UPDATE: The signup for tickets to "WTP 2008" has been posted.
Last year, at the second annual "Watch the Pilots with Aaron" event in Kansas City, Kansas, the owner of Screenland, Butch Rigby, informed me that he was about to close on a historic old movie theater in North Kansas City ... that he was going to rename it Screenland Armour, and that it would be his most ambitious restoration endeavor to date.
And I told him then and there, "Dude (I think I said dude), I want to do Watch the Pilots 2008 there."
And so we will.
Mark your calendars for Thursday, September 4, 2008. Venue: the amazing, raved-about Screenland Armour, 408 Armour in NKC, at 7 p.m. for "Watch the Pilots with Aaron 2008," my annual preview of the best that the networks (broadcast and cable) have to offer this fall. Watch as Roscoe, the mechanical man (seen here), designed by local bizarro sculptor Stretch, turns the gears that open the curtain to reveal ...
... well, we're not sure what quite yet. For reasons I've gone into before, the broadcast networks aren't giving us a whole helluva lot to preview yet. I note with mordant hilarity this announcement today from NBC that it will offer a "30-Minute Primetime Preview" starting later this month to the public. For those of you who were at press tour, you know that this is exactly 30 minutes' more of fall preview than NBC offered TV critics last month.
Who knows, maybe I'll grab that off the internet and do a mashup for "Watch the Pilots." It would be more entertaining than an episode of "Lipstick Jungle," that's for sure. Whatever it takes to make an entertaining night out, we will do. Count on it.
Of course, there will be the usual giveaways of promotional swag and a chance to "ask the critic" that I know you've been waiting all year for. In case you haven't heard, Screenland Armour has stadium seating, a killer sound system and a full bar in the lobby. Which will be open during "Watch the Pilots." And with Chappell's Sports Bar & Museum right across the street, you and your date can make an evening of it.
Free passes will be given out here in a week or two. With a seating capacity of 300 there should be enough tickets to satisfy demand. Should. I'd keep checking back here, though, if I were you ...
That's awesome!! I e-mailed you about this a few months ago & you said that it may not happen this year - glad that it will, can't wait!
Posted by: Craig | August 07, 2008 at 03:45 PM
this always makes me wish I was in Kansas City.... (sigh)
Posted by: PamelaJaye | August 10, 2008 at 12:30 AM