Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 172 Save Her
Martin felt a little uneasy sitting in his seat in the conference room. He was more uncomfortable than when he was dealing with black people in the neighborhoods of Compton. Those black people didn't know that he was a fake big shot, but at this moment in the BT TV station conference room, everyone knew that he was just Tommy's driver, but they still let him sit at the conference table to participate in the meeting. Even old Page could only stand aside, but he could sit next to Tommy, which made him a little flattered.
"I conducted several surveys in California, focusing on Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento. The televisions in most black families are usually turned on at six in the morning and then on all day until the late-night shows are over. Women will turn on the TV and listen to news talk shows between six and seven o'clock while making breakfast. This is probably their only important source of news in a day. They are mainly concentrated on news talk shows on several local California TV stations, including Good Morning Pasadena, The Donna Show, and Breakfast News, which are not very serious news talk shows..." Sean Ray, the vice president of the TV station in charge of public relations, walked slowly around the conference table in the room, staring at the documents in his hand, and introduced the results of the survey:
"These programs are straightforward, bold and irresponsible. They can spread any hearsay. For example, last week's Breakfast News reported that a famous fortune teller predicted that a magnitude 10 earthquake would occur in California last Saturday... Then it was said that on the day the news was broadcast, at least seven convenience stores in California were robbed of their food by idiots who believed it, and the police arrested dozens of homeless people suspected of robbery."
"Then there is prime time, which is mainly the production of popular dramas of the three major TV networks. However, FOX TV Network has emerged as a dark horse. Their prime time ratings have reached fourth place, biting the third place ABC TV Network's ass. Moreover, FOX's audience group overlaps with ours in most ways, all of which are middle and lower class people. Even the ideas of program production are somewhat similar, relying on low-cost but gimmicky self-made programs to attract audiences."
"The most popular FOX self-produced program is currently broadcast during prime time. It is called America's Most Wanted. This program is broadcast once a week. It reports on the ten most well-known criminal cases in the United States in a week, interviews criminals and police, and invites police and sociologists as guests to comment and give weekly rankings. Many grassroots people stay in front of their computers on time to watch this program. Many gangs try to get their members to appear on this program. They privately call this program the Oscars of the gang world. It has been broadcast for nine episodes and is the most popular program on FOX. Thanks to this program, FOX Television Network has negotiated with 57 local TV stations to join FOX, covering FOX's programs and advertisements in 70% of the United States. In this program, FOX will broadcast 30-second advertisements in four times, with a price of 185,000 US dollars per 30 seconds, which means that the advertising fee income for a single episode of the program is 780,000, while their single episode cost is only 350,000."
"And I understand that they are producing a spin-off variety show called America's Greatest Cop, also known as Find You, a documentary show about police arrests. If nothing unexpected happens, it will replace Wanted."
Rick was a little surprised when he heard Sean talking about the other party's costs: "Why is their per-period cost so low?"
"Because the Murdoch Group bought the entire 20th Century Fox Film Company, including their television production department, for 575 million. From the beginning, they ensured that all links were in their own hands, avoiding being controlled by others while reducing production costs." Sean said:
"Although we will not enter the daytime soap opera market for the time being, we have also conducted research and there is no suspense. The daytime soap opera time slot is still the main focus of the three major TV networks. The soap operas with the highest ratings are Days of Our Lives, All My Children, 30 and Roseanne."
"The late night shows are divided among the three major TV networks. However, FOX has produced a late night show called "Late Night with Rivers" to compete with CBS's "Late Night with Carson." However, the effect is not very good so far. It has burned 23 million since its launch, but the ratings are not even half of its competitor. FOX is considering canceling it and designing a new late night show, tentatively named "Married with Children," a reality show sitcom."
"Okay, everyone, this is my market data. Next, Earl will explain the work on TV station cooperation." Sean closed the documents in his hand, walked back to his seat, looked at everyone and spoke.
"Thank you, Sean." Earl Rush gently adjusted his tie with his hands and stood up. "Recently, I have been relying on my personal connections and some alumni relationships to make preliminary contacts with some independent TV stations in Illinois and California. These TV stations are all junk that the three major TV networks and FOX don't like. So my job at the moment is to pan for gold in the shit, to find those TV stations that seem to have the potential to rise with us."
"In general, TV stations that are on the verge of closing down and whose ratings are worse than the worst student report card welcome us. They are eager for us to save them with programs because we won't ask them to pay franchise fees and can also save them money on program procurement. TV stations that still have some ratings want to wait and see. Most of them hope that we will allow them to broadcast half of the ads they have undertaken when broadcasting our programs to make a profit. They want to get enough benefits by relying on the ratings."
Earl has been traveling back and forth these days, and he may not have had a good rest. Even though he has dark skin, his dark circles cannot be seen, but the two eye bags indicate that his work traveling back and forth between Chicago and Los Angeles has not been easy. He said in a calm tone:
"Let me put it this way. If we want these guys to operate TV stations according to our ideas and build our BT network, we must first make them earn money. This means that the programs we produce must at least significantly increase the local ratings of those TV stations, making it easier for them to sell their own advertisements."
"The feedback from the black community near Los Angeles on 'Daddy' was very good, but the response to 'The Show' was much worse. The black people who watched it thought the competition system was too complicated and confused them. In addition, Sean told me that FOX is producing a dance competition reality show with a similar competition system to 'The Show', so we have temporarily canceled the plan for 'The Show'." Rick Luther heard Earl talking about the show and responded:
"I had a meeting with my team and we decided to learn from some existing gimmicks, similar to the idea I had when I was filming a Terminator adult movie, considering that a pure competition program requires people to understand the complicated competition procedures, and there are too many similar programs on the market."
"My team and I looked up the bestsellers . Then I found a book that was published in the United States in 1949. By 1970, 7 million copies had been published and distributed. Since 1984, perhaps because of the title or for other reasons, it has appeared at the top of the historical bestseller list again and has continued to do so until this year. For this reason, I specifically asked Martin to visit the black community to find out if the black people have heard of this name. Unexpectedly, many low-income black people have heard of the name of this book, but they have not read it. Instead, they have heard the story on the radio. It is an imaginary historical novel called "1984". Everyone here should have read this bestseller."
Everyone, including Martin, nodded when they heard the name, indicating that they knew the story.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" is a dystopian novel written by British writer George Orwell. It was published in 1949 and the story takes place in the fictional year of 1984. In the author's conception, in 1984, there were only three superpowers left in the world, namely Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania.
Eurasia, whose territory includes the European continent and Siberia in Russia, actually means that the author believes that the Soviet Union will completely occupy Europe sooner or later.
The East Asian country has a territory covering most of Asia, which means that the yellow people in Asia have united to form a powerful country.
The story mainly takes place in Oceania, whose territory includes the entire Western Hemisphere, the British Isles, Australia and Africa. It is considered the most powerful of the three superpowers.
Of course Tommy had also read this popular bestseller, but in his opinion, the reason why this book was so popular in the United States, and even the US government promoted it so much that even radio stations would broadcast audio stories, was mainly because the ideas in the book were in line with the government's malicious speculation about the Soviet Union, so they fanned the flames, hoping that the people would read the stories in the book and regard them as events that might actually happen, and make the people believe that once the Soviet Union really ruled the world, their lives would be as miserable as described in the book.
Seeing that everyone knew the story, Rick continued to introduce it: "In the book, the leader of Oceania is called Big Brother. Big Brother uses cameras to monitor every move and every word of all citizens. The most famous line in the book is: Big Brother is watching you! This line left a deep impression on each of us."
"So, I want to adapt this idea into a reality show called "Big Brother is Watching You", but this time, all the audience are Big Brother, and the participants are the citizens under surveillance. My idea is to arrange a villa to serve as the detention dormitory of Oceania's Ministry of Love, and then select 16 strangers to live in it. They will be completely isolated from the outside world, and their every move will be exposed in front of the camera, and every word they say will be recorded by the microphone. A separate snitch room will be designed, and a high bonus will be designed. One person will be eliminated every week, and a season will be three months. The final winner will take away $100,000."
"This means that if these contestants want to win and take the money away from the villa, they must be like the protagonist in the novel, with superb acting skills, a strong heart, and clever scheming."
"In each episode, the tenants will vote anonymously to select a roommate to be eliminated, and the audience will also vote to decide which one is the most disgusting and hypocritical. If the audience and the tenants do not choose the same person, the two will have to compete in the final showdown. We will also design various tasks to increase the communication and conflicts between the tenants and amplify the contradictions of human nature in this closed environment. The tenants can even have sex. We will broadcast it without violating the rules of TV programs. In short, this is a reality show that satisfies the desire to voyeurism and sees through human nature. People will see that in order to win in the end, the contestants will do everything they can to avoid elimination, even if it means physical transactions."
"The initial plan is to edit the essence of a week's daily life material and produce a one-hour program to be broadcast during prime time on Sunday."
After talking about his team's ideas, Rick looked at Tommy and the others excitedly, eager to get a response. Tommy just nodded slightly, then looked at Earl and Sean: "What do you think?"
Sean held the coffee in both hands, and after thinking seriously for dozens of seconds, he spoke:
"Basically, anyone who has read the novel or knows the story will probably pay attention to this program. After all, many Americans' stereotypes about the Soviet Union actually come from this completely fake historical hour. The gimmick is indeed good. After all, it is criticizing the Soviet Union. If it is not too vulgar, the feedback will be good. It is easy to use money to get space in some mainstream newspapers and increase the popularity and influence of some TV stations. But the premise is that the program segments must be well-made and unconventional."
"I agree with Sean. At least those congressmen will be happy to see us smear the Soviet Union for them for free. I mean the Communications Committee or the Ethics Committee shouldn't cause any trouble, because we can say that the people in the show are just acting out the living conditions of Soviet citizens in the novel."
"Martin, are you interested in participating in this show after listening to this?" Tommy turned his head and asked Martin.
Martin shook his head. "I won't sign up, but I'm willing to sit in front of the TV and watch other people's performance. You know, boss, I'm in front of the TV. When I see a guy who has a chance to win the prize, I'll immediately pick up the phone and call the TV station to vote him out. People like to see other people work hard and fail in the end. I like to see this kind of ending. Many black people I know like it too. Think about it. A woman slept with fifteen other men to earn a hundred thousand in prize money, thinking that she would definitely have the last laugh. Guess what? Of course, the audience voted this woman out. Look at her crazy expression."
"Don't use the actors from the Screen Actors Guild to help with the trial recording. Let Martin take you to Compton to select some black people. Choose the Beverly Hills villa that he is temporarily using as a dormitory. Try to reduce costs as much as possible. Try to shoot a week's worth of material first, and edit it to see if the show has enough attractive highlights as you imagined." Tommy finally looked at Rick and spoke.
If BT wants to make money as quickly as possible and expand its influence, it is far from enough to broadcast programs on its own channel. Therefore, BT TV needs to ensure that its self-produced programs have enough attractive highlights. At least before the broadcast, Earl Rush can use the pilot tape to attract the heads of other small TV stations, so that they can recognize BT's production capabilities, see the possibility of making money, and agree to cooperate with BT TV to broadcast programs produced by BT TV.
Only by helping other TV stations make money will they be willing to hand over the operation of the TV stations to BT TV. Only in this way can a new national TV network be gradually formed around BT TV.
"Okay." Rick agreed, and then handed out a few pages of series introductions to the people: "Then, this is the list of series I plan to purchase to fill the TV station's time."
Tommy sighed. “Martin took this list to the black communities he visited and asked the black people if they liked it. He got some feedback for you.”
"So, Martin, what do they think of these episodes? I picked them carefully." Hearing Tommy's words, Rick looked at Martin.
Martin nodded: "Yes, black people only remember two of them, because apart from these two, no one has seen the others. The first one is Little House on the Prairie. When I asked my black cousins about this show, their reaction was, Mr. Martin Hart, you opened a black TV station and you are going to show black people this kind of shit? Are you a running dog of the white people?"
"White running dogs? This is a children's comedy. I hope to broadcast it to black children during the daytime. Although the main character is a white girl, there is also an important black character . He is a doctor with superb medical skills, and he saved the protagonist's family. His role..." When Rick heard Martin talk about the impression of the black people in the community on the play, he was confused and even doubted whether these black people had seen the play. He opened his mouth to explain.
"Listen, I know there's a nigger stupid doctor in the TV show, okay? I already know that, that's the good image of black people in the eyes of white people, look how fucking considerate we are, we arranged a perfect and impeccable role for a black actor, and let him save the white people." Martin signaled Rick that he didn't need to explain, and continued:
"My compatriots told me that only fucking white people like to watch this kind of black people, and if I'm going to show this show, forget about them watching our channel."
"Okay, which one is the second one?" Rick asked with a sigh.
"Miami Vice, everyone has seen it. It's the most famous one on your list."
Hearing this, Rick breathed a sigh of relief: "I knew it would interest black people! It's just that the purchase price of this large-scale production is a bit high, about 70,000 per episode, but if the audience is interested, there will be no problem. We can rely on advertising time..."
Martin interrupted Rick again: "No, you misunderstood, Rick, the reason they are interested is... Mr. Hart, as a black big shot from Miami, why haven't you arranged for your men to kill the stupid director and all the actors of the "Miami Vice" crew?"
"So, they think it's ugly?" Rick was stunned again: "It's a very exciting action series, with car racing, explosions, gunfights..."
"They think it's ugly?" Martin repeated Rick's puzzled tone, and then said, "Of course they think it's ugly. Do you think we should be happy when a white police protagonist has a black police partner? The black gang members in that show all look like idiots, and in every episode the black police partner gets hurt and waits for the white protagonist to rescue him. If they had nothing else to watch, they wouldn't watch this kind of garbage that discriminates against black people."
Rick scratched his red hair in annoyance: "So what do they want? They want us to give them a black idol, Eddie Murphy, like NBC did?"
"I don't know who Eddie Murphy is. I'm just conveying what those black people think. They don't like to see those black actors on TV who always help white people and are as kind as fucking Black Jesus. Do you want to hear the truth?" Martin looked at Rick.
"certainly."
"Those blacks told me that they hope to see blacks retaliate against whites, burn to death the whites who bullied them, and rob them of their property! Because whites have done this to us in history. They are very curious why every black actor on TV is like an idiot with amnesia, forgetting the difficult years when whites bullied blacks, and instead lend a helping hand to blacks. For example, in the first movie, "Little House on the Prairie", it was the black doctor who helped a white family escape from the hunting of local Indians? What a joke, this country and the white people owe it to us and the Indians, and this TV show is like a plate of steaming shit, forcing blacks and Indians to open their mouths and swallow it! Do you think they will like it?" Martin said excitedly.
Rick sighed hard: "So, you're saying that the lower-class blacks actually want to see the plots you mentioned, to take revenge on white people, to vent their resentment towards white people through TV shows, to blame their own suffering on white people, and to get inner satisfaction by defeating white people."
"That's right." Martin nodded.
Noticing Tommy's thoughtful expression, Rick immediately spoke:
"Earl is helping the TV station to contact other independent TV stations in California and is preparing to jointly premiere the show when it officially starts airing... If he knew that BT TV was going to make a series about black exploitation, it would definitely be detrimental to his work. Hollywood has had similar B-grade movies that show black people killing each other. It is a specific category, black exploitation films, but this niche genre was completely wiped out in the early 1980s due to the constant pressure from the Anti-Black Exploitation Film Alliance formed by the three major black associations. The highly qualified black people in the alliance do not want to see black compatriots portrayed in movies as too violent, even as the protagonists."
For lower-class black people, this kind of plot may give them a sense of revenge, but not all independent TV stations have black audiences, and no independent TV station is willing to offend the three major black associations.
The so-called three major black associations are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formerly known as the Black Leadership Conference on Nonviolent Integration, and the National Negro Urban League.
"Why is it a B-level movie? Why can't it be a movie that everyone, young or old can watch?" Earl asked, a little puzzled after hearing Rick's words.
"Earl, no white person is willing to go to the cinema to watch a movie with a black protagonist. This is reality. And how many black people have enough time and can afford to buy movie tickets to watch a movie exclusively for black people?" Rick explained why black movies can only be cheap B-level movies:
"So we can only lower the production cost and use pornography, violence and blood as gimmicks to attract some viewers. If we can produce dramas suitable for all ages, that's also fine. NBC previously had a drama called Roots, which tells the legendary story of an African American family through five generations, including being sold by slave traders, arriving in the United States as slaves, and being liberated and becoming free people. The ratings were also surprisingly high, and the feedback was very positive. Both whites and blacks praised it highly. But that requires high costs and the participation of well-known screenwriters. In other words, big companies can spend tens of millions on trial and error, but we can't."
"Have you seen the book Roots that Rick mentioned, Martin?" Tommy asked Martin.
Martin nodded. "I've seen it. It's very well filmed. There's just one problem. Most of the white people in it are so damn kind. The kind white plantation owner, the kind daughter, the kind white officer, the kind Lincoln... Think about it. If the white people weren't kind, the black man would have to be obedient and linger under the whip in order to have a chance for the white plantation owner to arrange a woman to marry and have offspring. But how can it be good to film a black man lingering? That's why the white people need to be kind."
"Violence, money, black rights, and white bullying, put these together, I didn't think of a B-grade movie, on the contrary, I thought of a black version of The Godfather. If black people need it, we should give them what they want to watch. Seeing Martin's outfit, I even thought of a name for this black-only series." Tommy looked at everyone:
“Nigger Boss” I meant no harm, Earl, Martin, you two, I just said the name of the show.”
Seeing that Martin and Earl did not refute his wording, Tommy continued, "For example, design a crime city, such as Compton, where black people live in poverty. The high crime rate in this city, the black people taking risks, and all other problems are blamed on the white mayor, the white police chief, and even the white firefighters. Our protagonist is the black godfather. If someone bullies his compatriots, he will help his compatriots solve the problem. At the same time, bad white people will collude with some bad black people to get rid of this thorn in their eyes. This is probably the idea. In short, the black Boss is designed to be the perfect image of black people. Although he has fallen into gangs because the government deprived black people of their right to education, he did not give up on himself. Thieves also have their own code of conduct and stick to their bottom line. On the contrary, it is the white people who have no bottom line, so he will go to war with white people on TV, conquer white women, take the wealth of corrupt white officials, and give it to the black people in the community, and eventually become the king of Compton. Do you think the three major associations will cause trouble for this thing?"
"It's a good gimmick. Frankly speaking, ever since The Godfather was released, all the gangsters in movies and TV shows in the past decade or so have become Italians. I really want to see a black godfather appear, but frankly speaking, if I do it, I'm bound to get into trouble. The black executives of the three major associations will accept donations from other TV stations, and then jump out to accuse BT TV... It's normal, because I've done this kind of thing many times." Sean nodded after listening.
Tommy looked at Sean and said, "So, you mean, in order to make them unable to eat it, we have to put a righteous coat on this black drama."
"I have an idea. In 1984, the Miss America pageant produced the first black champion in history, but her results were immediately cancelled after she was elected, and then a white woman succeeded her as the champion." Earl looked at Tommy at this time: "She is a good coat, Vanessa Williams."
"Yes, it's her. I've heard of this woman's name." Sean also reacted: "Yes, this woman is not bad. It just so happens that she is in trouble now."
Tommy looked at Earl: "Do you know her?"
"She and her agent came to me before, hoping that my law firm would help her handle the lawsuit against Penthouse, but I didn't agree in the end because there was no chance of winning, and the girl didn't have the money to pay me. She just promised to give me a share of the compensation if she won." Earl introduced how he met the other party:
"So, she, who was boycotted by Hollywood and mainstream TV, came to star in this series and won the sympathy of all black people. Until now, black people still believe that her loss of the championship was a conspiracy by white people. She was invited to star in this series, or simply used her real experience to process it. She was framed by white people and lost the championship crown. Then she found the black godfather and hoped that Nigger Boss would help her get justice. This can be regarded as the main storyline of the first season."
"Sean, Earl gave you the contact information. You are responsible for finding her and her agent." Tommy said decisively after hearing what Earl said:
"This gimmick is good, with truth and falsehood intertwined. In the play, Nigger Boss saves her, and outside the play, BT TV saves her."
