The Greatest Event in Television History aired last night

by Howie Decker @HowardTheDeck on October 12, 2012

in Television

If you know me at all, you know I love my hyperbole- but this time I’m not speaking in superlatives.

I’m not calling the 15 minute special that aired last night on Adult Swim “the greatest event in television history”, no- it was actually called The Greatest Event in Television History.

A few weeks ago, Adam Scott began promoting this mysterious project called The Greatest Event in Television History, or ‘GEITH’ for the abbreviation prone social networking crowd. He brilliantly employed Twitter and other social media, and gave cryptic clues and photo teasers of the project.

Most know Adam Scott from his role as Ben Wyatt on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. He first popped up on my radar as the a-hole brother in the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers. Scott seems to have been making genius moves ever since.

Scott produced last night’s special for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, which advertised himself and Jon Hamm as its stars from the start. There are plenty of other cameos involved, however. The best part is that the implied “greatest event in TV history” that he’s been teasing for all this time – was revealed to be a shot by shot remake of the Simon & Simon opening theme. Brilliant.

Yours, Paul Rudd

As great a thing as that is, the real value lied in the “Countdown to the GEITH”, (the first 2/3 of the video below) hosted by Jeff Probst, chronicling the making of the Simon & Simon theme remake, which was fictitiously directed by Paul Rudd, starring as himself.

I’ll let you watch it, then I’ll continue gushing over it afterwards:

 

Ridiculous, right?

Paul Rudd continues to do no wrong in my eyes. Paul Scheer (star of FX’s The League, among tons of other things) co-executive produced the special, and has a hilarious cameo.

The cutaways showing the “huge crowds of people” gathered worldwide to witness the event- nothing short of spectacular.

If you stay through the credits, they play the actual Simon & Simon opening theme (which is wildly underrated in the pantheon of 80s themes), from the long running CBS series.

The song has been in my head the entire morning.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

 

 

Mr. Serious October 12, 2012 at 11:48 am

My God, that was brilliant.

Will October 12, 2012 at 2:27 pm

I stayed up just to watch it and loved every second. I did tweet, however, that I felt bad for all the young’uns who had no idea what a “Simon & Simon” was. It’s one of those shows that never comes up in conversation, and Gerald McRaney is better known as Major Dad/Mr Delta Burke. Oh well, their loss!

Howie Decker October 12, 2012 at 4:09 pm

You know, I hadn’t even thought about that. That whole concept will go over so many people’s heads that were watching and looking forward to that. You said it best- Oh well!

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