Tonight, in response to my tweet about being invited (and turning down) appearing on the reality show "Married By America", Bart Hanson revealed this:
https://twitter.com/twt/status/1170588670715408384
Bart's appearance starts at the 14:40 mark.
In case you're wondering, here's the opening to "Married By America", where I would have been seen had I accepted it.
TV in the early 2000s really was shit.
We need way more details concerning how you were chosen for this program. Also, the fact that you turned down this opportunity, and derived us of years of ongoing entertainment by picking apart elements of the show, aligns on the scope of a national tragedy.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan
You must be joking - we’ve heard this story a million times on the radio. He applied for another show, didn’t get it but was on their database and got asked to be on this show instead.Originally Posted by splitthis
todges eternal vigilance will never be forgotten
btw where are we on just finding it disgusting that you know who bart hanson is in 2k19
Another post from a failed Skatz orphan. Correction, no need for a double negative, a Skatz orphan.
The give away outing these runaways are the back to back one-liner posts that pose as activity on the aforementioned ghost site.
Last edited by limitles; 09-08-2019 at 04:05 AM.
that was adorable les and im super glad you havent killed yourself
I think some people don't know because I've told it on radio but not on the forum. Or at least I don't remember telling it on the forum.You must be joking - we’ve heard this story a million times on the radio. He applied for another show, didn’t get it but was on their database and got asked to be on this show instead.
Anyway, here was the sequence of events which led to it:
In 2001, Ken Scalir told me that he wanted to go to the tryouts for the revival of the show "Card Sharks". He suggested that I also go and try out. I drove him there, and we both were in the tryout room. Card Sharks had hired a Hollywood casting agency to get contestants for them, which is/was a common practice. We were in a room with maybe 50 other people. Both of us independently realized we had to stand out if we were going to be chosen. Ken stood out simply by being Ken. I stood out by trying to make irreverent/controversial remarks during the various exercises they put us through. For example, they had us watch a video as a group and comment on what we just saw. While everyone else just gave mundane answers, I chose to make insulting comments about the people in the video, and Ken just made a lot of quirky comments and quips throughout the tryout. On the way out, I overheard one of the casting employees remark to another that Ken and I were an entertaining pair, and that we might have potential to be on something together, but this was never followed up upon. However, our routines worked, and both of us were selected for Card Sharks. We were told that the taping of our episodes would take place in late 2001 or early 2002.
Card Sharks was set to air on September 17, 2001. Notice any problem with that date? Yeah, six days after 9/11. They attempted to air it, but the show was frequently preempted by 9/11 coverage, and it never caught on. It failed after a few months, and was canceled. Ken and I were both contacted and told that our planned episodes weren't happening.
Card Sharks was an open audition, meaning there was an advertisement and anyone could show up.
However, Ken and I were both in the casting company's database as potential entertaining characters to be on other game and reality shows, and they planned to contact us for other things. This is actually pretty valuable if you're trying to break into show business, as we basically completed step one of "being noticed by Hollwyood" without even trying very hard.
Very shortly after the failure of Card Sharks, Ken and I got a phone call from the same casting agency. We were both invited to closed auditions for a new reality show called "The Chamber". This show was a ripoff of another reality show at the time called "The Chair" -- both of which were trivia shows taking place while you were put under some kind of stressful or scary circumstance. This was a closed audition. They only invited people in their database whom they felt were good fits for the show, but then we still had to beat most of those people.
Ken and I were assigned to two different auditions, for whatever reason. My audition was a room full of wannabe actors, and then me. I know they were all actors, because we were forced to list a "non-industry profession", and literally everyone in the room except for me had to invent some phony profession (to be listed on the show if they made it), except for me. I was a software engineer at the time, and only played poker recreationally.
First we had to take some kind of general knowledge trivia quiz, which had a wide variety of questions, including pop culture. I did fairly well on that, but didn't get everything right. Near the end of the whole thing, one of the show's producers came out to talk to everyone. To everyone's surprise, he started insulting people, and wanted to see what reaction he would get. Everyone else got very nervous and didn't know what to say, presumably because show business was their livelihood. I decided that I had to stand out, and would give the guy something to remember. At one point he asked me, "And what do you think you're doing, looking at me like that?", to which I responded, "I just can't see you very well because of all the light reflecting off your bald head."
When the whole thing was over, he revealed that he purposely was being a jerk to everyone just to get their reactions and get an idea of their personalities, and that he didn't mean anything he said. He then asked if I had any questions. I asked him to be honest about what type of chance we all had of making it on the show -- basically what percentage of us were getting through. He said, "I'll be honest with you. We can't take many of you, and we're looking for people who stand out. If you were a hot girl in your 20s, we'd take you for sure. I actually like you. You did well on the quiz, and you're the only one who was willing to insult me back. But the problem is, you're a white guy around 30, and we have a ton of you. I'm sure you understand."
I left that audition fairly pessimistic. However, I got a phone call from The Chamber's staff that I had been selected to appear on Episode #6. Ken called me all excited the same day, telling me that he was chosen for Episode #4 . There were going to be 6 episodes filmed initially, with prize money awarded whether they aired or not. Supposedly you could win up to $80,000. The only thing left? You had to go through a psychological exam, given the stressful nature of the show. They said that they'd call us to schedule it.
They called Ken, and he went down there for his exam. He failed. It was decided that he wasn't stable enough for the show.
They attempted to call me. I was at Commerce playing a marathon session that weekend. Not only didn't I get the call (reception there sucked in those days), but I also didn't even see there was a voicemail notification until Monday. By then, they had already marked me as a non-responder, and moved on to a backup choice. I asked them if there was anything I could do.
"Yeah, we will put you down for Episode #7. We won't film #7 until the network buys more episodes, though. They've only bought six right now."
The show was awful and failed miserably. There was no episode #7. Once again, Ken and I had both been chosen for a show and somehow never made it.
In 2002, Ken and I were both selected to go to different closed auditions for "Whammy! The New Press Your Luck". Again, this was a new program which hadn't aired yet. This audition had a ton of people (maybe 100?) in the same room, so we got little individual attention. This wasn't one of my better days. The quips and remarks I tried to make fell flat, and I could tell they weren't landing, unlike what had happened at the previous two auditions, where it was clear I was impressing people. Indeed, I got no phone call. Interestingly, Ken also reported that they didn't seem to care much for him, and indeed he also got no call.
Around this time, Ken couldn't afford to continue paying his phone bill, and his phone was shut off. He didn't have a cell phone, either. Only much later did we think about the fact that this shut him out of being contacted further by the casting agency.
However, later in 2002, I got a call from the same woman we had originally dealt with at Card Sharks. She told me that they were casting for a new reality show, and that I had been fast-tracked to a position in the cast if I wanted it. I was warned that the show was "a dating-related show for people who are looking to settle down... like, REALLY settle down", and that it would be airing on Fox in the spring of 2003. It didn't yet have a name. At the time, I had been with my then-girlfriend Miri for over a year, and I couldn't picture going on a dating show and showing her such disrespect, even if I wasn't taking it seriously. Furthermore the description sounded a bit like the disasterous "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire", in that I was going to be thrown together with a bunch of strangers and be expected to marry someone on the spot. Didn't sound appealing at all, so I told her that I had a girlfriend already, and was going to pass on it. However, I told her that I'd be interested in other opportunities. She told me that she'd definitely call me again in the future.
I was happy that I was still in their good graces after not returning the phone call fast enough for The Chamber, and after bricking the Press Your Luck audition. I was actually fast-tracked directly to a spot on the show! Wow! Flattering, even if I wasn't interested. I started thinking that it was just a matter of time until I appeared on a major reality show, and perhaps could also parlay some of this into being a part-time character actor. It all seemed so easy.
I still had a job working in software at this point. I was playing poker, but was still kind of a breakevenish player.
My boss brought in some friend of his who was a rep for a cell phone store which featured the fairly new T-Mobile. She pitched an offer too good to refuse. Service was far cheaper than what I had been paying with Sprint, they gave a free new phone, and some other incentives. Unfortunately, you could not port phone numbers between providers back then, so I had to switch numbers. But no big deal, right?
A few months later, I realized I had made a huge mistake. The casting agency couldn't reach me anymore! Like Ken, I shut myself out from them due to a disconnected phone line. The next time Ken called me from a pay phone, I asked him if he remembered the name of the casting agency. He didn't. I didn't either. I told him that I just realized that his phone disconnection cost him the ability to be contacted by them, just as my number change did. We were both very annoyed.
And so ended by Holllywood career before it ever began.
I remember reading about salaries for game show hosts and was surprised that Jenny McCarthy was making like $350/show on Singled Out
Hi Lew!!!
Honestly I should have just accepted the invite to the show, tried to win, and then agreed with the chick that we would split the prize, stay married in name only, keep it going long enough to get the house, sell it, split the value, and divorce.
Easy money
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