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''Cheap Seats'' is a Television program broadcast on ESPN Classic hosted by brothers Jason and Randy Sklar . The brothers appear as fictional ESPN archivists who amuse themselves by watching old, Campy sports broadcasts and wisecracking about them. ''Cheap Seats'' debuted on February 4 , 2004 , with an episode that showed ESPN sportscaster "Ron Parker" (supposedly the intended host for the show) getting buried under a shelf full of tapes, forcing the Sklars to fill in. ''Cheap Seats'' was originally a hour-long program. In the hour-long format, there were two different segments of sports events that ran a half-hour each. There were at least 10 hour-long episodes in the first season. All of these episodes have subsequently been cut down to fit a 30 minute time slot. REGULAR SEGMENTS During the show, while not cutting in to add humorous comments or ironic insights, the show features several segments, such as Do You Care? (in which the Sklar brothers inform you of extremely obscure facts related to the show they are watching) and '''The Cheapies''' (in which awards are granted for outrageous categories, such as "Most Uncomfortable Moment" and "Least Valuable Celebrity"). Many times, the Cheapies category names lend themselves to jokes based on a play-on-words, for example one episode featuring boxer Joe Frazier had a Cheapie award for "Best Knockout" that went not to Frazier as one might expect, but to the wife of one of the other contestants. SOURCE MATERIAL Most of the broadcasts are from ESPN's archives. Among them:
The show is influenced chiefly by '' Mystery Science Theater 3000 '' and MTV 's '' Beavis And Butt-head ''. A recent episode featured Mike Nelson , Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot from '' Mystery Science Theater 3000 '', in their "Theatre" silhouette form, cracking wise on sketches the Brothers performed. ''Cheap Seats'' is shot in New York City (with segments filmed in Los Angeles ) and had made use of local Comedians as Guest Star s in its Sketches , including Ed Helms of '' The Daily Show '', Michael Showalter of '' The State '' and Ian Roberts of '' The Upright Citizens Brigade ''. Most of the bit parts are played by Stand-up Comics whom Jason and Randy met during their years on the road as standups themselves. ESPN Classic broadcasted an all-day Marathon of ''Cheap Seats'' episodes on Thanksgiving Day 2004 , an homage to the similar marathons of ''MST3K'' that were frequently run on Comedy Central during Thanksgiving in the first half of the 1990s . LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE ERA Shortly into the second season, ''Cheap Seats'' slighty changed its format by giving Randy and Jason a live studio audience {Link without Title} (and virtual " Laugh Track ") to play off of. The first episode of this particular format focused on the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game . Fans of the show have already considered this particular moment as the period where ''Cheap Seats'' has come the closest to '' Jumping The Shark ''. However, the audience were removed as of the premiere of the third season, which premiered on September 19 , 2005 . The Sklars' opening segment joked on the fact that they had removed the audience and acknowledged the complaints from the fans. It should also be noted that the episodes with the live audience have been re-edited in the sound department so that they cannot be heard, or minimally heard, during the regular segments of the show. FUTURE SEASONS According to Jason and Randy Season 4 of ''Cheap Seats'' is in production and will begin airing in June 2006. EXTERNAL LINKS
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