Information AboutThe Zone |
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and Carlos Bustamente on ''The Zone.'']] The Zone is the flagship weekday afternoon programming block on the in Canada and is familar to many Canadians who have grown up watching YTV since the early 1990s. It consists of a short segment hosted by a personality formerly called a PJ (programming jockey) that airs in the space between the actual television shows, often in lieu of Commercials . CURRENT VERSION OF THE ZONE Currently, the two hosts are Sugar , formerly the voice actor for Rini from '' Sailor Moon '', and Carlos, allegedly a former janitor for YTV. Also added to the current cast is Pretty Tiffany (Sugar's cousin or Sugar with a southern accent), Titto Lemmey (uncannily similar to Carlos), and Gorrilla Stan (Also known as G-Stan). The program usually features the hosts and the addition of one "real" guest host. The "guest host" is sometimes just an inanimate or personified object that is spoken to. Some examples would be "the toilet" (a Toilet in the wall; a hand came out the hole once in a while) and "the camera-man". In its early history, the Zone had featured a group of puppets known as ''Grogs'' as the co-hosts. A large television with a frame resembling a piece of purple Bubble Gum with eyes and other mechanical miscellany called ''Snit'' was once a "host" on ''The Zone''. Occasionally, real-life guest hosts would appear on ''The Zone,'' such as Robert Munsch . While usually following a certain theme throughout the week, there are scheduled events that usually occur during ''The Zone'', these are:
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENTS ''The Zone'' began its life as the ''Afterschool Zone'' on YTV in 1992, with its first host being Phil Guerrero as a lone speaker seated on a stool in front of a spartan orange backdrop. The ''Afterschool Zone'' was simply a small segment that played between airings of regular television programming, primarily as an entertaining segue into the next programming block to retain viewers and to provide some level of interaction with it's young audience. Similar programming existed on YTV's weekend morning broadcasts, also starring variety of hosts, labeled PJs or program jockeys as a take on DJ (disc jockey) and VJ (video jockey). The "Afterschool" portion of the title was soon dropped and PJ "Fresh" Phil was sometimes joined by another PJ, Jenn (although she featured more prominently during weekend morning programming and was rarely on the Zone). The segments usually involved discussion or banter on various topics, video clips, previews, and viewer letter-mail. Eventually, the PJs were joined by a variety of puppets named the , 1994 the Grogs - led by Warren - staged a fictional Coup of the YTV television station and "hijacked" the network, which was retitled WTV (as in Warren TV), to establish their demands. This was eventually thwarted by PJ "Fresh" Phil and PJ Jenn at the conclusion of a long-running plotline. This signalled the end of the Grog era. By 1995 , the Zone was still hosted by Phil Guerrero (who by this time had dropped the "Fresh" moniker). The hanging television was morphed into the animatronic character Snit, which displayed a pair of moving teeth on the television screen. When a primetime version of The Zone, ''YTV Shift'', was cancelled, it's former host Paul McGuire joined Phil. Eventually, the two sent Snit into space, and Snit was replaced with the prop Elvays, a plastic Elvis head with a digitally added moving mouth. Eventually, a week of programming was devoted to a plotline which featured PJs Phil and Paul on a quest hunting for Extra-terrestrials and making a discovery. This discovery was revealed to be the return of the Snit character (minus its familiar purple coloring). Following cosmetic and technological upgrades, Snit went on to host ''Snit Station'', a weekend morning programming block, replacing ''Brainwash'' - the block has since been renamed to ''The Vortex''. A a slight format change, the "You Rule" campaign was replaced with a "Keep it Weird" theme. Paul and Phil were replaced with comedian Pat Kelly and Jenny Katie Racicot (previously PJ Katie on Treehouse , with no relation to the original PJ Jenn or PJ Jazzy Jan]). Elvays was replaced with "the Hand in the Toilet". The move was seen as questionable by many fans, as the "Keep it Weird" slogan did not seem to fare well with the audience. One of the most memorable moments in the "Jenny and Pat" era was the formation of '' Nuclear Donkey '', a band featured at the end of the YTV's compliation album ''Big Fun Party Mix''. ''Nuclear Donkey'' still exists as of today. Another memorable moment was its ''Superheroes and Superstars'' promotion, which had the two pose as heroes. (Pat's character held a deep hatred for Corey Hart , while Jenny's character hated the word " Chesterfield ", which someone would inevitably say.) With Jenny's departure, Pat remained the single host for a time until and Sugar joined Pat as his co-host. However, Pat himself soon also departed, leaving Sugar as the lone host. A plotline emerged where Sugar would discover that one of the YTV janitors was playing with the cameras during off-hours, clandestinely acting out as Zone host. Employing detective skills to track down this janitor, Sugar eventually discovered Carlos and invited him to become her co-host. See Also: List of shows on YTV lineup The Zone EXTERNAL LINKS
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