It’s time to send ‘An Idiot Abroad’

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

March 17, 2011

Here we are on spring break and landlocked by the cost and logistics of travel with so large a family, hobbled by gas prices that seem to know no ceiling.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about travel. I always do at this time of year when the kids are out of school and with summer vacation looming.

It’s an activity that has eluded this family as, over the years, we’ve accumulated people rather than frequent flyer miles.

The farthest I’ve managed to travel lately has been a journey up the remote to the farthest reaches of cable television where I found a reality travel program called “An Idiot Abroad,” obviously misplaced and lost on the dial in the strange environs of the Science Channel.

There is no science whatsoever to the show. The premise: Comedian Ricky Gervais and writing partner Stephen Merchant, the duo that exported the sitcom “The Office” from Great Britain, send their friend, the hapless and melon-headed Karl Pilkington, to the farthest reaches of the Earth to visit the Seven Wonders of the World … (read more)