Denise Weiner was a contestant on Remote Control in 1988. I had the opportunity to chat with Denise about her appearance on October 5, 2008, at 11:15 AM (Pacific Time).

DCL: Hi, Denise. DW: Hi, D.C. DCL: Anyway, down to business. How did you find out about the auditions? DW: There were flyers put up all over school. I actually snagged one of them and kept it, I should scan it for you, too. DCL: If you don't mind, that would be great! Walk us through the audition process, if you would please. DW: The auditions were held in a small theater in the college student center. I was hoping I could get a friend to go with me, but no one was around and I decided to just check it out on my own. There were probably at least 75 people there, although not that many were actually trying out. At the front of the room where the stage was, sat 3 girls from the show, and 2 students/coordinators. They handed out questionnaires and a test paper. I remember one question on the questionnaire was about sweaters, of all things. The test was an oral test, one question was about Arnold the Pig from Green Acres, and I do admit to leaving one answer out and copying one answer from a girl in front ot me about Andy from Family Ties. After the test, we had to go up on the stage and talk about ourselves. This was really nervewracking. As I tend to do when on the spot, I turn to humor. If you can get people laughing, they'll be with you. I said something about how I wasn't dragged there by friends like some people, and not looking forward to returning to "Valley Stream, the hellhole of Long Island." Some guy shouted "Valley Stream #1" and I said "Yeah, right." which got a laugh from the crowd. I finished up with a demand for more Cure and R.E.M. on MTV, and the crowd gave me a big hand. Some of the other people who spoke were really awful. Either vulgar or softspoken. One guy made up a rap about "My P-ness." Needless to say, he didn't make it. There was a 5 minute break, and the list was narrowed to 20 people. Outside in the lobby they set up mock games, with service bells for buzzers and clipboards for desks. Everyone was nervous, and one of the MTV girls kept saying "More energy!" They want you to be overly enthusiastic and excited. I remember that the question that impressed them from me concerned X the Owl who lived in the tree in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I don't even know how I remembered it, but I did. They told me on the spot that I'd made it, and that they would contact me in about 2 weeks. Some of the people there were from other colleges, I guess they couldn't go to every school in the area. My school was Hofstra University, by the way, which coincidentally will be holding the final presidential debate this year in a few weeks. DCL: Yes, indeed! Well, you already took care of my next question, so I'll move on. Do you remember what date your program was filmed? DW: June 14, 1988. DCL: Interesting. Two month turn around time. DW: The audition was on May 3. DCL: I'm glad you remember those dates. DW: I wrote about it all in my journal, believe me, I have it in my lap as I write. I'm not that good with dates! DCL: That's quite all right. Do you remember how many games were taped and were you the first, second, etc? DW: They taped 4, and mine was the last one. DCL: Was there any rhyme or reason on who would play who? DW: Not really, but they did make sure to section everyone into threes before each taping. There were 3 other girls besides me, more boys than girls, so I guess they spaced it so each game had one girl. I've never seen more than one girl in a game, but I could be wrong. DCL: It's happened, but not very often. It was more often that all three contestants were men. DW: I think this means either more men spent their time watching TV, or more women didn't want to look silly on a game show. Or both! DCL: I'm going to go with the more TV theory. DW: Personally, I watched a fair amount of TV as a kid, and still do now. I control the DVD recorder in my household, much to my husband's dismay. Together though, we have hundreds of videotapes and DVDs. DCL: As do we. When the game was progressing, what was going through your head? DW: "I'm going to melt out here." It had to be 95 degrees that day, and the air conditioning was not working in the studio. Under the lights, we were sweating like mad. You can see my wiping at my face from time to time, and I was hoping no one would think I was a coke fiend. They gave us ice cubes at one point, hoping we wouldn't pass out. One of the shows before us got ice cream sundaes as a snack and we were very jealous backstage. We got marshmallows for ours. Better projectiles than edibles. I do have one very dubious distinction though. In Sean's interview, he mentioned how we were cautioned not to use profanity. Well, I am indeed the one contestant who dropped an f-bomb. I'm not proud of it, but it happened. DCL: During filming? DW: Yep. I believe it might have been after I got the Batman/Wayne Manor question wrong. I just muttered it to myself, but we were miked, after all, and of course, it picked up. After the taping one of the directors came running over and really yelled at me. Luckily, they had a cutaway shot or something, you don't see it on air at all. Afterwards, when I went backstage to take a photo with Ken and Colin, I told them what happened. "You said F?" said Colin. "Oh boy. Breaking all the rules!" He then high fived me. Ironically, he had some of us making prank phone calls to his friends before taping began, calling and yelling "F you Ted!" and the like. DCL: With Colin, was it what you saw on camera was pretty much what you get? DW: Yes. Colin was very funny, very laid back. When he came backstage, at first he had a shirt on and it was all unbuttoned, hairy chest sticking out, he didn't care. Like I said, it was really hot in there. A lot of costume changes for those folks. Ken was very nice to us too. Kari, however, never came backstage. She shook our hands when we were in the chairs and did tell me to "Win one for all of us," meaning us women. DCL: That's good to hear about Ken and Colin. What about Steve, the keyboard player? DW: Never saw him backstage. I remember watching the other tapings, and we would talk amongst ourselves about what we saw. On one of them, Adam Sandler appeared. "This guy is just not funny," I said. "He's not going anywhere." Who knew?? DCL: I agree with your first assessment. DW: I was more amused by John Ten Eyck - Cousin Flip. Sandler was painful to watch, you almost felt sorry for him. I guess it was like how people viewed Andy Kaufman at the time, you don't know if it is an act or what. DCL: And yet, John Ten Eyck is doing... nothing. DW: He might be doing producing or something behind the scenes. I suspect you have a better career that way. Look at Colin, I always love the guy, but he's had his ups and downs. He had his own show on NBC, and then he did Tough Crowd, nothing seems to stick. DCL: Ten Eyck has been a game show writer for a couple of decades, in fact Remote Control was his first writing job, but according to the Internet Movie Database, hasn't worked in seven years. DW: I hope he's not living in a cardboard box with Ken Ober. DCL: I sincerely doubt that. ;) I know that Remote Control was not much in the way of parting gifts, but what did you recieve? DW: A Shah Safari Remote Control sweatshirt, a pair of LA Gear sneakers (white purple and black - hot stuff), an RCA universal remote. A few weeks later, a Jelly Belly jellybean machine showed up, and I think there was some sort of mailing mixup, because another one showed up after that. It turned out to be good though, one broke. I still have the sweatshirt and the universal remote is somewhere, although probably not the paper I need to program it. The Jelly Belly machine is still kickin' too. Backstage we argued about who needed the car more. I had a car, but a '74 Ford Maverick, not a great vehicle. Stuart said he had a bike, so he needed the car. The car was a Subaru Justy, probably a little deathtrap, but to a poor college student, priceless! We were bummed that the person on the Craftmatic got a prize for each video. I lasted longer than Stuart and we each got the same stuff. DCL: Anything else you would like to mention before we wrap this up? DW: Yes. It's been something to think about this experience after 20 (TWENTY!!) years. I remember someone came up to me once who had recognized me from the show, when I was working in a mall record store. "You lost," he said, as if I did not know how it turned out! It is a really weird feeling though to be flipping channels and suddenly see yourself. They re-ran it a few times, so that would happen. I felt good that my family in other states got to see it, too. It aired earlier than they told us it was supposed to, so it was totally luck of the draw, and the fact that it aired twice a day allowed me to tape it on the second showing. Of course, years later my sister in law would go on to ruin the tape, but I'm eternally grateful to you, D.C., for keeping the legacy alive, and also for being able to get a copy to me again! Thanks to you, pastel clothing, bad haircuts and cheesy jokes will live on for Internet users around the world. I did love the 80's. And I still do. DCL: Thank you for all of your insights, Denise. I very much apreciate it. DW: It's been my pleasure. I'll try to scan that flyer this week! DCl: Take care of yourself. DW: Thanks, you too! :)

Denise was kind enough to donate a couple of pictures to the Basement. LEFT: A picture of Denise, Ken, and Colin taken after the show. RIGHT: A flyer advertising Remote Control tryouts at Hofstra University. It may look a little weired because the colors didn't scan correctly. I played with it as much as I could; I hope it looks right.

To watch Denise's episode, visit The Remote Control Playhouse.

Go to dc-lundberg.net