one man's honor is another man's annoyance...
I'm not the biggest "reality tv fan in the world. Nor am I the smallest. Like most, there are shows I follow, and shows I don't. Most of the ones i've chosen to watch, I classify in the guilty pleasure department. I have watched The Apprentice since day 1, cause Trump makes me laugh. I like the "where are they now" factor that the Surreal Life covered. I really liked a less popular Fox mystery series called Murder In Smalltown X a few years back probably cause I just dig trying to solve a good mystery. And there have been a few others.
A few years back, Ozzy Osbourne fulfilled a prophecy I had made in the mid 80's when I predicted that someday Ozzy would have his own show. His show, centered around his family life away from the stage, was a huge dissapointment to me. Ozzy went from being a legend to a bungling, stuttering old man in less than 5 minutes of watching the show. But that didn't stop rocker Gene Simmons and Hulk Hogan from borrowing the format to feature their own less than exciting family life.
Neither show does or should garner much media attention. Both shows are unoriginal in their concept and both families lack anything, aside from the large breasts of Shannon Tweed and the Hogan gals, to keep anyone's attention for more than a few minutes.
But recently, both shows had episodes that really showed a major difference. Both shows had a "meet a fan" episode where contest winners won a chance to spend some real time with their favorite icon. And Hogan and Simmons showed their true colors in those episodes.
In Hogan's case, the "superfan" got to spend several days with the Hogan family. Hogan showed the fan all of his memorabilia, and even gave a few cherished items as gifts to the starry eyed fan. Hogan took the fan to his gym and let him work out like a wrestler. He and another wrester showed the fan some actual moves in the ring and the fan had the honor of being slammed by Hogan himself. In return, the fan insisted on getting a "Team Hogan" tattoo on his arm written in "Hulkamania" type letters. The fan ate, slept and hung out with the Hogans, who, while taken aback at times, were enthusiastic and honored with this man's true devotion to his favorite hobby. It was a really nice thing to see. A fan and his idol, hanging out. And the idol not being "too big" to hang out with his admirer.
On the other hand, Gene Simmons did everything wrong.
In Simmons's case, he only had to spend a day with the contest winner. But to watch how badly Simmons acted, you would have thought it was a whole year. Simmons's behavior was beyond rude. Before, during and after the event, Gene bellyached about how annoyed he was and how much of a burden it was to be nice to someone who essentially put him where he is today. The fan was treated like garbage. Gene spoke at him like a child, one that he wanted to just go away. When the fan tried to tell him a few "ideas" he had over the years, Gene shot him down like an F14 shooting down a Piper Cub. gene did everything he could to make the fan feel small and stupid.
Simmons constantly feeds his own ego, and that episode, his ego must have been starving like a homeless man a month after christmas. At the end of the episode , I genuinely felt bad for the poor fan who Simmons actually tried to "lose" at one point in the day. Simmons not only played it like a stereotypical "too big for his own britches" hollywood star, but came off as greedy as the stereotypical "rich and greedy jew" that is lampooned in comedy circles.
For me, however, whose childhood has memories of Kiss being the 1st band I ever "really got into" buying their "destroyer" album in 1975 and watched wrestling not only in Hogan's day, but before him with Bruno Sanmartino and crew, something really changed.
I gave up watching "fake wrestling" as my teen years advanced. But I never gave up my Kiss army status. Even tho my musical tastes matured, I still always had a fondness for the grease painted foresome. I still turned it up when "Detroit Rock City" or "Shout it Out Loud" and the like came on the radio.
The other day, the movie "Rock Star" was on. A Kiss song, "Lick It Up" is featured early in the movie. When it came on, i reached for the remote and did a little channel flipping. I came across a show with some classic wrestling on. It was an old Hulk Hogan match. I ended up watching that instead. I knew that the wrestling was fake, but at least the person acting out the parts was real.
After the match, I took down some old Kiss memorabilia that is on my studio wall. I don't think I have any wrestling stuff to replace it with, but i'd rather leave it blank than pay homage to a man who doesn't have the time, patience or basic decency for his fans. Buh-Bye Mr Simmons. Have a nice life.
"