Channel Awesome
The Lost Episode of Demo Reel from the Best of TGWTG Volume 4.
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I still don’t think Demo Reel was bad.
I too enjoyed DR and wish this episode would have gone up when the series was still airing.
It wasn’t. It’s just that losing the Nostalgia Critic left a really large gap, and Demo Reel was not big enough to fill it.
Maybe if the two shows co-existed people would see things differently.
At least DR was kinda merged with NC, so we didn’t lose it completely, sorta.
I know there’s not much discussion to expect, but you could’ve at least uploaded the video before archiving the entire Demo Reel subsection of the forums when the TGWTG-to-Channel Awesome transition happened
I liked this episode and have always wondered why it never aired alongside the others. Not all of us have the TGWTG DVDs (I own Kickassia, SK, and TBF only).
Was it not in a completed state at the time?
http://channelawesome.com/where-the-hell-is-demo-reel/
It addressed none of the complaints people had and did not fit in with the new direction they were going in. Whoever was complaining was a very vocal minority that never gave the show a chance because they couldn’t accept NC gone. Shows change after their pilot. Look at The Office and Parks and Rec
Oh wow, I lietrally forgot about this.
I haven’t seen Demo Reel since it ended, but it does remind me of how sad it must have been for Doug that it didn’t take off the way he wanted it to.
Look up “Where the Hell is Demo Reel?”. Doug explains the episode addressed none of the complaints people had and did not fit in with the new direction they were going in. Whoever was complaining was a very vocal minority that never gave the show a chance because they couldn’t accept NC gone. Shows change after their pilot. Look at The Office and Parks and Rec
Hate to bother you with reality, but it was the other way around. You, the ones who liked Demo Reel, is the minority.
I never got into Demo Reel. I wanted to like it, I really did.
Yeah, no. I can only sit through like half an episode of this before I click away, it failed entirely on its own (de)merits, not just because it was ‘replacing’ the nostalgia critic.
Then let it be the 2ed half. That’s where all the best jokes are.
I loved Demo Reel so much! Was so sad when they killed off the show. This wasn’t one of their better episodes though.
My only complaint with Demo Reel is that it was boring. Although, for this Malcolm as Oprah made me laugh pretty hard. Megan Fox’s character never slept around in Transformers… she just wore short shorts. Am I missing something? Also, why is Malcolm’s character named after the worst city in America?
When he brought out the Transformers toys that woudn’t transform, I could see Phelous “Bootleg Zones” cameo beign slipped in there.
The “Megatron wants your weed” skit was a hoot.
I’m glad to see Doug being a bit more open about demo reel. Maybe he’ll always make jokes dismissing it, but I’m glad to see he’s not straight up embarrassed about it or just trying to deny it outright. I love NC and I’m not sure how I would deal with it being gone, but at the same time I wish the reception had been better and if Doug had persevered through the criticism he could’ve transcended his Dave Grohl from Nirvana role and become a respectable Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters. But I’m sure such harsh criticism wasn’t that easy to swallow.
Happy to see this show/format was cut. It’s not unwatchable by any stretch of the imagination but it’s FAR less entertaining than the older or newer NC video formats.
Damn, I adored Rob in this. Carl and Quinn were freaking hilarious.
Malcolm makes one adorable and funny Oprah.
I think I said this on the old site, but since that’s gone, I guess it bears repeating. I liked Demo Reel. And I know I was probably in the minority. Was I sad and surprised when the NC was ending? Yes. I was curious too about what was next. I watched Demo Reel, and I liked it.
It was funny, and not only was it funny, but the characters were fleshed out. I felt for them, I empathized with them and smiled when they were happy. And I also loved The Review Must Go On. That scene near the end were the cast of Demo Reel waves at Donnie, and Karl salutes, before they fade away, that made me honestly, genuinely sad. I really felt the emotional attachment between the characters.
And I was happy that Malcom and Rachel stayed on for the new NC. If they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have seemed fair. I mean hiring them for this new project and then leaving them unemployed. Besides, having other actors allowed for different, more elaborate skits. And I like the new NC. I don’t watch EVERYTHING, but I like the show.
Okay, with that out of the way, I liked this too. Although I am confused about a few things. That “I’m going to be elected queen in a galaxy far far away” thing, was that a reference that I just don’t get?
Also, I’m confused as to why this is here when it was exclusive to the DVD. And wasn’t the more recently posted VGC stuff and Rachel and Malcom’s auditions also on DVD only before? Not that I’m complaining, just confused.
“That I’m going to be elected queen in a galaxy far far away thing, was that a reference that I just don’t get?”.
Indeed it was. They were spoofing the The Professional in that scene. The Professional(1994) starred Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and….a young Natalie Portmen.
Natalie Portman was Queen Amidala in the Star Wars prequels.
Ah. That explains it. Thank you very much Grave02.
I really miss Demo Reel. I was so upset when it got cancelled, and not just cancelled, wiped out of continuity and obliterated to satisfy some angry fans.
Like, Doug had been wanting to do this show for years. He sent the NC off in a really nice way, after a build-up of months, hired actors, and bought a studio. And week after week there were people in the comments going “I’m not even watching this episode and I’m giving it a one star review. Bring back the Critic!” refusing to accept that he was trying to move on as a creative type and work on a show that was more dramedy than pure comedy.
I just find that really sad, to be honest, that this guy tried to move on and work on his dream project, and a portion of his fanbase yanked him back down to doing the same shtick he’s been doing for 6 years now.
I really miss Demo Reel too!!
Loved the show, the cast was great and endearing, skits were funny, and Rob Walker was the best i’d ever seen him. Actually, i didn’t even know who Rob Walker was until Demo Reel.
Sadly, it didn’t generate the attention, AKA: Ad revenue $$$ that they were hoping for. The thing is…. it was still a fairly new show by the time it was discontinued!! I really think NC & crew should have stuck with it longer. Every new show needs time to build momentum and grow with viewers. It seems they just didn’t give Demo Reel a chance.
Lastly, i love Doug and the Nostalgia Critic but, i feel its worth pointing out that the Critic has bashed the film-making industry for being too afraid to try something new. Out of fear that it won’t pay off. Instead, preferring to stay the course.
And yet….Doug & co did the EXACT. SAME. THING. When Demo Reel didn’t see the same numbers after a mere 6 or so episodes, they killed it, and ran back to the “Safe option”….and brought back NC. Pitiful. Just pitiful.
At least the new run Nostalgia Critic episodes have been pretty awesome! So there’s the silver lining there. Also i love how the ‘team’ cast dynamic was brought over.
R.I.P Demo Reel! 🙁
I mean, it’s a business. If it’s not making enough money, you gotta make the business decision. I don’t blame them for going back to the “safe option” of the NC. They have to pay rent and buy food, this is a job for them, they have families, I wouldn’t call it “pitiful” to be responsible adults when faced with an expensive show that wasn’t breaking even. I think it’s no coincidence that the decision to cancel Demo Reel came right around tax season. I just don’t understand why they didn’t plan ahead to give Demo Reel time to grow a fanbase to equal the NC’s fanbase. It took Doug years to get his fanbase established, it was gonna take a little while to build that up again with a new show and a new style, even if the idea was for NC fans to crossover to watching Demo Reel.
Maybe it would have helped to start Demo Reel at the same time as the NC was starting to wind down, slowly get people used to Demo Reel episodes, build it up from there over a period of a year or six months, listen to fan input and make changes according to reactions other than “this sucks I hate it,” and then by the time the NC was sent off in TBF, Demo Reel would have been established and a financially viable option.
While you could say the Demo Reel characters were taken out of continuity, I like to think that maybe they found their way BACK to continuity in the form of Malcom and Rachel (as in the characters the NC character hired). Like I imagine the NC wanted to hire people because he felt lonely and awkward doing this all by himself again, and then he spots two people that look just like his friends. Like the Demo Reel characters got reincarnated or something.
And anyway, like was said in The Review Must Go On, the Demo Reel characters still live on in the NC’s (and our) hearts. 🙂
Yeah, I know that was sort of sappy. But I loved that ending scene from The Review Must Go On!
Yay! Demo Reel! My favorite was the Lost In Translation one.
I would wouldn’t mind seeing 2 or 3 of these a year. OMG, the new Star Wars is coming and imagine all the Avengers stuff that’s already come out and The Hobbit.
Hey, look at that. Spell check knows what a hobbit is. Two b’s, not one. Kind of Shakespearian.
It was nice seeing this… but it did remind me why I disliked the show. It was just too jarring – you have the sweded movie mockeries, you had a sort of a sitcom-y interludes, you had some sort of character developments… and it all fit together like melted legos. If Donnie was so incompetent, why were his versions of movies so overwhelmingly sarcastic? If we were supposed to accept these characters as three-dimensional, why were they such caricatures half the time? It was like Doug wanted to have his cake, eat it AND bathe in it.
Anyway, even though I prefer the “oldtime” NC without sketches and whatnot to the modern one, I still think the “new” NC works much much better than the Demo Reel concept. It’s much easier to accept NC as an actual character who decides to emphasize the movie’s flaws through sketches, than to accept Donnie as a character who somehow completely switches personalities as soon as cameras start rolling.
I miss demo reel. I know I am in the majority in this opinion but I always found it amusing.