I watched My Coolest Years: The Geeks with Anne and the kids last night. I thought the show was fantastic, and I was honored to be in such great company. Open note to The Cool Guy who tormented Jessi Klein or the girls from The Donnas: Dude, wherever you are, you are a loser.
Biggest surprise of the show: John Tesh is hellafunny! I remember that he played a Klingon for a day on Next Generation in the episode “The Icarus Factor.” Well, “played a Klingon” is probably a little too much . . . he was sort of a featured extra in a line of about twenty guys who wore Klingon makeup and costumes, and snarled while they zapped Worf with painsticks. (Back then, a metric ton of celebrities wanted to be on the show, and they usually ended up wearing crazy alien make-up. Mick Fleetwood was this weird fish-looking thing, for example.)
I remember that he was really friendly, and seemed to be getting a HUGE kick out of the whole thing, but I don’t remember him being as funny as he was on My Coolest Years last night.
Best moment of the show: When I saw that they titled me “Wil Wheaton: Author of Just A Geek” (which reminds me: Just A Geek has been recommended by Quint, from Ain’t It Cool News! I am in incredibly good company over there, too. Thanks, Quint!) instead of That Other Thing.
That’s a big deal to me, you know. Though I personally feel that I’m finally emerging from the shadow of America’s Favorite Acting Ensign And Starfleet Academy Classmate Killing Cadet, I wonder if I’ll ever do that in the eyes of the entertainment industry. This morning’s Dork Tower gives a funny-because-it’s-true view of how that effort is playing out in fandom.
. . . and in casting too, now that I really think about it . . . but that’s okay. The Path I’m currently wandering is a good one.
Absolute coolest moment in the show: They put up a picture of me with my überhot wife as part of the “Geeks Ultimately Win, So Bite It, You Cool Kids” portion of the show. Ryan just about died when he saw Anne, in the coolest “I’m fifteen and I’m so proud of my mom” way. (Apparently, the kids on his baseball team tried to torment him by singing “Ryan’s mom has got it goin’ on” to the tune of “Stacey’s Mom,” and he silenced them by replying, “Yeah. My mom’s hot. So what?” Sweet.)
Tonight, VH1 gives us My Coolest Years: The Dirty Hippies, which should be hilarious. It looks like My Coolest Years could end up being as great as I Love The 80s, or maybe even better. Go Generation X! Rock! Yeah! \m/
If anyone from VH1 reads this: I had a blast, you guys. Thanks for making me look cool. I’d love to work with you some more.
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Way to go. It was really neat to learn so much more about you
Loved the Dork Tower cartoon. I emailed you this morning incase you were’nt aware. Anyway, I feel for your position Wil. SNG is certainly the albatrose around your neck.
That being said……I have a question regarding episode 13…..
I made it a point to take a break from playing World of Warcraft to watch this epsidoe on Vh1. You were great man, it was an hour of entertainment that got me a bit nostalgic. Thank you! 🙂
LOVED IT LOVED IT!!
Although I think my husband is getting a bit jealous, I was grinning and squealing at the TV so much.
I’m glad you wrote a blog today. You are fascinating. That cartoon strip is hilarious. I caught that show on VH-1 it was pure comedy. They have really got a good thing going over there at VH-1 with these retrospective/nostalgia shows. Keep up the good blogging, hey I made it on O’reilly’s page about the “I’m blogging this” shirt pics. Is your book in bookstores?
I’m going to have to check when it re-airs. I always miss the good stuff! 😉
it was a great show. i was laughing the whole time. i never would have guessed that you were a geek in high school. sad to say the only thing i ever knew your from was “stand by me” so in my mind, you would have been a popular kid. but it was cool to learn more. i loved the line where you said something like, “i did not cry in gym class today!, i am GEEKICUS!!” haha that was great!! hope you do more things like this! you are funny to watch.
Oh yeah, show was AWESOME! A little TOO much Andrew WK, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
Best. Line. EVER! “I am Geekicus!”
When I saw them subtitling you as “Author: ‘Just A Geek,'” I was sold. Great stuff, Wil. Hopefully, we’ll see more of you on VH1 as we Gen-Xers catch up with our Boomer parents when it comes to pop-culture.
Hell, hopefully we’ll see more of you anywhere. You proved that you’re one heck of an entertaining guy (which we knew already), and hopefully, the fucktards in “The Industry” saw it too, though I doubt that since they were probably busy trying to figure out ways to get Avril to show her boobs…
Dangit, I missed the VH1 show, and I meant to have a friend TiVo it! Crap. :/ I did, however, see the Dork Tower. You rock. Only The Cool Kids get into DT. 🙂
Wil Wil Wil! These guys didn’t make you look cool, they vamped off of your already existing coolness! Kick ass mention of the Drama Geeks by the way. We often get overlooked for you other computer/D&D guys. 🙂
Hey VH-1: I too hope you work with Wil again. Anybody who can call those Wannabe Geeks (just cause some “geeky” band is cool) on the carpet is a-okay with me!
Hey Wil, just remember to substitute the phrase metric assload in place of metric ton in the future. Because it’s funnier.
Actually the funniest thing was Ben Stein saying that once he got into drugs it all kicked out for him. The thought of Ben Stein tripping made me laugh my ass off.
Sad story about John Tesh, though. About eight years ago he was in Washington to do a concert, and stayed in the same hotel the wedding I was in was at. We were in the bar after the wedding and he came down and was talking to everyone. Granted this is through beer goggles, but he looked fairly friendly and was having a good time.
Unfortunately a group of people started actually hounding him about how awful they thought his music was, how much he sucked, etc. By the time he left he was literally in tears, and to general bullying laughter. I wasn’t directly involved so I just kind of blew it off as a kind of an odd story about how I saw John Tesh cry after being hassled about his music.
After seeing him on TV last night, having lived through the general hell of being a geek in high school as well, I don’t think I actually felt really bad for him retroactively. I guess no matter how old you get or how successful you are there’s always going to be some sort of high school bullshit bullying.
Frankly I have a new respect for him.
That was an awesome show last night! I was happy for you when they put “Wil Wheaton, Author of “Just a Geek”…that’s great. Hope to see you on more shows to come!
well, I was going to congratulate you on being credited last night as “Wil Wheaton, Author of Just A Geek” instead of some other term, buuuuut, looks like you already knew about it. So, a bit redundant I s’pose, but congratulations anyway. The show was excellent, most righteous.
Oh My Gosh!!and..I totally missed Sex in the City for that show…It was worth it! 🙂
Does anybody know if this is gunna air on VH1 in the UK? and for the record it absolutly stinks being a wheatfan over here (U.K) doubt i’ll ever get my JAG signed *sigh*
ROFL first time I’d ever been DISAPPOINTED to have made 1420 on my SAT…rats, thought I, not as cool as Wil.
I was lucky enough to TOTALLY ACCIDENTALLY HAPPEN to get to watch the VH1 show while I was packing up to leave my dorm room for Christmas break. Made for a great afternoon. I wouldn’t have watched but at the exact moment I turned it on I saw you, Wil, and I thought it was The Coolest Thing Ever. Especially when I saw how they’d credited you! w00t! I made an executive decion to force my roommate to undergo Geek Acceptance Training right then and there. But I still can’t get her to play D&D. 😉
Anyway, great job with the show. They MUST include you in more totally awesome projects! \m/!
That show was fantastically funny. I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw “Wil Wheaton author of Just A Geek”. Good for you Wil, maybe the rest of the world will finally let you out of starfleet.
I noticed that they “bleeped” out Anne’s name when you said it, though. That’s OK; all of us monkeys knew who you meant.
I’d forgotten about John Tesh as one of those holodeck Klingons zapping Worf with the painsticks. If I were him, I’d have jumped at the gig, too…
Though they identified you as “Author, Just A Geek,” they did slip a clip of you as Ensign C. in right at the beginning…but that’s OK too. It’s part of the sum total that has made you who you are. It’s all good.
Kudos and other granola snacks on your successful appearance. Rock, rock on!
Watching My Coolest Years, I have to say, totally, painfully reminded me of my own junior high/ high school days. You were totally funny, awesome.
yeah, it was a great show. i was sad that they bleeped out anne’s name, but we all knew who she was. and i was mildly surprised they billed you as “author.” i would have sworn they’d bill you as wesley fricken’ crusher =).
i’m happy for you, man,
They soooo better air this again. I fell asleep 10 mins into the program. Not because I was bored but dead tired!!! I did see how they billed you as author and thought to myself “Wil has GOT to be stoked by that” YAY you!!!! 🙂 🙂
Wil you did a great job.
Just in case you missed it, accroding to VH1.com, The Geeks episode will re-air:
12/8 – 9:00 p.m.
12/9 – 8:00 p.m.
12/10 – 2:30 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
All of the times are Eastern. I’ll be one of those watching tonight…I was a geek, too! And proud of it!!!!
Best moment, hands down: Wil and Paul Tyma going off about D&D. Beautiful. Classic. Marvelous.
I think that it was cool to mix the famous “geeks” and some of the less famous, but successful geeks as well. Made for a really fun show!
I managed to catch it last night, and I was very impressed by everyone, but especially by you, Wil.
Of course, listening to everyone’s stories just brought back my own sucky high school life, but, hey, being fabulous now sure beats all those people who peaked in high school and sit around talking about how great life was then, because their lives sure aren’t great now.
In other words, geeks rock, especially the older we get! (speaking as someone on the leading cusp of GenX, who will be 39 on friday – eeek!!)
I checked it out last night. I’m definitely going to have to catch a re-run of the Metalheads episode and will probably tune into all of the others.
I especially enjoyed the D&D segment. You said “racial modifier”. *snort*
I don’t dig Andrew WK, but must admit that he was endearingly geeky.
My boy and I watched it last night and laughed our butts off. Neither of us like Cuban, but you were a great antidote.
I love that you get the last line. 🙂
Congratulations on a great interview, Wil!
REMINDER: You were going to tell us how you hurt your neck at a later date. 🙂
“I AM GEEK-I-CUS!”
— Wil Wheaton
You effing ROCK, man,
BTW,did you notice that not only did you have great face time in the episode, you were heavily feature in the promos as well?
Dude, that show rocked! It was cool feeling like I kinda knew one of the commentators! I particularly enjoyed the description of the “the bases!” Well done!
Dude, I saw the show and it was Awesome. They really made yuo guys look spiffed out.
I *loved* the show, and it was a big surprise because I hadn’t read your bloggity blog in a while. Great job…super funny!
🙂
I’ve always thought Tesh was funny.
He did the same “bologna stuck in the braces” bit the other night on Conan.
Also, did you know Tesh wrote the catchy “NBA on NBC” theme music? (da-da-da-da-da-dum da-da-da-da-da-dum..etc..)
They played the music, overlaying it on top of the video of the recent NBA player-fan brawl.
Funny stuff.
Dude, you feel comfortable watching all that stuff about “getting laid” with your stepkids? Yikes! Wasn’t that a little inappropriate for them to be watching? 😉
Ok, since my blog was down, I thought I would repost this. Just finished reading Wil’s book, and it kind of fits in with this discussion about VH1…
Top 10 Ways You Know You
LMFAO!!!
you need to add:
you talk about Wil Wheaton so much your significant other says “you know they have laws against stalking”
mech
Dang! I totally forgot to watch! Guess I’ll have to fire up the ol’ TiVo to record a future airing. It’s best that way, anyway, since you can skip through the endless commercials.
Glad to hear that John Tesh is such a nice guy. I ended up seeing him in concert in Boise, and he was a blast. Not all of his music is my style, but it’s certainly listen-able. Shut up, it’s a word too.
“This is my ship, pfft, sorta. I mean _no_ warp nacelles? …Hello?!?”
Best quote ever.
I laughed out loud at Wil going Comic Book Guy on it.
Hey, Wil… not sure if you’ve noticed, but you’re featured in the current Dork Tower.
Damn… should pay more attention. That’s what I get for working too much.
I’m so mad I missed this, but thanks to Wendy and DVR, I’m SO watching tonight.
As soon as I accepted myself for the geek that I am…life became much more fun!
Hey Wil,
It’s great that you’re getting the credit you deserve!
Good on ya!
YAY! Loved, loved, loved the show!!! My 13-year-old daughter is a self-proclaimed, very proud GEEK, and she so loved hearing all the geek comments. She was yelling “Exactly!” at the screen and could totally relate. It was a total bonding moment — even if I am a hippie rather than a geek, I have my geeky moments.
Wil, you were the CUTEST geek on the show. Loved seeing you speak. I can’t believe you were thrown into lockers. Sad. I hate violence of any kind — even historical.
Rock on.
the show was awesome and i loved that they got all kinds of geek, not just one kind. i love geeks, especially when they fix my computers.
Loved the special, but imagine my excitement when I turned to my husband and said, “(gasp) Wil and I had the same SAT score!”
My Fav quote…
“You know who can climb the rope? MARINES climb the ropes!”
Classic 🙂
LOVED the show!!! I saw it tonight (sorry I missed the first showing). I found myself saying, “I used to do that!!!” about 50 times…. So glad you were on the show!!! By the way, I have a autographed picture from you from when you were on TNG. Very proud of it!
And, you know, I could never climb that rope either!!!
Dork Tower is cool.
A two dimensional cartoon character saying: “I’m a fully rounded three dimensional human being”
heheh. That was amusing.
I love the irony.
It’d make a great t-shirt.
The actual tag was funny too.