The Setup- Stanley Siegel is the septuagenarian host of this travel show designed to entice the older viewer to get out and see the world. Stanley is a retired journalist most noteworthy for his work with WABC in New York. I'm almost 45 and I grew up watching Roger Grimsby on WABC and I have no recollection of Stanley so take that noteworthy with a grain of salt. Stanley takes a cameraman and his oversized 80's microphone all over the world and asks questions your grandfather might ask while you bury your head in disgrace. Stanley is game for things most people his age have never heard of like zip lining and rapid surfing. The entire show looks like a man on the street interview with Stanley sticking his mike in the face of every local that doesn't run from him.
What I love about it- Good old Stanley. This show has to be seen to be believed. It is so terrible on so many levels that that is one of the things I love about. This would be my favorite SNL skit if it wasn't actually a real show. There are two main characters here- Stanley and Stanley's microphone. This thing looks like a black wiffle ball bat. Stanley shoves this broadcasting relic right up your grill and you never see him without it. He has it in a plastic zip lock bag when he goes rafting.He wraps his white knuckles around it in a way that suggest separation may mean death. He doesn't even put in down while perilously carrying fresh baked pies onto a train. Visually it's so distracting you are wondering what inept producer put this show on tv long before Stanley opens his mouth. Then there is Stanley's mouth.
Stanley asks questions bordering from comical to insulting to ridiculous and everywhere in between. He invites himself into a nice woman's villa in Venice while stumbling around trying to find his way back to his hotel. He gawks over the beautiful residence then asks the woman if she has always been rich. He tours the slums of Mumbai and asks his guide to introduce him to some locals. Stanley asks this very pretty young woman who is guarding the doorway to her home if she has a job, why she lives here, and if she is happy living in the slums. Prepare to cringe. It's sad, hilarious, and mind boggling on so many levels you just can't turn away.
What I hate about it- Okay this show stinks. The camera work is sloppy and somehow the beauty of each country is missed by the lens. Like a train wreck you can only watch for so long before the horror starts to seep in You are only going to be able to handle this show for so long before you can't take it anymore. My guess is you won't last a whole episode.
1 out of 10 Couch Potatoes. This is pretty awful tv but Stanley seems like a very nice man and the intentions here are good. Stanley is fearless and genuinely interested in people but this is a mess of a tv show. I want you to watch an episode the same way people say "Try this it sucks" just to get another dissenting opinion. Poor ol Stanley needs to go.
