WATP - Harrison Young and Nick Payne

 

Who Are These Podcasts? looks at the public access show of Harrison Young who is still on the air in 2022. Then they go down the rabbit hole on Nick Payne (XXII) who is simultaneously a sibling and a spouse of the Kardashians.

The Mystery of the Most Popular Baywatch Nights Episode

 Almost all the episodes of "Baywatch Nights" are on youtube. Below I've charted each episode's views. 

You can probably see there is a general trend with some general fluctuation. The views for the first episode are high (204K views) - people checking out the show - then a general drift downward as people give up. The views of the first season generally drift around 100K to 200K and in the second season they drop to 50K. The sci-fi season is not as viewed as the beach babe season. You can ignore the 0 at Season 2 Episode 17, that episode simply doesn't exist on youtube. Then there is an uptick as people look to see how it ends (70K) and are presumably disappointed.

So that's the general trend, not too different from other shows, but you've probably noticed, as I have, one giant, obvious spike in the graph and that's the mystery I wanted to explore.

While the general average for an episode is 50K to 100K, Season 1 Episode 16 is sitting at 1.3 MILLION views - more than 3X the episode in second place and more than 13X the average.

So what's special about this episode? Episode 17 is entitled "The Curator" the plot is summed up as follows:

A deranged man, named Garth Youngblood, takes a fancy to Baywatch lifeguard Caroline Holden and makes many advances toward her. When Caroline resists, Garth captures her and locks her in a cage furnished like her apartment, while Mitch teams with fellow Baywatch lifeguards, Newman and Barnett, to help him and Garner look for Caroline.

The reference to Caroline Holden is significant. This is the era where, according to my theory, they were trying to raise the ratings by getting Baywatch crossover - Caroline Holden is Yasmine Bleeth making a guest appearance. It's a bummer of an episode - probably one of my least favorite, as I hate all media that focuses on a crazy guy terrorizing normal people. So, I hate it, so what explain the spike in viewership?

Well, first let's remember that this is Youtube views, not TV ratings, so the #1 thing to go to is the title and thumbnail:

"Kit, get me outta here."

The thumbnail is Hasselhoff on the phone and the title is "Baywatch Nights 1x16 - Curator.avi" That's clearly not viral material. Another option is perhaps there's some other video reviewing/skewering this episode that went viral and got people watching. There is a youtube show/podcast that goes through Baywatch Nights episodes ("Baywatching" - a great title and a great concept) but their related episode is only at 38K views so that's clearly not the catalyst.

Another place to look for clues is imdb trivia. There is always the possibility that the episode has someone famous in the background or a child actor that grew up to be a big star; perhaps there is a clip or moment that became a meme; perhaps this was the one episode written by Vince Gilligan, etc. But imdb reveals nada.

The only thing that I can find that makes this episode special is the one and only guest appearance by Yasmine Bleeth. But does that really explain it? Other episodes of Nights have similar cameos with no spike, even the episode with Carmen Electra raunching it up has no increase. In 2022, are there hordes of people still slavishly hunting down Yasmine Bleeth roles?

I'm very skeptical and still, I can come up with no better explanation to explain the mystery of "Baywatch Nights'" most viral episode.

Back to the Future War

 

And here I thought it would be a mashup of "Back to the Future" and "Future War."

Snow Removal Videos

 

Although Snow Removal videos have a much more limited supply and probably a more limited demand than Pressure Washing or Lawn Care, etc. I do find them to be in that same category of "there's something oddly satisfying and hypnotic about this."

Popcorn in Bed - The Great Escape

An absolute classic.

Re:View - The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

When I was a kid there was a certain restaurant that sold Garbage Pail Kids and had a few arcade games and a pinball machine. I remember going there for breakfast and getting a quarter to play the arcade or getting money to buy Garbage Pail Kids. It was so much fun, so exciting.

So that's my memory of GPK. Now the movie on the other hand, I think I was unofficially not allowed to see it. At least that's my memory. So I have no nostalgic connection to the movie whatsoever.

The association of the He-Man movie and this movie is apt. They were both about things that I was obsessed with as a kid but I didn't see either movie until well after the magic had passed. And when I did see these movies, I was still excited for them but subtly or subconsciously aware that they weren't great.

I have The Garbage Pail Kids Movie officially rated as 2/10, which is extremely rare for me. I can't remember the last movie I rated so low. It's almost like it was their goal to make a movie with no redeeming qualities, for some reason. Yeah, I don't get it.