Quick Take: Celebrity Apprentice, "Radio Days"
"I was on the 'Girls Just Don't Want To Have Any Fun At All' team." - Cyndi Lauper
Review: Celebrity Apprentice, "Radio Days"
(S0308) First, the good news: Bret Michaels was released from the hospital after suffering a brain hemorrhage last month. He may even be able to attend the live season finale. Besides the obviously good news for Michaels and his family, friends, and fans, he's showing himself to be a real gamer in the celebrity apprentice realm and just might have a shot at winning the title. (And we can debate the fact later that if Michaels gets to the final and is healthy enough to attend, it would take some kind of Monumental Miracle for the guy not to simply get handed the crown by Donald Trump.)
Now, onto this week's radio jingle-centric events. Performance-based apprentice tasks are good for the show as they force teams to get creatively quickly, develop a presentation under deadline, and then show off some kind of output that can be judged by the evaluators, Don and his assistants (Ivanka Trump and newcomer Trump sibling to the fold, Eric Trump). In this case the task was weird and challenging: create three live 30 second radio commercials for Clockwork Home Services. The ads had to do with heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrician services: Benjamin Franklin Punctual Plumber, Mr. Sparky Electricians & 1 Hour Heating and Air Conditioning. You know, super hipster happy fun time ads.
Because of the dynamics of the remaining teams, it was ordained in advance that Sharon Osbourne, Bret Michaels, and Maria Kanellis would "push the envelope" further than the Summer Sanders, Curtis Stone, Holly Robinson Peete, and Cyndi Lauper squad. In this case though you had to have the strong feeling that the "play it safe" mantra of Summer Sanders, this week's project manager for Team Tenancity, would pay off as the Clockwork execs were mightily conservative and humorous stylings averse, shall we say. Stone and Lauper pushed for some small smidge of creativity but were handily shut down by the Sanders-Peete bloc. It got to the point where I considered Stone's reasonable Aussie arguments as the Voice of Reason in the face of milquetoast corporate dullery. While Lauper was allowed in the studio to add her voice to one of Tenacity's jingles, overall the commercials were dreadfully generic.
Meanwhile, I was convinced that Michaels would be sent home for adding a subtle joke with regard to "crack (that being plumber's crack, kids) to the plumbing commercial. Rock Solid's ads were clearly superior though in terms of music, style, creativity, and even content. Michaels' killed it as the radio pitch man as well – I couldn't help but be won over by this guy week after week. He clearly pours all of himself into these tasks. How many people can dig deep to write a radio jingle about heating and air conditioning, you know?
So it was then that I literally cheered when Rock Solid proved to be the big winners of the night, and no small thing too given Michaels' condition that $40,000 was awarded to his charity, the American Diabetes Foundation. Summer Sanders very deservedly got sent packing. She's a "solid worker" but really did not have the creative leadership to make much at all of this kind of task. I was only sad that Holly Robinson Peete wasn't sent out the door after her: she irritates me to new levels every time she opens her mouth.
I'd vote right now for a Final Four of Osbourne, Michaels, Stone, and Lauper, with Osboune and Stone fighting it out for the final slot versus the former Poison front man.
More thoughts on this week's celeb apprentice action:
Video: Celebrity Apprentice, "Radio Days"
Check out the celebrity apprenticeship in action before summer's gone, or while available, from Hulu:
Recap: Celebrity Apprentice, "Radio Days"
When the teams are tasked with creating a radio commercial, one player pushes it to the limit.
From Around the Web: Celebrity Apprentice, "Radio Days"
