Cheap Seats

Cheap Seats without Ron Parker, commonly shortened to Cheap Seats, was a television program broadcast on ESPN Classic and hosted by brothers Randy and Jason Sklar. The brothers appear as fictional ESPN tape librarians who amuse themselves by watching old, campy sports broadcasts and lampooning them. Produced by Mark Shapiro, Showrunner, Todd Pellegrino, James Cohen and Joseph Maar, Cheap Seats was originally an hour-long program. There were ten one hour-long episodes in the first season, all of which were edited to fit a 30-minute time slot.

A number of actors and comedians were featured in various in-studio comedy skits on the show, including Jim Gaffigan, H. Jon Benjamin, Paul Rudd, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Eugene Mirman, Michael Ian Black, Nick Kroll, Kristen Schaal, Judah Friedlander, Nick Swardson, Mike Birbiglia, Kathy Griffin and Patton Oswalt.

Regular segments

Cheap Seats debuted on February 4, 2004, with the opening of the episode showing "Ron Parker" (played by Michael Showalter), the show's browbeating original host, injured by a shelf full of tapes after it collapses on him, thus forcing the Sklars to fill in as hosts. This skit was part of the show's opening theme until the third season, which featured a new introduction while all references to Parker were removed.

Cheap Seats (album)

Cheap Seats is the fifteenth studio album by the American country music band Alabama, released in 1993 on RCA Nashville. It produced the singles "Reckless", "T.L.C. A.S.A.P." and "The Cheap Seats". Of these, "Reckless" was the band's final Number One hit on the Billboard country charts, and "The Cheap Seats" was the band's first single in fourteen years to miss Top Ten of the charts. Alabama produced the album along with Josh Leo and Larry Michael Lee, except for "Angels Among Us", which bassist Teddy Gentry produced.

Content

The album produced three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts. First was "Reckless", which became the band's thirty-second number one on that chart. After it came the number seven "T.L.C. A.S.A.P.", written by Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers, who then comprised the duo Baker & Myers. The album's title track was the final single release; it was co-written by Randy Sharp and Marcus Hummon, who also played harmonica on it. With a number thirteen peak, it became the band's first single to miss the country top ten since "My Home's in Alabama" in 1980. Of the three singles from this album, only "The Cheap Seats" was made into a music video.

Cheap Seats (song)

"Cheap Seats" is a song written by Sarah Buxton, Jesse Frasure, and Tina Parol, and recorded by Canadian country rock singer Dallas Smith for his second studio album, Lifted (2014). It was first released November 24, 2014 as the iTunes Canada free single of the week. "Cheap Seats" was serviced to Canadian country radio June 1, 2015 via 604 Records and Universal Music Canada as the album's third official single, or sixth including those supporting Tippin' Point (2014).

Critical reception

"Cheap Seats" received mixed reviews from music critics. Independent music blog Soundcheck Entertainment was complimentary, with contributor Corey Kelly describing the song as "amazing" and a "summer time [sic] jam." However, Desiree Pharias of The State Press found the song's themes to be cliched and overdone.

Commercial performance

"Cheap Seats" was the second most-downloaded song in Canada for the week of June 8, 2015, according to DMDS. It entered the Billboard Canada Country airplay chart at number forty for the chart dated June 27, 2015 as the most-added song and highest debut position of the week. The song reached the top 10 on the Canada Country chart dated August 15, 2015 -- Smith's record-extending 11th consecutive single to reach that tier. "Cheap Seats" also debuted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 at number 79 on the chart dated August 1, 2015.

The Cheap Seats

"The Cheap Seats" is a song written by Marcus Hummon and Randy Sharp, and recorded by American country music group Alabama. It was released in April 1994 as the third single and title track from their album Cheap Seats. The song reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in mid-1994. It also peaked at number 6 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks.

Critical reception

Dan Cooper of Allmusic called the song "way cute" in his review of the album. Tom Roland of New Country magazine praised the song for "avoiding the now-stale Dixie tributes" that were present in the band's other songs.

Music video

The music video was directed by Deaton-Flanigen and features the band at a baseball game. It is strongly implied that Des Moines is the "middle-sized town" in question, as it does indeed have a AAA minor league team (Iowa Cubs) and is in fact "in the middle of the Midwest". It was filmed at historic Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and also in the band's hometown of Fort Payne, Alabama.

The Cheap Seats (TV series)

The Cheap Seats was a television show on FOX Sports that mostly consisted of interviews with pro baseball players at home via Skype. It debuted during the 2010 Major League Baseball season with Chris Rose as its host, becoming best known for the many appearances by San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson, including the first on-camera showing of "The Machine". The host for 2011 was former pitcher David Wells.

External links

References

What We Saw from the Cheap Seats

What We Saw from the Cheap Seats is the sixth studio album by American alternative singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. On November 21, 2011, Spektor posted on her Facebook page that the album had been recorded with Mike Elizondo in Los Angeles during the summer of 2011. It was released on May 29, 2012. The album is a collection of new material along with the very first studio recordings of several of Spektor's older live songs.

At the time of the album's release, "Jessica" was the only entirely new song. "How" and "The Party" had been debuted only weeks before during Spektor's headlining tour, "Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)" had been released in an alternate version on a previous album, Songs, and all others had been performed in past performances.

Singles and promotion

The album's first single, "All the Rowboats", was released for streaming on February 27, 2012, and for digital download the following day. It was featured on a prime spot on the CW's Ringer on March 13, 2012, making her the "Artist Spotlight" of the week.