Just Selfie Me: If the cast of ‘Just Shoot Me’ were equipped with today’s technology…
The sitcom ‘Just Shoot Me’ first graced television screens in 1997, the same year Cream was launched. Being a series that honed in on the hyper-world of magazine publishing, we couldn’t help notice similarities to the shenanigans on-screen and within our own place of business. There were similarities, too, in the evolution of technology. In 1998, for example, bulky Apple Mac computers were replaced with less box-y and brighter-hued iMacs. Suddenly on-screen, bright blue monitors appeared on the desktops of the staff of Blush magazine.
Of course an entire revolution has occurred in communications in the past two decades, and watching early episodes of ‘Just Shoot Me’ today makes you realise just how intensely technology has changed.
In the first episode Dennis (David Spade) gets the “cyber skinny” on Maya (Laura San Giacomo) only to discover his boss’s daughter graduated from a posh college with an inclusion on the Dean’s List, that she has no boyfriend, and that she’s on the pill. Nina (Wendie Malick) asks, surprised, “You got all that on the internet?” to which Finch responds, “And rummaging through her purse”. Had he today’s resources, he could have summed her up with a glance at her Facebook page, and probably found out about her being on the pill… somewhere online.
‘Just Shoot Me’ is littered with analogue references that look quaint in today’s digitised environment. In the third episode, for example, Maya knocks a flat-plan board over, and all 200 pages flutter out of order. Today it’d all be arranged online and copied in triplicate for backup. Elliot (Enrico Calantoni) had previously photographed the board, and cleverly reminds the crew he has the order of the pages on camera, but then stupidly rips the film out of the camera, exposing and ruining it. Again, none of this drama would have happened in the digital realm.
There are plenty of “that was classic, wish I had a camera” moments. Indeed, for a show titled ‘Just Shoot Me’ there ought to have been more analogue cameras at the ready, suffice to say that today everyone has a camera built into their smartphone, ready to capture key moments at the drop of a hat.
Again, on a smartphone tip, in one scene Nina is trying to play home-maker and is getting instructions from Maya via an old-school phone which she ends up chopping the cord of with a kitchen knife – none of which would have happened had she been talking hands-free on a Blackberry.
Even when a character is techno-friendly on ‘Just Shoot Me’, like the only geek in the show who looks way out of place on an American sit-com pre-‘The Big Bang Theory’, he is not so au fait with digital technique. The dude’s email address reads: xfiles@mulder.scully.smokingman/thetruthisoutthere so obviously the script-writers neglected to realise forward-slashes in email addresses are redundant.
Despite all its quaint pre-digital technological mishaps, or perhaps in spite of them, ‘Just Shoot Me’ is still hilarious to watch. Watching its characters stuck with the limitations of analogue and imagining how fluid their lives would be with today’s technology would be like imagining Lucille Ball tackling the ins and outs of a VHS recorder or DSLR camera. Insane at the thought.
What might be nice is for the cast of ‘Just Shoot Me’ to come together for a reunion show – movie even – where they’re thrown into the modern digital world – so that Nina can be caught on smartphone camera with her pants down at the Armani party; Finch can find out more about what Maya did last night with a glimpse of her Instagram account; Elliot could edit the million photographs he’s taken of models in underwear before printing out any proofs; and Jack (George Segal) could save a truck-load of money (and trees in the Amazon) avoiding printing magazines and creating nifty little apps instead.
Even the show’s logo – a pencil-scribbled title on parched paper – could do nicely with a revamp. Complete with underscore and flashing curser, of course_ Antonino Tati
Re-issues of ‘Just Shoot Me’ – Seasons One and Two, and the Complete Third Season – are available on DVD through Shock Entertainment.
Courtesy of Shock, Cream has 4 packs – each containing Seasons One and Two, and the Complete Third Season – to give away. To try winning a pack, simply key in below the name of your favourite character in the series and why. Competition closes 5pm AWST, Friday 15 January.
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36 Responses to “Just Selfie Me: If the cast of ‘Just Shoot Me’ were equipped with today’s technology…”
Nina – so tall, so slim, so slow on the uptake. But she got along OK.
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A workaholic but a little lazy, Jack’s antics bordered on crazy, But he sweetly managed to make amends, With his daughter thanks to office friends =)
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Maya -she was full of fight and bursting with good ideas. We need more characters on TV like her!
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Dennis is so funny with his sarcastic quips, it’s hard to catch them all but he has me in stitches! :)
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Wendie Malick, Nina Van Horn, I love her witty humour, outrageous comments and sarcastic nature
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Laura San Giacomo as Maya Gallo with her amazing profile and seriously hot temper
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I Wendie Malick as Nina. as she plays a great character and does the part justice and is just so funny.
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Dennis……the quirky oddball with quick witted quips that for me put the comic in comedy!
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I loved Nina. She was very humorous and wicked! Who couldn’t love her :P I miss series like these. The 90’s were the best.
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Finch because he is a funny little character and chaos always follows him. Whenever he is on the screen you get ready to laugh.
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I love Nina, she is so oblivious to everything that it is comical. One of my fav episodes is where a window cleaner falls after she flashes him, then when they tricked her being the jack in the box and finally her friend vinny stories. all hilarious.
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Nina was a raunchy, hilarious character. I loved her free spirit and her ‘up yours’ attitude to her minions. For the day, it was really an out there character!
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Kevin because he can always make me laugh
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finch he has the gift of the gab gets in so much trouble but always gets out of it
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I discovered Kevin when he was in the hilarious Mr Show series and loved him in Just Shoot Me too. He is so funny and I love his face expressions!
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Nina was absolutely wicked so I absolutely loved her, but glad she wasn’t my problem.
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Kevin, no not one of the main cast, but he cracks me up, so simple, so straight forward, everything everyone says going straight over his head.
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Finch – oh so dirty, yet oh so adorable back then! Witty, sly and delivers so many burns in one sentence you can’t keep track.
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Finch. Possibly because I’m only 4’11 and am normally the short arse outcast too.
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Nina, oh i loved her attitude she was such a bitch yet still had a heart! This was a great series!
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FInich as love the character and the personality
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Nina, she was so daft it was hilarious. Always great for a laugh.
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Finch. Pocket rocket, never a dull moment. Love him on ROE too
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Nina Van Horn did all women justice she was herself, loud, proud and just out there literally on another planet :)
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Elliot DiMauro a lot of people didn’t notice him that much but i loved the way he totally sent up the whole photographer dates models thing!
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Nina Van Horn was hilarious. I haven’t watched it for so long, I would love to hear Nina being sarcastic and dense again. Very funny.
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Nina was my fav, She just didn’t care at all anymore
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Dennis “The Finchinator” cracked me up every time with all his ridiculously funny antics.
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David Spade…..Love how he is always getting himself into some sort of drama
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Maya – she can be so dumb that it’s laughable.
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Nina. She’s such a nut. I love her!
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Nina Van Horn, perpetually funny, her disposition is always sunny. Switch on “Just Shoot Me”, when a chuckle is what I need!
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David Spade’s character Dennis Finch, as he was a bit of pest but always on the ball with quick one-liners which kept me laughing, with every episode I watched.
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I always loved Eilliot
Always rooting for him to win
Consistently the underdog
But then brings out that goofy grin
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Maya,smarter than she lets on but too afraid to show it
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Donnie (Elliot’s brother) was my favourite ‘Just Shoot Me’ character, even if only in three episodes. Conniving, cunning, cruel and quite loveable. Lol
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