As expected, Matt got the $100,000 tonight on the conclusion of The Joe Schmo Show, along with every other prize that was mentioned during the show-- including the ones he gave away or didn't win. His reaction to the big moment when the hoax was revealed was priceless, but you had to feel bad for the guy when even "best friend" Brian turned out to be not just an actor, but a writer too. Reports that he was bitter about the whole affair appear to have been exaggerated-- he seemed overwhelmingly positive about the experience.
The producers of the show got extremely lucky when they found Matt. Without him, there was no show. The writing was poor. The acting was poor. The editing was poor. The pacing was poor. Hell, the cheapo producers even reused signature music from The Mole. What made it all hang together was Matt. His plasticene features and earnest good nature provided the heart the show desperately needed. Without Matt, The Joe Schmo Show was just bad community theater.
Posted by Peter at October 29, 2003 02:06 AMBased on the reactions in the Pittsburgh press he's actually very upbeat about the whole thing. If you care to see more the Post-Gazette ran a decent article on him this morning:
http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20031029schmo1029fnp2.asp
Brian
Posted by: Brian L. on October 29, 2003 06:01 AMThe whole thing could have been 500% funnier if they'd just kept escalating and escalating the hoax.
-- What if one of the women became pregnant with the hosts child?
-- What if one of the contestants died in the middle of the stunt and was taken away forever?
-- What if one of the contestants kept insisting that the whole thing was a hoax, but kept pointing to faulty, refutable evidence?
-- What if the "Network Executive" showed up with 2 days to go, and announced that they were running low on funds, and the prize was being reduced to $40,000?
See?
Funny concept. Could have been great.
Boring.
Posted by: Russell Ginns on October 29, 2003 07:51 AMSo what was the much ballyhooed "twist"? That he got a bunch of money?
Posted by: Matthew on October 29, 2003 09:17 AMI don't recall there being any ballyhooed twist. They gave Matt the $100,000, plus all the prizes mentioned during the course of the show.
Posted by: Peter Sarrett on November 14, 2003 08:50 PM