Three Sheets: A Show Worth Saving

I just finished watching a review copy of "The Second Annual Three Sheets New Year's Eve Pub Crawl from London" with comedian/drinker Zane Lamprey and have come to the conclusion that Three Sheets has to be saved.

Three Sheets ran for three seasons on a network called MoJo HD, which could be seen by a few lucky digital cable subscribers adventurous enough to surf beyond the traditional networks. MoJo shut down in early December, but still exists online. If you want to catch the London New Year's show, you need to visit www.mojohd.com. The show will start streaming on Jan. 1st at midnight eastern time and be available on the site for a month, so you don't have to interrupt your party tonight to watch the 45 minute episode. It is worth the time as Lamprey covers everything from what goes into making Beefeater Gin to the magic of craft cider. Pints of real ale, shots of Bourbon, glasses of Tequila, cocktails using Scotch, various shooters with vodka and aquavit, and assorted other libations are also consumed. Lamprey's liver should get a bonus for this episode.

You may recall MoJo also ran a show called Beer Nutz. For everything that was wrong with Beer Nutz (just how many times can you appear amazed by the basics of brewing beer?), Three Sheets manages to hit its marks. The host is entertaining. The show travels to exotic locations. You get introduced to fun places to drink. And, most of all, you learn about rare drinks and drinking customs from locals.

Three Sheets has made it to about 50 places so far where drinking is a serious sport, from Bavaria to Brazil. Lamprey does not take himself at all seriously, but still gets across a steady flow of information while managing to get buzzed. It's sort of like a drunken Rick Steves travelogue. Some of the humor might be considered frat house style, but not everyone with a glass in their hand approaches the topic of alcohol with the professionalism of a Jancis Robinson.

With MoJo off the air, Three Sheets needs to find a home for its fourth season, which just finished filming in Tahiti, Tanzania, Tuscany, New Zealand, Newcastle, Iceland, Poland, Lithuania and Namibia. With the flood of "reality" television garbage out there -- do we really need another "Real Housewives" show? -- Three Sheets offers up some much needed surreality.

"The networks need to stop looking at Three Sheets at face value. It's not just a show about a guy who travels around the world and drinks," Lamprey is quoted as saying in a press release promoting marches held earlier in December in Los Angeles and New York to catch the attention of a new network. "It's more than that... I also eat. We're going to show the TV execs that this tried and proven show has a bevy of the world's most loyal, dedicated and endearing fans."

Pass the snake wine and here's to Three Sheets finding a new home in 2009!