{"id":137578,"date":"2019-01-01T18:58:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T01:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/01\/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-rose-parade.html"},"modified":"2019-01-01T18:58:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T01:58:51","slug":"a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-rose-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/01\/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-rose-parade.html","title":{"rendered":"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Rose Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

So +<\/span>Margie Kleerup<\/a><\/span>'s family has always been big into watching the Rose Parade (indeed, it's usually the only occasion during the year that they turn on their TV, and, no, I am not exaggerating). So, perforce, it's been a tradition we've picked up over the years, and this morning was no exception.<\/p>\n

This was the first year without KTLA's institution of Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards, which removed a certain (unintended) zaniness to the proceedings, as the two had a certain Old Bickering Married Couple dynamic that was charming and entertaining and unpredictable. Their replacements this year were straightforward white bread that neither offended nor entertained, but they usually stopped yammering when the bands marched past.<\/p>\n

Which would have been great, but our feed for KTLA, no longer living in the Southern California area, was the Hallmark Channel, and every time the KTLA hosts would say, "Let's pause for a moment, sponsored by X, to listen to the band," Hallmark would throw a big ad over 90% of the screen and give us a voice-over for the very same freaking stupid TV movie that they did over the last band.<\/p>\n

We're a band family. We were not amused.<\/p>\n

The freaky part came toward the end of the parade, when a massive double-float what looked like a malfunction (it was actually a fire) and stalled on Orange Grove Ave, mostly-blocking the street. One band and a parade group (ironically, an old-timey fire brigade) were able to squeeze by, but by the time the ginormous tow truck made it in and was hitched up and started to pull, they only got as far as rounding the turn onto Colorado Blvd. when …<\/p>\n

… well, as far as I can tell, Wells Fargo, the sponsors of the Rose Parade Grand Finale, have a contractual guarantee that their big, highly-branded, doubtless-expensive conclusion will get to be on national TV. And the TV networks have a guarantee from the Rose Parade organization that this will be a two hour parade, tops, because there are Other Paying Commercial Broadcast that must be switched over to.<\/p>\n

So, even though there was still parade to be paraded, the Rose Parade management put the brakes on the remaining two floats and one band that hadn't gone, and trotted out the Wells Fargo Rose Parade Grande Finale, which was neither all that nor a bag of chips, but did satisfy everyone's contracts and, so, to the surprise of the KTLA hosts, the broadcast ended there, and all the crowds started surging down from the stands to make their way back to their cars and a massive traffic jam to get out of town.<\/p>\n

Which kinda sucks for the two organizations that had floats that were never seen, and really<\/i> sucks for the band (the Royal Swedish Cadet Band).<\/p>\n

(It does turn out that, once the lights were down and the network feed was off, the two floats and the cadets did<\/i> get to march down Colorado Blvd., and KTLA's footage is being spliced onto the recordings at the station's website.[1] So there's that.)<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we discovered this<\/i> Rose Parade coverage, the satire version on the Funny Or Die. Hosted by Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan (actually Will Farrell and Molly Shannon) who were much<\/i> more amusing (though not quite as amusing as they<\/i> thought they were), and I'd be tempted to watch them alone next year, except that they skip entire floats and bands, usually with ironic self-absorption.<\/p>\n

Still, they did have a perfect view of (and commentary about) the float that caught fire, and we actually did catch glimpses there of the two floats that weren't on anyone else's feeds.<\/p>\n

It was certainly a unique Rose Parade experience this year. Whether it's emblematic of 2019 … well, we'll check in on that next year …<\/p>\n

—–
[1] https:\/\/www.pasadenastarnews.com\/2019\/01\/01\/the-rest-of-the-2019-rose-parade-heres-what-didnt-make-it-to-any-tv-broadcast\/<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n