It was not as bad as the article implies. I was there. I just did not make good TV. At one point in the first game Lassiter is about to win the game and he stops and looks over at Miz and says, " Looks like I am going to beat the young whipper snapper".You wouldn't love it if you had seen it. It was so bad it just about doomed any future for televised Straight Pool in TV executives' collective minds as well as product sponsors (and dented that discipline (which I love) in the viewing public's mind as well).
ABC had to film it for 4 hours. The 18 minutes of safety play had people switching to other channels. Here's a good report on the whole sad affair:
http://www.billiardsdigest.com/current_issue/aug_05/story_5.php
Sure wish it had transpired otherwise. I watched it live and there were plenty of cringe-worthy moments.
Arnaldo
After he pockets the game ball Miz jumps up and says, "Well, you are going to have to do it again". The audience loved it. One thing I am sure did not go over well with the TV people was, Lassiter was on a run of about 80 balls.
He has a perfect break shot and for some reason he aims at it for the longest time, then gets up and lays his cue on the table and says he is taking a break and leaves. Here is the strangest part.
When he comes back he gets down on the shot, a very easy side of the rack break shot and misses it. After all this time he misses it. It was inexplicable.
Also I should add, If you look closely at the picture, maybe blow it up. You can clearly see the red ferrule on Lassiters cue we were talking about a few week ago.