The amateur

Yesterday I got a very nice e-mail invitation from an MTV staffer to interview Jon Gabrus, host of their game show The Substitute. I politely declined. At least, I hope I was polite. Nothing against the show, which is relatively intellectual by MTV’s flexible standards. I did post a faux tweet about The Substitute’s second season.

The reason I gave for my refusal is that I’m busy enough with my day job, which is true. This blog is a very minor (and strictly non-paying) sideline, and I don’t want to make it into a time sink. But my more genuine reason was to keep my amateur, outsider status.

What if Mr. Gabrus started telling me, let’s say, interesting things about his producers or MTV execs? Not that he would ever do something like that, of course. But I don’t want even the remotest possibility of getting drawn into insider stuff. Receiving press releases and GSN schedules in my e-mail is about as far as I want to dip my toe into the actual game show world.

I’m just a fan. And a hopeless amateur. So while I certainly appreciate the news items in my inbox, I’ll pass on interviews and such. Besides, I want to maintain my independence, so I can make rude comments about MTV’s intellectual standards. As I just did in this entry.