Thank you Jay, care to enlighten NY Pete on the art of Upper Decking?

Maybe Gary V will surprise us with an extended LAID BACK FRIDAY couch episode!

I thought it was called a topdecker?

The lurker movement grows stronger every day. Now, young vay-walker, you will witness the full power of the lurkside.

Cordially,
The Emperor

I was ready for Laid Back Friday and it’s turned into Laid Back Week!

I can understand why people are questioning the shows quality in recent months, I can also understand why people are concerned that Gary is allegedly not bringing the thunder that he did in the earlier episodes. I will admit I have not been watching WLTV as long as some, but I do my part in keeping up with the comment section whenever I can. I am a little perturbed at the lack of faith and overall inpatients of many of the WLTV posters. I do not know if people are just getting bored, or they are actually serious when they are taking shots at Gary and in some cases his drive and his character. As so many people have said, he does this for free, its amazing that he has done this many episodes. I believe in some ways it is a good thing that people seemed concerned, This means that in some cases people are not just blindly criticizing or filling time between glasses of wine. However, I also believe that if he brought the thunder three days in a row everyone would be kissing his ass again like I am doing now. Call me what you will, but at least I am consistent. If I was on WLTV, my QOTD would be how has Gary brought thunder to everyone’s wine life, and I guarantee there would be quite a few epics on how he has gone above and beyond a wine blog personality. I have read at least 20 posts on how people have read his book and it reportedly changed the way they approach their respective businesses, or at the very least made them take a second to think about Gary’s story and how he got to where he is. I am sure it seems like I am preaching, and perhaps I am. That being said, I wish more individuals involved in main stream media had half of the drive and charisma Gary does. If that were the case, modern media would be much different.

Wine library should make Iphone apps Winelibrary apps or something

Here’s the thing.I think that any attacks on Gary’s character are manifestations of misplaced frustration. I’ve never met the guy, and I’m sure most people who watch the show haven’t either, but he seems nice, treats his staff well, so on and so forth. The fact that he seems to be a great guy is a big draw of the show.What I do think is that his reality has changed enormously since he started the show, and even just in the past year. Only he knows whether or not it’s reasonable of him to keep up the rate of output we all expect, and the truth is that even he might not be sure until he tries it, and it either works or it doesn’t. We might have some communal sense of entitlement, fairly or unfairly, which stems from the simple fact that if WLTV didn’t have the following it did then there would be no book deal or radio show. That’s kind of a bullshit claim, since being consumers of content is easy as sitting at your computer and actually producing content is orders of magnitude more demanding, but it does reflect an economic reality; we’re here for the show, and if it doesn’t go on we’ll leave.The frustration is legitimate where it stems from a lack of communication between Gary and the audience. If the decline in quality we’ve seen recently really is because his contractual obligations have stretched him to the bone, he needs to say so. The perception here is that this is the case. If it isn’t, Gary needs to prove it.I don’t really think WLTV is dying, but it has felt pretty moribund of late. Hopefully things pick up starting next week.

ouch

Starting to think that he may get to 1000 eps and that will be the end of WLTV.

Legendary WLTV guest Helen Buehler turns 24 Saturday

It’s better to burn out than to fade away…

Neil is on tonight.

Well put cellarrat5

i’ve never done such a thing, but when I’ve read about it in the past I saw it called that.

I’ve been holding out on commenting, but I’ve been reading a bunch of comments and can’t keep it back any longer. Yes, this show was pretty bad and yes, Gary has left us all hanging for a week with no notice (going opposite to lessons served by George Costanza) and yes, this seems to be happening more than ever, and yes the “thunder” seems to be leaving the show. So, what is my point?…I don’t know, I forgot where I was going with this.
p.s. Gary, give us a frickin’ show …with some thunder man…soon!

Regarding your point on WLTV being in large part of his success I believe that it has most definitely not hurt. However, as he pointed out in a response to one of the comments a few days ago, WL itself (not WLTV) was his start regarding financial success. Perhaps he has chosen to further that particular part of his career instead of putting in th time to bang out quality episodes. In large part I agree with you in many of your sentiments regarding the need for him to “get a grip” on a realistic schedule for WLTV, but I also believe you are not giving him enough credit regarding his drive and personality. He differs from Jay Leno (who I cant stand) and Letterman (who I can stand a little more) in the fact that he has CONSTANT contact with his base in some regard. He is the only internet/media personality that actually responds personally to his fans when time allows. I also believe we must have different definitions on his ability to provide “light” entertainment. I believe he provides a style of entertainment that is relatively unique among all the mostly mindless drivel that exists in main stream media today, informative and entertaining info on a subject that obviously brings many people together and spawns interesting if not informative conversations among groups of individuals such as ourselves. If you feel this is light, I suppose we will have to agree to disagree.

I completely agree with you regarding your point on misplaced frustration. It is sometimes difficult to realize due to his transparency and expression of personality that very few of us actually know him, I am aware that there are a few exceptions.

I also believe that we (collectively) have some sort of odd entitlement in relation to the quality and longevity of the show. Regardless of people various ideas and criticisms, most of the episodes are watched by even the harshest critics. I also believe that the internet mob mentality for lack of a better term is fickle, and if most of us were standing in front of Gary we might put it quite differently than we do on this forum (I believe most of us would anyway). Internet anonymity is a luxury that many take for granted.

Regarding Gary’s recent lack of communication with his audience I do not personally fault him at all. He is a busy guy, and I think for the most part he does a remarkable job keeping tabs on the comments and various forums stemming off the sites he is involved with.

Has Gary jumped the shark?

I mean he provides “light” entertainment in that he does not examine the deeper parts of life in regards to philosophy, politics, religion, human rights, etc… he talks about alcohol, football, action figures, social media, and pop stars. None of these things have any great consequence to the human spirit and one’s true well being. These are good things but at the end of the day they are diversions and entertainment, which it is safe to say is “light”.

I like the idea and it is certainly creative but who would screen all the footage?

What’s going on? During the summer I was too busy to keep up with WLTV and now that fall has arrived and the plants are expiring I come back and it seems that WLTV is in a bit of rut? Didn’t we hear promises from Gary that he was going to take it easy on guests? Not that I mind guests, as long as they are interesting. Picking up on the comments I gather that I’m not alone in the weakness of some recent episodes. I like Gary, I’ll defend WLTV. Though I’ve come to expect Thunder. I need to finish catching up, but the comments I was reading today are very interesting.

Look, folks. It’a ll good (as they say in California). When (if) Gary comes back, it’s not about (even) what he says (“5 more guests all year,” anyone?). It’s about what Gary does. Was it all a lot of hot air (as many of your comments suggest)? Maybe. Probably. Was it just another way to sell stuff (be the stuff wine, cheese, or “brand”)? Maybe. Probably. But you know…. If Gary just came back, enthusiastic, tasting, critiquing wine, doing this for a while. It would all be good. Why? Because, after all the smoke and mirrors are taken away, and all the “fans” defending Gary in the hopes of getting on his good side so that they might elevate them to GARY-STATUS have left the building, after all the “CRUSH IT” bull has been cleared away. What Gary does well, why he has what he has… his knowledge, and love of wine, and his ability to transmit that love to others… this is what matters… And maybe even *that* was smoke and mirrors…. We shall see.

GV said he was sick. How about us wishing him well. For four years he brought the thunder. I’ve commented on all the YES people here that think he can do do wrong. I see i was mistaken, so many upset and bitching because he is not here.

GV get well. I know you will bring the thunder.

Really? I just searched every one of his hundreds of tweets from this past week (9/18-9/24) and he never mentioned the word sick once. No doubt he has brought thunder the past 4 years, all I’m saying is if you look at the frequency of episodes from 3-4 years ago or even the beginning of 2010 vs the past 2-3 months, there’s been a drastic decrease and you can’t bring thunder to tv.winelibrary.com without the Thunder Show.

Puzzled by all the rampant hate. Relax, as the free, entertaining, educational program you have enjoyed basically constantly for 4 years will be back soon… or it won’t. In latter case, you didn’t lose anything, you aren’t paying for this; yeah I’d like to see a new show, but I’m not getting bent out of shape if it doesn’t happen every day.