Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A little bit creepy.

I watch a lot of sports, a lot of tv in general really, but specifically, I watch a LOT of sports. And with Baseball and Football sharing a very similar demographic it's not entirely surprising to see that the same advertisers are featured in the broadcast, but one particular advert (in there for our British readers) that has really been bothering me recently is one for Direct TV. You may know the history of the ad campaign, basically actors/actresses are hired to recreate characters that made them famous, only this time, they talk about Directtv and it's superiority to cable. Some examples of the ad campaign include Charlie Sheen recreating his role of Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn in Major League, and The guy that played the liquid metal Terminator in Terminator 2, recreating the liquid metal Terminator in Terminator 2.

The newest version of these ads has got me a little bothered though...The ad, features footage from the movie Poltergeist, in which the little girl is in her parents bedroom, looking at the tv, she then turns around and says: THEY'RE HERE!. Pretty much the most famous scene from the movie, and it was used in all the ads, and posters and whatnot for the movie.

The next shot is one of Mr. Craig T. Nelson, recreating the scene from the movie, but instead talks about how it isn't a poltergeist, it's just that they forgot to switch from Cable to DirectTV, and all the HD options they have and what not. The fact that Craig T. Nelson is recreating his most famous role this side of Minnesota State University, doesn't bother me so much, what bothers me is that he is basically starring in the commercial with his former costar, who died tragically during a hiatus from filming the Awful sequel Poltergeist III, apparently there was some misdiagnosing of illnesses, and she eventually had a cardiac arrest and died. I mean, isn't it a little bit creepy, that this guy is getting paid to recreate a scene in which he's acting with co star who died like 20 years ago. He didn't find this the least little bit creepy?

I mean, I'd like to think that even though Craig T. wasn't involved in the filming of Poltergeist 3 he would have had some sort of a bond with his costar, in fact reading IMDB it says that "The Poltergeist Girl" (Heather O'Rourke for those of you checking) was a calming presence on the set, so you'd assume that he at least would be friendly with this girl...And you'd think he'd be more than a little freaked out to know that he'd be seeing himself on tv recreating a scene through special effects, with his screen daughter from 25 plus years ago, who died at a very young age. I mean, maybe he thinks its a tribute like Natalie Cole singing backup to her father's famous songs and winning tons of grammies for them left and right. Although that was a little f'n creepy too if you asked me. But this just bothers me every time I see it...I mean, he can't be that poor that he needs to take any role that comes his way, he couldn't have suggested another scene that didn't contain so much of "The Poltergeist Girl"?

I don't know, maybe I'm making too much of it, but it just really kinda freaks me out every time I see it, which like I said, during the baseball playoffs and football season is quite often.

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