Bikers, Bears and Bob Saget; Oh My!


Written on December 1, 2010 – 6:44 pm | by msathmar

Bob Sagat has had an interesting career, to say the least. While his career began to take off as the wholesome yet hilarious father on ‘Full House’ and the corny yet comedic host to ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’, once those two shows had run their course, he turned to stand-up comedy and did a short run on HBO’s “The Aristocrats”. Viewers quickly noticed that unscripted (or at least with more free reign), Saget tends to have an interesting and somewhat filthy sense of humor. Given that he has shifted gears so drastically in the past, it’s no surprise that he has undertaken a new project in his professional career, a documentary-style television show aptly titled, ‘Strange Days With Bob Saget’.

Mike Hale, of the New York Times television section attempts to scrutinize Saget and his new show, which began airing yesterday, November 29, 2010. Hale did a decent job on this feature, using mainly Saget’s long history in television and his screenings of the new show to give a critique on Saget’s comedic style in this new series. It appears that he did not, however, interview Saget directly but rather, used quotes from within the show to make his copy more interesting. I feel as though the quotes from the show should have been more supplementary, and a quote from one of the show’s producers or Saget himself would have been more effective.

Likewise, I would have liked to know why Saget chose to do this show. It seems a bit desperate – sort of like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ or ‘Celebrity Rehab’, where B and C-list celebrities takes one last shot at restoring their claim to fame. But that’s just my opinion. If Hale had been given the chance, I would have loved to know the real deciding factor on why Saget thought this show would be a good idea – maybe it would give more insight into him as a person and where he currently is in his career path.

It appears, however, that he did do his research. Not only is Hale knowledgeable about Saget’s career, but moreover he has watched and critiqued episodes that have not been released to the public yet. Likewise, Hale seems to have a good understanding of the type of comedy that Saget typically produces, and he uses this as a good way to measure whether or not Saget is successful in his new endeavor (spoiler alert! – Saget’s not as funny as in years past, and this is apparent on his new show).

The organization of the feature is rather fluid – there are no confusing changes in topic or structure. The first two paragraphs talk about Sagat’s history and the transformation he made from wholesome to whorish in his comedic style. The third paragraph, however, discusses how he comes off in his new show, which Hale describes as “insincere and condescending”. The last six paragraphs discuss the new show itself, with quotes from Saget and his “co-stars” sprinkled throughout. This brings some more life to the story, but not much, as the quotes are something you will eventually see on the show. I would rather read a quote or two that Hale had to fish for – rather than it being handed to him via early viewing of the episode. And finally, the article finished off with viewing information about the show, which in and of itself is not interesting, but rather necessary considering that people who read this article might just want to tune into tonight’s episode.



  1. 2 Responses to “Bikers, Bears and Bob Saget; Oh My!”

  2.   By schrist8 on Dec 1, 2010 |

    My favorite rendition of Bob Saget is his role on Entourage, from what I hear its surprisingly accurate.

  3.   By Rob Bock on Dec 1, 2010 |

    Having grown up hating Full House, it’s nice to see that Bob Saget is literally nothing like the boring character he played on TV.

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