R.I.P. Ken Ober...sigh, I loved Remote Control

For those of us that are old enough to remember MTV's glory days, yesterday was a sad day.

Ken Ober, who hosted the game show Remote Control died yesterday at age 52.

I know it would never fly now, but this show was before the reality show took over the world.

And I miss those days.


The show ran for five seasons from 1987-1990, and it was the first non-musical show on the network. I know...the beginning of the end.


But it was a riot!


Contestants in easy chairs, bowls of chips and pretzels on their tables, would select from nine channels and get quizzed on television, music and movies. God, I can still hear the opening strains of the theme song...

"Kenny wasn't like the other kids (Remote Control)
TV mattered, nothing else did (Remote Control)
Girls said yes, but he said no (Remote Control)
Now he's got his own game show (Remote Control!)"

(Ken Ober was supposed to be a guy who always wanted to host a game show...so he did it in his basement, in case that made no sense.) Questions were often accompanied by skit, starring Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler.

Yes, THAT Adam Sandler.

Get eliminated and you left the stage, chair and all, while the audience sang songs like, "Hit the Road Jack"...alright. I know. It all seems silly and simple. No matter how I praise it, anyone who wasn't a kid back then isn't going to get it. (Remember I said this in ten years when you have to describe "Keeping up with the Kardashians" to your younger friends.) But for those of us who remember actual videos on MTV, who remember "Fairy Pixie" and "Stud Boy," and chips falling from the sky during "snack breaks," join me as I sing a fond, "Nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goooood bye!" to the far too young to be yanked off the stage, Ken Ober. R.I.P.

(Check out some video below. And feel free to laugh at the old lady who thought this stuff was brilliant.)

REMOTE CONTROL PART 1

REMOTE CONTROL PART 2