RIP: Pepper and Friends

Longtime COMO favorite Pepper & Friends was recently canceled from KOMU's lineup. The last show will be in September. The show was a longtime favorite of COMO-ians. It featured interviews and stories concerning Mid-MO residents. It was as localized as our university-run NBC affiliate ever got. The show was a COMO institution.

That said, I'm not going to miss it. I watched Pepper & Friends a couple of times when we first moved here and was not impressed. Sure, it was nice that local performers or members of the community received their time in the limelight, but isn't that the purpose of public access? The world doesn't need more second-rate daytime television. Go tell your story on public access or YouTube.

We had reports like Pepper & Friends in Columbus. Of course, they were limited to 2-minute segments. You know, the kind where the zany reporter competes in a hotdog eating contest or falls down as he tries to ski and give his monologue at the same time. They're stories. It's not news.

Apparently, I'm in the minority on this one. Tens of people showed up the other day at KOMU studios to protest the cancellation of their beloved TV show. Folks will miss Pepper & Friends. There's also been petitions, calls to the university administration, and a formal complaint filed with the FCC. People want their Pepper.

Of course, none of this will matter. Pepper & Friends will be gone come some time in the middle of September. The ratings weren't there to support the cost of the show. There's nothing that can be done about this. I look for someone to pick up the slack on public access or on the city's channel.

So, rest in peace Pepper & Friends. Somebody will miss you. It won't be me.

For more information on the cancellation of Pepper & Friends, go here and here. For Pepper & Friends On Demand, go here. For an impassioned letter to the editor at The Missourian, go here. And for KBIA's take, click here.