DBD:
This is it - the episode that hooked me on ROX.
Home on medical leave for three weeks nursing a bad, bad, bleeding ulcer I was left with little else to do but surf the Internet. While searching for “ROCK” groups on Yahoo, I misspelled the word and typed “ROX” instead. To my surprise there was a listing for ROX, which led me to the original www.rox.com/quarry site.
The site was bold and brash. The stills and colors grabbing and the whole thing reeked of remorseless attitude. This was the place for me. And what a cast of characters - a bartender, an editor, a tour guide and a anarchistic clown. Who would've thought! But what really caught my attention were the video clips that were offered up. Now please remember this is August 1995 and streaming video over the Internet was just in its infancy. Nobody was doing it - not even the big guys.
I waited almost two hours to download all the segments of “Global Village Idiots” on a 14.4 modem. When the first clip played and J introduced himself I was hooked. This was what I had been waiting for - television with smarts and an attitude. Over the next 30 minutes I would forget about the burning pain in my gut and laughed and cheered for some of the best television I have ever seen.
A month later I ordered my own VHS copy of “Global Village Idiots” and consider it today as one of my prized possessions. As more episodes became available on Freespeech.org I watched as the ROX video troupe skewered and sliced everything scared. I've never laughed and cheered so much. When ROX disappeared from Freespeech.org I was heart broken. It seemed as one of the brightest lights of the 90's had been snuffed out.
Eight years later while nursing a bad, bad, divorce I decided to do a Goggle search for ROX. To my surprise there it was, “ROX - The Worlds Most Independent Television Series.” I couldn't believe it. One click and I was transported to the new and improved web site for ROX. It was immense. Stills, commentaries, biographies, production notes, reviews, more than I could have ever expected. But, what blew me away were the three new episodes of ROX. There they were J& B once again taking aim at the hypocrisy and lies and skewering and slicing them with bravado. The rest they say is history. I was hooked all over again.
As someone who once worked for a major television network and who directed and produced network television I can say ROX is a brilliant and refreshing change from all the staid normalcy. If anything, ROX IS the ultimate manifestation of the democratization of television. Something J&B have probably known all along.
