FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO REMEMBER THE AMAZING STEVE'S AMAZINGLY FAST AND FUNNY EPISODE RECAPS BACK WHEN WE USED TO LIVE-BLOG '24'....
...here's how he did it:
Hey Dave, I was thinking about the last time we met and what you said about the speed at which I wrote the 24 recaps. I thought I'd drop you a note to explain how I did it.
My main goal was to get something posted as soon as possible after the show ended.
I started writing as soon as the show started, paused the DVR when I needed to, and fast-forwarded through the commercials. The broadcast time for a one hour show is about forty minutes, so this gave me twenty an "extra" minutes to write. I'd send the first half-hour to a friend to read through while the show was still playing to fix any grammatical errors. When the second half was finished, I'd send that to him. After getting fixing any mistakes, I'd post about thirty minutes after the show ended.
I'd do the same thing for the two-hour episodes, but with those, I'd be ready to post the first-hour recap after the entire two-hour episode ended. (The second hour would take me another hour to finish and post). So, I think it seemed as though I wrote much more quickly than I did since I posted that first-hour recap immediately after the show ended.
I think did one or two recaps "live" (since I was on a business trip a couple of times), but those were very condensed and very difficult to keep pace with.
At times I wish I'd gotten the shows in advance, but I bet I would have overanalyzed what I was writing, instead of putting down the first thing that occurred to me and moving on.
So basically, no magic tricks. It just boiled down to a DVR, a pause button, and sheer deadline panic.
Take care,
Steve
We need a new show for Steve to analyze. The nightly news might provide the most fertile ground, but it also might drive Steve completely insane if he tried to recap it every night.
So we need some other nominations.
Posted by: Rod Nunley | October 31, 2019 at 10:50 AM
Steve, you're still Amazing to us, even though you have revealed the trick.
Posted by: MOTW | October 31, 2019 at 11:27 AM
Those were good times. Well done Steve !
Posted by: LeDud | October 31, 2019 at 12:09 PM
No wonder He gets the women.
Posted by: man tom | October 31, 2019 at 12:09 PM
What's The Blog watching these days? Could The Amazing Steve resurrect his amazingness for some new show?
Posted by: Guin | October 31, 2019 at 02:36 PM
We'll need some criteria for a new show. First, it has to be on one of the big four over-the-air networks, so that everybody can watch it.
Second, it needs to be good enough to actually watch, but with enough holes in it for Steve and all the viewers/bloggers to exploit.
So I'll start by nominating a show I've been semi-sucked into on ABC called "Emergence". The key character is a 12-year-old girl who's actually a robot who's been sort of "placed" with a police chief. The bad guy in all this is played Terry O'Quinn, best remembered from "Lost".
Posted by: Rod Nunley | October 31, 2019 at 03:20 PM
I really miss our live blogging of "24". Amazing Steve you did a wonderful job. Thank you.
Posted by: nursecindy | October 31, 2019 at 05:32 PM
The man deserves a Nobel at least, not to mention an Emmy.
All hail The Amazing Steve.
Posted by: Jeff Meyerson | November 01, 2019 at 12:38 PM
Well for me, he ruined it. Just as a magician never shows how he does his tricks, Steve was better when he was a mystery.
Posted by: John Criswell | November 02, 2019 at 02:19 PM