Upfront 08

Many folks were slagging on NBC Universal’s upfront “Experience” because it sounded like a mixture between a carnival fun house and the King Kong ride at Universal.

Unfortunately, visitors were not treated to an animatronic David Sarnoff. We did get an animatronic Janice Dickinson, which was nice.

Before the event, NBC queued everyone up outside like a line waiting for a roller coaster. I was hoping for Top Thrill Dragster or at least the Gemini XL at the end of the line. But there wasn’t a funnel cake or large costumed mascot in sight.

Once inside, NBC had taken nearly every bulb GE had created within the last 15 months and jammed them into one single room and somehow managed to get them to flash independently from one another. My left side was temporarily numb during the first part of the tour, and I couldn’t aim my camera properly.

The Experience displayed different parts of the NBC Universal family, each at its own booth.

Here we had Telemundo

Dwight Schrute’s desk

And Chris Matthews hosting some form of “Hardball” from the event.

I’m being told that the animatronic Janice Dickinson I saw at the event was the real deal. I apologize for the error, but you can understand my confusion.

Finally, Conan O’Brien offered some words about his 2009 move to Jay Leno’s desk, and then turned the stage over to Jeff Zucker, to which…

...if you notice the clearing in front of me, a good chunk of the crowd headed back inside toward the bar.