Forget
Bob Saget's stupid jokes and lame multi-octave
voiceovers, this was the home video show for me. My dad got me hooked on this back in the 90's. Sadly this fun little show fell to the side while other shows took over, with an
audiance-winning array of fwuffy widdle kittens,
children doing sickengly cute things, and guys
getting hit in the nuts by mallets/basballs/bats/etcs. I'm kinda shot for references, the show is all but forgotten on the
internet. But here's what I can remember.
Roggin's Heros (sounds like
Rogan's, hence the
Hogan's Heroes soundalike) was a show featuring home videos of
humorous events and amazing
feats that
viewers sent in. At the ending of a show was a judgement of sorts for the videos, and the funniest one would recieve a
cash reward and be forever known as one of "
Roggin's Heros"!. The show was hosted by
LA sportscaster Fred Roggin and his heavyset mute sidekick (whose name escapes me). While the
sidekick never said much, he frequently spoke in
surreal actions. Fr'instance Roggin didn't like one video, but our big
cohost flung a piece of
posterboard into the air, shot at it with a
machine gun and when he caught it it had
"I LIKED IT" spelt in bullet holes (this was before the
Police Academy skit,
btw). Every few shows would have a "Nice Try" segment, where they showcased all the
fake videos they recieve. Man drops tray
accidentally on purpose, wedding dress gets stained accidentally on purpose, you know the like. These sessions boiled down to a
slow motion play by play analysis of the video, an in-depth discussion of all the details that made it fake, and light
mockery of whomever made it.
Those few things made it so much more of a show then, say,
America's Funniest Home Videos. It wasn't just other peoples work stitched together with some shoot-from-the-hip
dialog to move things along; Roggin and company actually added humor to stuff that was already pretty funny.
Go Roggin!
Kudos to
Billy for helping me get Roggin's name right and adding some background info.