before. However, this is train wreck television and as such, the set trashing on the season finale was epic. So epic in fact, the name of the episode is not 'Finale' or something synonymic. VH1 titled the episode 'Ice Ice Storm.'
The outburst was 100% real as viewers saw host Robin Leach duck when Rob threw his drum kit cymbals over his head.
"Thank goodness I ducked because the cymbals could have decapitated me like Oddjob's bowler hat in the Bond movie. Vanilla Ice really broke the set to pieces," said Robin. "Nobody's ever quite seen TV like that where crew and a producer had to restrain him. Now, that's reality."
Viewers saw Rob's hand bleeding while producers and crew tried to subdue him from hurting anyone else, but they were unsuccessful. Mark, a producer, had two of his fingers broken in the tirade that also saw the Vegas sign and the aforementioned drum kit take the majority of the blunt-force drama.
What caused the 'Ice, Ice Storm?'
The episode started off innocent enough with the four Fame Gamers left, Rob, Ron Jeremy, Traci Bingham and Sandra 'Pepa' Denton, having to film a commercial for grand prize partner, GoldenPalace.net. The commercial was then judged by a focus group and the winner would automatically advance to the final round. The three remaining would then have to stab each other in the back and vote one of their own off of the show. The two remaining would then play a special 'Back to Reality' game with the winner rounding out the final two. The winner of that challenge would then win the $100K grand prize and be named to the 'pantheon of A-List immortality.'
Both Traci and Rob aced the commercial with the focus group equally liking their ads. The focus group thought Mr. Jeremy looked sleazy, even though he said he 'slicked his hair back and shaved' so there is nothing else he could have done. I thought Pepa rocked the commercial, but the focus group didn't think she was believable. There was one moment where she did a pseudo-sexy hair mime maneuver that could have been better, but she wasn't nearly as bad as the focus group concluded. The funny thing about focus groups is one or two reviews in, regardless of the product, FGFS (Focus Group Fatigue Syndrome) sets in and the group develops a personality and then after a while it melts into some 'Lord of the Flies' situation.
Rob and Traci did have the overall best video and boobs broke the tiebreaker with Traci and her tight GoldenPalace.net T-shirt advancing to the final round.
That left Pepa, Rob and Mr. Jeremy to decide who was going to get stabbed in the back and voted off of the show. Mr. Jeremy actually had a good plan. Since he was really close with Rob and had roomed with Pepa during the show, he was going to create an alliance with both so they would vote for each other and then he would vote for himself off so there would be a three-way tie and thus a less 'screw-your-friend' method of elimination would have to be found.
This obviously wasn't the producers first disco so they planned the round where the contestant couldn't pick them self so Ron had to 'Sophie's Choice' it under pressure. At that point he decided that he had to play the game and he would rather face Pepa in the 'Back to Reality' face off and voted Rob off the show.
When Rob figured out the 'Et tu, Ron' moment, he was so amped up and in Ron's face, that you could see where Ron was visibly shaken. Rob started shouting the word "backstabber' and talking through the betrayal: "I put you on my album. I told my friends how cool you are."
What's next for the Fame Games? Robin tells me to watch for a spin off of the spin off as season two of 'Surreal Life Fame Games' starts shooting May 23. He sums up the experience as "the most interesting study of human behavior I've ever been witness to, fascinating television and raw exposure of what celebrities are dealing with."
I couldn't agree more and the programming genius of having 'Fame Games' lead into 'Dice: Undisputed' just drives the point home.
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1. The finale of The Surreal Life Fame Game (SLFG) was a HUGE disappointment. It appeared the producers had selected Traci Bingham to win from the get-go. To have Kathy Griffin have the final say took away any and all edge any player may or may not have had. For the final two (Ron Jeremy & Traci Bingham), the choice of the doors should've been a coin toss, luck of the draw, and NOT Kathy setting up which contestant stands at which door. The biggest giveaway that this was a set up was the fact that the presentation "check" already had Traci's name printed on it.
Bottom line is the way the show ended made watching the entire season as a big waste of time.
Suggestions would be to allow viewers to vote online ONLY ONCE! When it comes to the final two, the decision should NOT have been left in the hands of just one person who never had any part of in the show up until that point.
SLFG season one was a huge disappointment and VHI should be embarrassed in the way the show ended.
Doc808HI at 6:57PM on Mar 28th 2007