For the record, I was rooting for Into the Unknown. I may have said some negative things about it in the past, predicted failure and all that...but deep down, I was really hoping Noory and team would really hit this one out of the park. But as soon as the program began, its outcome seemed apparent: A swing and a miss.

As I sat there watching the show, I felt many things. Chief among them was embarrassment. I was embarrassed for George, for the guests, for Coast to Coast; heck, I was embarrassed just to be associated with it. Not in a long time have I felt so uncomfortable watching a television show as I did that night.

So what was so bad about Into the Unknown? Well, allow me to start with what was good about it. Which is to say, not much.

George's suit. There, I've done it. Trying as hard as I could, George's outfit was the show's only redeeming quality that I could think of. What can I say? The guy's a snappy dresser. But wardrobe aside, Into the Unknown managed only to deliver, at best, mediocrity on all fronts.

For this review, I'm going to break down the pilot episode in terms of production value, editing, and the interviews and guests.

First off, the production value looked to be somewhere between infomercial and cable access programming. Everything from the bare-bones set to the corny title effects just screamed low budget. Camera quality and lighting were at least passable, but I couldn't help but feel that I was watching something from 20+ years ago.

What jumped out to me as particularly uninspired was the opening piece about 'News from the Unknown'. For one thing, I found it funny that the 'news' stories were all months old, as the pilot was shot some time ago. But also, there was no exposition or background provided for them. For a dedicated Coast to Coast listener and paranormal enthusiast like myself, I was already aware of them, but for the less informed viewers, the segment seemed an odd choice to keep in. Moreover, the stock video footage was none too impressive.

Which brings me to my next gripe about the show--editing. I can only assume this was meant to be an hour long program. It was just too painfully obvious that a lot was cut from the various segments for it to have been designed to be a 30 minute show. I will cover it a later in greater detail, but the Gary Busey interview, for instance, felt extremely rushed and appeared to have been chopped in several spots. It's a mystery to me then, considering the time restraints they were under, that so much time was wasted on filler pieces like the opening news segment and cheesy 'ask the public' bits before commercial breaks.

What bugged me the most about the poor editing was the obvious voice-overs. For example, when George took a question from the audience, he mentioned an anonymous fan who "just emailed" them a question regarding EVPs. But before George can simply ask it to guest Joshua P. Warren, they throw in a quick picture of the ghost investigators previously mentioned in the show (as if we've already forgotten) with a voice-over reminding us about them. Amateur. That's what it was. Whoever was in charge of editing this show either 1) had very little to work with; or 2) didn't have much experience.

I'm inclined to believe the former played a big part in the show's lack of success. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against Joshua Warren or Gary Busey--as both have made for great radio interviews--but neither brought anything new or interesting to the table.

First, Warren's 'paranormal PC' wins the dubious award for most under-utilized set-piece of all time. This was a television show, not radio...give our eyes something interesting to look at. They obviously spent a lot of time setting the thing up, but all we got were a few brief glimpses of an Excel worksheet and an iTunes Quick Launch icon. And I swear, I nearly turned the show off when Joshua performed the magnetism experiment and made that oh so un-funny masturbation joke--to which George could only say, "Oh, I like that."

Unfortunately the Busey interview wasn't much better. He's obviously pretty deranged. And not just in a goofy, ha-ha kind of way, either. From the looks of it, Gary Busey has some major psychological problems. Yeah, it was funny to watch, but boy did it ruin any kind of credibility that the show may have had. But you know what? Let me take that back. There really wasn't any credibility left at that point.

The quick shots of the audience members talking amongst themselves? Terrible. Gary Busey giving his ghost impression? Holy crap. That poll question and asking random people on the street? Kill me now. George says they've got a second episode about UFOs ready to go...Here's hoping everyone involved comes to their senses and chooses not to air it.

Rating: 5.0 / 10.