Hmmm, considering how Apple feels about the word "pod" I wonder if this show would fall into the same category.

for Apple if it does get made into a series but it isn't anything that I would watch.

Neal

The biggest issue with this is that Apple has a registered "service mark" (same thing as a trade mark, but for a service not a product) on "Genius Bar." Therefore, any use by that term by CBS for a show is likely to result in a C&D letter from Apple unless some sort of agreement has already been reached.

If there is no agreement yet, you have to balance the possible bad publicity from C&D'ing this show to the potential damage to Apple's service mark that a show that (possibly) portrays Genius Bar employees in a bad/negative light would do to their "brand".

IF there is an agreement, it probably relates to whether or not there can be "negative" portrayal of Apple or Apple employees in the show.

isnt CBS owned by Disney?

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Guest wrote:
isnt CBS owned by Disney?

That's ABC.

Hmm, a show coming from a "consumer marketing expert". I guess the line between fictional entertainment and infomercials is getting deceptively slim.

I have a friend in Hollywood who sent me a description from the pitch folder:
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Genius Bar will star Ted Danson as a former bar-owner and recovering alcoholic who goes to work as a "genius" at a computer retailer. Woody Harrelson will star opposite Danson as a bald, 45 year old habitual marijuana smoker who has the short term memory of a house fly. Rounding out the cast is Kirsty Alley, who plays the store manager and hangs out in the back room.

Two running gags ensure that viewers will laugh continually during each 30 minute episode. Although Danson is a recovering alcoholic and talks openly about being sober and going to weekly AA meetings, he keeps a bottle of premixed Mudslide in the cabinet below the genius bar, and ducks down for a sip or two after a particularly stressful genius session (which is most every genius session). Meanwhile, Harrelson has a poster of Ellen Fleiss on the wall opposite his genius station, so he can gaze at her throughout the day as he dreams of sparking up at his next break.
-------

What is this return of Cheers?

They should do a Survivor Island where one group has to use Windows computers and the other Macintosh.

Oh yeah. No way in hell is Apple going to let them use Apple's service mark for "Genius Bar" for this one. Portraying their employees as stoners and alcoholics? I expect a C&D any minute now....

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Guest wrote:
Oh yeah. No way in hell is Apple going to let them use Apple's service mark for "Genius Bar" for this one. Portraying their employees as stoners and alcoholics? I expect a C&D any minute now....

You've just been "Boscoed".

+

OK, this is disturbing. Every article I read about this pilot says the following, which was paraphrased in the TMO article:

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Based on an idea by consumer marketing expert Krishnan Menon, the project explores the interactions between people who work at a place similar to the Genius Bar at the Apple stores and the cool, hip and beautiful employees at a nearby Abercrombie & Fitch-type store....

As sitcoms love to compare and contrast different characters, it would seem the premise behind the show is that A&F types are "cool, hip, and beautiful," while the Genius Bar types are...what? Geeky? Nerdy?

The whole point behind Apple stores was to bring hipness and coolness to a computer store. I'm betting, however, that "Genius Bar" will opt for easy laughs with the cool A&F employees contrasted with people working a Genius Bar that belongs far more to a Radio Shack than an Apple Store.

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mrmgraphics wrote:
+

OK, this is disturbing. Every article I read about this pilot says the following, which was paraphrased in the TMO article:

(snip)

If that's their idea of cool, hip, and beautiful people, then the less apple related people are associated with them, the better. My hatred of self-proclaimed beautiful people knows no bounds.

They will not allow CBS to do a show about computer geeks called Genius Bar- not in a trillion years. There is no other connotation to Genius Bar than Apple's usage.

Oh, come on. A&F as the ditzy, "beautiful" people and the Apple Store employees as the intelligent, real people.

Keep in mind that Apple is extremely popular right now. You don't have to look very far to see that the so-called "halo effect" is far reaching and effective. Not everyone likes the iPod, but most do. Especially those in the entertainment business. You know, the people who make TV shows?

CBS will want to sell episodes on iTunes. Think Apple would let them if it was detrimental?

A&F is not that popular anymore. I'm often surprised that their stores are still around. Most attention is now on Buckle and other stores. A&F was popular a decade ago, and into this decade, but their popularity is declining while Apple's is rising exponentially.


Chances of the show portraying Apple in a conventionally negative way: 5%.
Chances of the show being positive toward Apple: 84%.
Chances that the show will be awkward because they want to reference Apple but can't directly: 11%.


- Jon


P.S. All figures were determined by a precise mathematical formula that I retrieved from a magic portal located in the vicinity of my back pocket. So don't buy stock based on my theories. See Bosco for that.

[quote="Substance"]

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Guest wrote:
isnt CBS owned by Disney?

CBS is owned by General Electric

[quote="iJack"]

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Substance wrote:

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Guest wrote:
isnt CBS owned by Disney?

CBS is owned by General Electric

GE owns NBC.

Viacom owns CBS.

During the dot-com era some of us computer professionals thought it was cool to be called a computer "geek." I said it then and I say it now, if someone's calling you a geek, it's not exactly a compliment.

Geeks are cool. Nerds (sorry, Dave) are geeks without the social skills.

this pilot will fall on it's big ugly ass, i think.. it just sounds like a retarded concept for a sitcom..

ALL sitcoms are retarded.
Cheers:
Bob

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burrito wrote:
this pilot will fall on it's big ugly ass, i think.. it just sounds like a retarded concept for a sitcom..

I agree 110%

Christ on an effing bicycle!

I was afraid of this the day I learned of Apple selling TV shows on iTunes. It had to come to this, and it opens up every Apple-oriented forum to brainless drivel about brainless TV shows, as if the media wasn't already clogged like a bad sewer-pipe with babble about TV. Feh.