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T.V and the real deal hotrod builder

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by JimSibley, Sep 17, 2007.

  1. JimSibley
    Joined: Jan 21, 2004
    Posts: 3,848

    JimSibley
    Member

    There have been a lot of "reality" shows on the art of car customization. Everything from cheesey gameshow style build offs, to over priced Auctions showcasing the gloutinous extreme of the goldchainers. I myself have spent a few hours watching the "soap operas" that center around this hobby we all love. In the past there have been a few movies which really captured what its all about. In my opinion hollywood has missed the mark everytime it has tried to harness the hotrodding beast and wrestle it into a weekly form of entertainment.
    With such a vast range of intellegent builders and visionaries that we have on the H.A.M.B, I am purposing we rack our brains and come up with an outline of what we, the true grass roots builders feel would make a good representation of hotrodding for the masses to view maybe even give a glance at the desturbing magic that keeps us in the shop way to late and takes our last dime to purchase a rusty old carburator that probably wont work anyway.
    Who knows maybe one of the big shots on here might even run with it and we could waste a little more time watchin the tube instead of building our cars.
     
  2. FiddyFour
    Joined: Dec 31, 2004
    Posts: 9,024

    FiddyFour
    Member

    tall order for sure... if you'd ask 10 guys the question "whats rodding all about" you'd get 10 different answers... american hotrod was a show that catered to the 'chainer croud, and filled that nitch well. evel's mad fab points its camera at more of the regular kinda joe rodder... like i say, its a hard show to build.

    my $.02?

    one hour show weekly... shoot a third of it in some regular schmucks garage, shoot another third at some local hangouts near that dudes place and the last third, hell i dunno... tech? pro builders shop? show coverage?

    hell, bring reality back to reality shows
     
  3. wvenfield
    Joined: Nov 23, 2006
    Posts: 5,580

    wvenfield
    Member

  4. ShakeyPuddin55
    Joined: Dec 22, 2004
    Posts: 1,906

    ShakeyPuddin55
    Member

    We all know how popular spin off shows are. Happy Days spun Laverne & Shirley, Joanie Loves Chaci, etc.

    I think TLC should offer a deal to the star of Hard Shine..... our very own Littleman. I'd tune in every week to watch him build hot rods in his garage in Ohio.
     

  5. Exactly; the majority of T.V. viewers would be bored with what real hot rodders do. They want the fake drama, they want a soap opera. If you glance at the "T.V. Show" threads that always seem to pop up here, the majority of the folks who comment tend to be the same people who comment on other off-topic stuff, and are not heavily into builing cars.
     
  6. strike a poser
    Joined: May 23, 2007
    Posts: 399

    strike a poser
    Member
    from Salinas,CA

    The only show I've ever watched that was close was the episode of Rides on the Burbank Choppers. It had a good mix of mainstream entertainment and hot rod interest.
     
  7. denis4x4
    Joined: Apr 23, 2005
    Posts: 4,198

    denis4x4
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Colorado

    Don't waste your time unless you have, say, $10,000,000 worth of signed advertising contracts for openers. Drama begets viewers, viewers turn into buyers and then the sponsors are happy!
     
  8. Von Rigg Fink
    Joined: Jun 11, 2007
    Posts: 13,418

    Von Rigg Fink
    Member
    from Garage

    dont do another reality show..shit go live reality..i cant watch that crap..unless i want a real good laugh..at their expense..I have decided to live life rather than watch what someone says is reality
     
  9. Most, if not all of these supposed car shows are aimed at NON car guys. Like was stated above, more "drama" than actual building. Who's getting fired? Who's dog swallowed a marble? Etc. They are painful at best to watch. Street racing was a huge part of my life 25-30 yrs ago. So don't even get me started on the show Pinks. The negotiations on that show are fucking embarassing!
     
  10. Yeah no shit,like I'm gonna race you for pinks and give you a head start:rolleyes: F that.
     
  11. Here's a number to keep in mind: 175,000. That's the number of TV sets that need to be tuned to a national TV show or cable "daypart" for Nielsen to consider it reportable. Each Nielsen family represents approximately 25,000 US households, and the cutoff for reportability is 7 or 8 Nielsen metered TV sets. If it drops below that, it's considered random error. If you want to put on a show, you better be confident it will attract this many viewers. If it doesn't, it's virtual impossible to sell ad time it to national ad buyers, and it will almost certainly be cancelled.

    Call me cynical, but I am highly dubious that a straight, drama-free hot rod building show has enough broad appeal to attract a sustainable audience. Even if you got 100% of every registered HAMB user to tune in every week, you wouldn't be 20% of the way to the number you'd need. Put another way: Rod and Custom has a circulation of 120,000 (and a claimed readership of a little over 1,000,000) and you'd have to have a HUGE chunk of that to even create what advertisers consider a viable vehicle.
     
  12. The H.A.M.B. has it all! The building, the tin hunting, the drama, the humour. Without the advertising.
     
  13. Evel
    Joined: Jun 25, 2002
    Posts: 9,038

    Evel
    Member
    1. 60s Show Rods

    Screw Tv shows...Go buy Mad Fabricators Society DVD's :D hehehe


    For real tho..I have 3 Tv shows that would blow minds...but like Mike
    says theres allot of ground to cover to get a TV show up and running,,,,
     
  14. roddinron
    Joined: May 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,676

    roddinron
    Member

    I think the best build shows on my cable TV are on spike's powerblock. Too bad it's on sat and sun morning. No drama, just building. That Lou on muscle car is entertaining and pretty knowledgeable. They do a lot of fab work on that and extreme 4x4, and even if it's not what you're into, you can pick up some tips, and none of that stupid soap opera.
     
  15. NoSurf
    Joined: Jul 26, 2002
    Posts: 4,461

    NoSurf
    Member

    I said this a few years ago in a thread on this subject: Public Television.

    Do you think when they started filmiing "This Old House" that they knew what kind of viewership they would have today?

    This Old Hotrod.

    Film it yourself. Put it on Youtube (I mean LuluTV). If it's good, enough people will watch it and some marketing schmuck will pay you for it so he can make 10x more money on it.
     
  16. "Reality TV" is the perfect Oxymoron.
     
  17. 38pickup
    Joined: Aug 11, 2004
    Posts: 1,109

    38pickup
    Member

    Before the reality shows, there was a segment on a show called Street Rodder Magazine, it only ran for a few segments and was only given about 5-10 min a segment, but it covered some wiring, wheel offsets, media blasting, etc. My dad was the technical writer / one of the hosts. It covered little stuff for Joe hot rodder. Sad thing is "people" were not seeing results (I felt it was due to bad commercials) and it never went bigger then a few episodes for 5 min.

    What am I saying here is unless you have a major in, more or less its a hard road. You could make a pilot and nothing could come of it. If you want help or need advice, support let me know.
     
  18. hr31hr
    Joined: Nov 30, 2006
    Posts: 221

    hr31hr
    Member
    from PA

    PDS once had a series that I taped on rebuilding a mustang convertible. The guys were stiffs but there was a lot of great info. I had it all taped until I covered it up with some porn I wanted to copy. Different kind of stiff I guess,
     
  19. ShortBus
    Joined: Dec 31, 1969
    Posts: 916

    ShortBus
    Member

    The only reality show on TV is Cops. Everything else is contrived.
     
  20. BigRed390
    Joined: Mar 21, 2007
    Posts: 484

    BigRed390
    Member

    Oops. This 100% thing is already shot. I don't have cable! Can't justify the expense for the crap they put on it!:D
     
  21. Nads
    Joined: Mar 5, 2001
    Posts: 11,862

    Nads
    Member
    from Hypocrisy

    Exactly.
     
  22. wvenfield
    Joined: Nov 23, 2006
    Posts: 5,580

    wvenfield
    Member

    My car can kick your cars ass, and to prove it, I want 6 lengths...........
     
  23. metalshapes
    Joined: Nov 18, 2002
    Posts: 11,138

    metalshapes
    Member

    Yep...

    Its been done so badly so many times, I wouldn't go near it anymore...
     
  24. Nads
    Joined: Mar 5, 2001
    Posts: 11,862

    Nads
    Member
    from Hypocrisy

    I especially like the episode where the 'ol lady is screamin in front of her mobile home, she's been beaten up but pleads to the cops to not take the love of her life (and the source of her beating) away and she won't press charges......oh wait, that's every episode.
     
  25. BigRed390
    Joined: Mar 21, 2007
    Posts: 484

    BigRed390
    Member

    I'll give you 6 lengths, but you've got to put 13 steel plates and my grandmother's dog in your trunk cause your car is lighter than mine! And let's throw in a side bet, whadya say? I'm willing to go for $18!!!! What now?
     
  26. DirtyThirty
    Joined: Mar 8, 2007
    Posts: 2,396

    DirtyThirty
    Member
    from nowhere...

    I think the real magic...has always occured without much fanfare. You are either trying to be a star, with your time...or building cars, quietly...because you love to...that is its magic...that even without praise...recognition, adoration...people have been, and will keep doing it, for as long as possible.
     
  27. pitman
    Joined: May 14, 2006
    Posts: 5,148

    pitman

    Nicely said!
    Maybe it was from Zen and the art of archery, "The archer aims, with the chance of winning a belt buckle. The prize divides him."
     
  28. Sounds like an average Tuesday down where I'm from...:(
     
  29. Just turn the tube off and go wrench on something.
     
  30. hellonwheels
    Joined: Jan 16, 2007
    Posts: 674

    hellonwheels
    Member

    Not even HAMBers want to see whats involved with the entire process of fabbing something or doing patch panels. I think I would be safe in saying that grinding welds is everyones least favorite task and the one that takes the most time. You average viewer would fall asleep watching this and so would everyone one this site! Thats why a handfull of progress pics on someones project is all HAMBers need to see to get the idea. Kinda hard to make a show out of that. Mad Fab's blend of tech and entertainment is as close of an example of something that could be on tv as I've seen. BUT, your average viewer would never sit through ten minutes of riding shotgun in Bass's coupe in and around downtown Dallas, even if I thought it was completely bitch'n...
     

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