TV Review: American Inventor - Pimp My Pride
Published March 18, 2006
Ten Big Design Flaws on American Inventor
1. All that tedious backgrounding - sheesh! The audience doesn't care about the judges' qualifications. Trust me. We have short attention spans. We've only tuned in to see the wackos.
2. Mind-numbing overuse of the word "dream".
3. The underlying structure of the show itself. On American Idol, when someone sings, it's a unique event. And not always in a good way. But the same contestant can sing again later, and they might improve, or they might struggle with, oh, say remembering the words to a Stevie Wonder song. Each time their performance will be a little different — as it will whether they sing, dance, skate, design clothing, or model. (Not that I've watched the relevant reality shows where those things have taken place. Well, not much. Okay, I've seen all of them.)
However, when someone reveals an invention... they reveal it. They pull the sheet off, and you see it, and you go 'ah, that's clever... yeah, great'. Ummm... (insert sound of crickets chirping...)
Since seeing the invention blows the suspense, last night's two-hour American Inventor premiere used a lot of the following instead:
a) shots of city skylines;
b) shots of clouds going past city skylines;
c) shots of line-ups of would-be inventors;
d) sound bites of people talking about their dreams;
e) discussion of the greatness of America and the American dream;
f) montage sequences of people coming out of the judging room;
g) did I mention dreams?
4. Judge Mary Lou Quinlan (I had to look up her name) wore that cobalt blue that all redheads have been told really lifts their complexions and makes their eyes pop. That wasn't a flaw per se, I just thought I'd point it out. What was annoying was how she seemed constantly on the verge of tears.
- TV Review: American Inventor - Pimp My Pride
- Published: March 18, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Culture: Society, Video: Reality TV, Video: Television
- Writer: teletart
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Comments on this articleComments
I agree completely. The whole emotional angle of this show was TERRIBLE. My god, that female judge must have broken down 10 times. Look, if someone was dumb enough to sell their house to appear on a reality show, they get what they deserve. There was nowhere near enough footage of the inventions or the usual human stupidity that makes these shows entertaining.
This is a beautiful article. We'd love to publish it in our magazine. I somehow knew the show would be a bust.... It's a shame as inventors deserve a form or recognition. It's further a shame that American Inventor took the position to simply provide a forum to embarrass inventors.
The producers of this show have hit a new low in trying to get an audience that will watch this feeble attempt to get ratings and have a hit series.
The show was not entertaining, educational or even
remotely similar to what they have been advertising. It was mostly embarrassing for every one involved.
They didn't even bother to qualifiy any of the inventions to see if they had already been patented. By doing a simple 10 minute computer search - for the ideas they accepted to go on to the next level, they could have qualified ideas that can be patented.
Every one of the accepted ideas have already been marketed at one time or another (maybe with some slight differences).
The panel of judges would be a fine addition to help any of the good ideas and inventors that made it to the next level, but the show needs qualified people to judge the actual inventions if they are to have a chance to get to market.
The show concept itself is a wonderful idea and with the world growth of intellectual property its' time has come.
I am a successful inventor,patent holder and patent author and I know how tough it is to get a product to market. This show could be a great venue for new inventors and it could have a huge loyal audience with spin off shows. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to make the proper changes to make this a hit show (for everybody).
The judges put through to the next round a one-hit wonder singing duo, whom discovered the spittoon makes a great device for disposing of pits. What else needs to be said about this show?
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