Some of the former "content producers" and one of the ex-staff began communicating on Twitter mid-March; by early April all the Tweets had been converted into a Google Docs document (titled "Not so Awesome") that is now 73 pages long. Because reading that can be murder to some people, they also have a 6-page "guide" version that runs through all the major complaints. Much of it has to do with Mike Michaud, who would only talk on Skype once a week to the reviewers/content producers early on, found even that minimal contact annoying, and shuffled that duty off on his brother Greg (who scheduled all the releases on the site using an Icki Sports "Joomla" event scheduler from 2009) and then Rob Walker (who also hated producers, and called them children behind their backs.) This contempt also fell on the fanbase, as related in the related "fan document" which was removed from Google Docs but uploaded to the Internet Archive:
Alan P.: I remember meeting Doug and Rob outside at Anime Nebraskon 2015. They were alone and both on their phones. I had brought my Suburban Knights DVD for CA crew to sign and had a bunch of autographs on the case. I nervously went up to them to get them to sign and say hi, and at first they didn't notice me because I was so shy and quiet. I said hello a little louder, and Doug looked up while Rob still was still texting. Doug smiled and asked what he could do for me, and I said "Hi, been a fan since 2008, can you guys sign my DVD?" Doug said sure, signed it and handed it back. I asked Rob to sign it, and he looked up, said "What's up..." I said "Hi, big fan, could you please sign my DVD?" and he simply replied, "No." Doug looked at Rob and said something like "Aww, come on, man..." And Rob literally looked at Doug and said "Fuck off." Doug apologetically said to me, "Sorry man, you should probably go now." My experience with Doug was fairly positive but Rob was an asshat indeed. Never told that story online till now, pretty disheartening.
Brent: I was once asked to leave one of Doug’s panels because he was filming the audience for a segment in a review. I was told I wasn’t being animated enough and I looked out of place. I didn’t understand what they meant, but they asked a cosplayer from the hall outside to be a seat filler as I was escorted to the back wall.
Baggagelizard: I went to MomoCon in May 2015. Coincidentally, Doug Walker was going to be there. I was concerned about the lack of information concerning Pop Quiz Hotshot, so I made it a point to ask Doug if I saw him. I did not back the Indiegogo, but I was concerned about the lack of information coming from Channel Awesome and figured that I could at least try.
The night before the con started, they had opened up the floor that had many video games to play. I decided to check it out. After some time, I noticed some commotion coming from the entrance. It was Doug Walker, being led around by some convention staff. As he was strangely marvelling [at] some DDR [Dance Dance Revolution] pads on the floor, I nervously tried to get his attention.
It wasn't nervous out of fandom, I had not been supportive of their practices for 2 years or so at that point, but sometimes you're just nervous. I introduced myself to him, while he stared at me with glassy eyes and smiled in a way that felt both empty and sincere.
I then asked him what I was there to ask him about. Pop Quiz Hotshot. The pilot had been aired on March 31st of that year, and calling it a disaster could be considered an understatement. I asked him when the next episode was going to come out.
"Hello Mr. Walker. I'd like to ask you about the gameshow." He didn't really understand. I had to ask again, much more specifically about Pop Quiz Hotshot, that it may have not been received all that well, and what they were going to do with it. He thought for a second, then told me with a bold, calming tone that they had received the fan feedback and decided to retool the show. Filming was set to begin in mid-June. There was no sense of apology or sincerity in his voice.
I thanked him, and decided to hand him a "Hagan Dollar" [reference to Diamanda Hagan, a CA producer], a gag prize he handed out at the convention last year. My brother had won some, as he went to the panel, and so I found the absurdity of giving Doug the 'dollar' too great, and I did so. He seemed genuinely thankful for that present, and hobbled away.
This, by the way, is Pop Quiz Hotshot, a failed attempt at doing a quiz show in a warehouse with no sound dampening somewhere in the greater Chicago area:
Obviously we have no proof any of those fan interactions happened, but the ones I picked seem to fit how the Walkers were reported to act when the cameras weren't running. And the worst of it with Mike Michaud is that he both allegedly owns the "intellectual property" rights to the Nostalgia Critic character, and he wasn't even a former work associate - Mike Ellis and "Bargo" Dronamraju recommended him. And mentioning Mike Ellis brings us to the reason why "#ChangeTheChannel" hasn't faded away.
Yes, there is a Creepy Sexual Undercurrent™ in this.
So far we only have a few claims - we are expecting a lot more as time goes on. The least-greasy one was Ellis hitting on Sean Fausz on Skype where he kept making advances while Fausz typed nothing back:
....However, one night in particular after a [phone bridge ]call, Ellis kept messaging me afterwards on Skype. This wasn't unusual, we'd usually just BS about stuff, however he was supposedly intoxicated. I say supposedly because that's the excuse I heard later, but he was typing very coherently, not one misspelled word during our conversation.
What started as a simple enough conversation quickly became a very... uncomfortable. He kept asking more personal and personal details, eventually going full in to "I heard from a little birdie that you were gay" "Oh I heard you were at least Bi" "Oh so you're just curious about guys then". Really, really pushing as if he was fishing for something, maybe he was desperate?
This conversation quickly turned very one sided and even more uncomfortable as he would went on telling me all the things he wanted to do to me, the things he wanted me to do to him, Just give him a shot, he said.
This went on for 2 hours. For these 2 hours, I typed not one word to him, but he had this entire conversation with himself, and multiple times tried the whole "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you off" tactic on me, as if it was going to make things better.
I showed this conversation log to two people. I believe I showed part of it to Rollo T, because I was freaked the fuck out and he was the guy I trusted the most, and I remember him being completely blown away. The other person I showed, was Michaud.
I messaged Michaud, telling him "Look what this guy is doing, I'm super freaked out" and keep in mind I believe this was just before the anniversary brawl. The only thing I ever heard from Michaud was "Damn it, I told him he couldn't be doing this shit. I'll take care of it." And then it was never spoken of again. I never heard from Ellis again and I have 0 idea if that was part of the reason he was fired from the company or not.
Weirdly enough, the "Seinfeld" hatred that I sometimes joke about actually has to do with this story. Two of the things Ellis said to me during that have stuck in my head, because of how pathetic and how fucking weird it was.
1) He kept calling me his sexual cupcake. What the fuck is that?
2) After those hours of him talking to himself, he finally gave up talking to me. But he did make one last ditch effort to hit on me. And it by far, was the worst pick up line I've ever been given.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Hey Sean."
"Hey Cupcake."
"Do you like Seinfeld?"
No. No I do not.
The other situation was/is Justin Carmical (1971-2014), a video-game reviewer who spoke Japanese and reviewed Nintendo Famicom games and did a lot of crossover videos with other reviewers. Carmical committed suicide by pistol in a locked bathroom with his wife listening in utter horror. The response by other CA reviewers was to put Carmical on a pedestal; his signature Wario hat was turned into a totem item on many a reviewer's set (bookcases and chairs are common.) That period has been shattered thanks to the "Not so Awesome" document:
Justin's name was accidentally outed by Channel Awesome themselves in their pompous response. The response online was a string of Tweets and YouTube videos. Kaylyn "Marzgurl" Saucedo had to make a video explaining that she would keep on YouTube a three-year-old film she was working on with Carmical that she spent six months rewriting, reshooting, and completing after his death, and that she was doing this for all the people who worked on the film:
Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson, who both had known Carmical professionally, discussing the sort of things he did at conventions, how there may be more victims out there and how everybody feels deeply disappointed or sickened:
A finale?
The only contributor left at this point is Brad "The Cinema Snob" Jones, possibly because he has a rumored contract with Channel Awesome....probably the warehouse will be dumped when the lease ends, and Doug will either go back to filming reviews in his house or ditch reviewing for some other sort of work. His hacky dreams are done.
Below: All the complaints from the condensed document:
2019 update: Despite predictions, Channel Awesome is still rumbling along at the same location. "Guru Larry" Bundy, Jr. stayed with the company alongside Brad Jones, making him the only European still involved, and also the only person outside of Illinois on the Channel Awesome site.
These rumors or theories just keep coming. What makes you say it’s the end of the warehouse they filmed at?
ReplyDeleteWell, the claim is that space is mostly not soundproofed. if you watch the Nostalgia Critic videos, he mostly uses the small office area in the front for sound control. Doug by himself was using a room in a house for his videos before the warehouse became a thing. If he can't find people willing to use the space, then the expense will be cut.
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