Martin sat in his seat in the conference room, always feeling a little restless, more uncomfortable than he had been in dealing with black people in Compton's neighborhoods, who didn't know he was a fake big shot,

But at this moment, in the BT TV conference room, everyone knows that he is just Tommy's driver, but he still lets him sit at the conference table to participate in the meeting, even the old Page can only stand aside, but he can sit next to Tommy in a grand manner, which makes him a little flattered.

"I did a couple of surveys across California, focusing on Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Saramento, where most black households have their televisions turned on at six o'clock in the morning and then all day until late at night, and women are cooking breakfast between six and seven o'clock, turning on the televisions and listening to news talk shows, which are probably the only major sources of news for their day, mainly focused on a few local California TV news talk shows. They are "Good Morning Pasadena", "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, while staring at the documents in his hand, introducing the results of the investigation:

"These programs are characterized by their straightforwardness, boldness and irresponsibility, and hearsay can be spread by them, such as last week's Breakfast News, where a famous soothsayer predicted a magnitude 10 earthquake in California last Saturday...... Then it was said that on the day the news aired, at least seven convenience stores in California were robbed of food by fools who believed it to be true, and the police arrested dozens of homeless people suspected of robbery. ”

"Then there is primetime, mainly the production of popular dramas of the three major TV networks, however, the FOX TV network has sprung up, and their prime-time ratings have reached the fourth place, biting the ass of the third ABC TV network, and the FOX viewership group overlaps with most of us, they are all middle and lower class people, and even the production of programs is somewhat similar, relying on low-cost but gimmicky self-made programs to attract audiences."

"At present, one of the most popular FOX self-made programs, broadcast in prime time, called "America's Most Wanted Criminal", this program is a week, reporting on the ten most well-known criminal crimes in the United States in a week, interviewing criminals and police, and then inviting police and sociologists as guests to comment, and give weekly rankings, many low-level people are on time in front of the computer, watching this show, many gangs are trying to let their members appear on this show, they privately call this show the Oscars of the gang world, At present, nine episodes have been broadcast, it is the most popular program of FOX, relying on this program, the FOX TV network has negotiated 57 local TV stations to join FOX, covering 70% of the United States with FOX programs and advertisements, in this program, FOX will broadcast three three-second advertisements in four times, and the price is $185,000 per 30 seconds, that is, the advertising fee income of a single episode of a program is 780,000, and their single cost is only 350,000. ”

"And I learned that they are producing a spin-off variety show "America's Strongest Cop", also known as "Find You", a documentary show about police arrests, and it is no surprise that it will take over "Wanted"."

Rick was a little surprised when he heard Sean talk about the cost of the other party: "Why is their single-term cost so low?" ”

"Because the Murdoch Group bought the entire 20th Century Fox Film Company for 575 million, including their television production division, it ensured that everything was in their own hands from the beginning, avoiding being controlled by others and reducing production costs." Sean opened his mouth and said:

"Although we will not enter the daytime soap theater for the time being, we have also conducted an investigation, there is no suspense, the daytime soap opera time period, is still the meal on the plate of the three major TV networks, and the most watched soap operas are "The Days of Our Life", "All My Children", "And Success" and "Rose Annie".

"The late-night show is divided between the late-night show theaters of the three major TV networks, but FOX produced a late-night show like "The Late Show: Starring Rivers", and wants to compete with CBS's "The Late-Night Show: Starring Carson", but the effect is not very good at present, and it has burned 23 million since it was launched, but the ratings are completely less than half of the opponent's, and FOX is considering cutting it internally and designing a new late-night program, tentatively titled "Marriage with Children", a reality sitcom."

"Okay, guys, that's it for my market data, and then Earl will explain what the TV station is working on." Sean closed the papers in his hand, walked back to his seat, looked at the crowd, and spoke.

"Thank you, Sean." Earl Rush gently adjusted his tie with his hand and stood up: "I've recently been relying on my connections and some alumni connections to make preliminary contact with some regional independent TV stations in Illinois and California, which are all bad stuff that the three major TV networks and FOX don't like, so my job at the moment is a process of digging for and finding those TV stations that seem to have the potential to rise with us." ”

"In general, the TV stations that are closed at any time and have worse ratings than the most rubbish student report cards, welcome us, and wish we could save them with the program, because we won't make them pay the franchise fee, and it will also save a lot of money on program purchases, while the TV stations that have a little bit of ratings want to wait and see, and most of them want us to allow them to broadcast the programs that we produce, and play half of their own advertising to make money. Relying on the ratings to get enough benefits. ”

Earl has been running back and forth for the past few days, and he may not have rested too well, even if he has black skin, he can't see the dark circles under his eyes, but he can also judge from the two eye bags that his work back and forth between Chicago and Los Angeles during this time is not easy, and he said in a flat tone at this time:

"Let's put it this way, if we want these guys to run TV stations according to our ideas and build our BT network, we must first make them make money, which means that we must at least make those TV stations climb significantly in the local ratings rankings, so that they can sell their own ads."

"The response to 'Daddy America' in the black community near Los Angeles has been very good, but the response to 'Battle for Green Silk' has been much worse, and the black people who have seen it think the format design is too complicated and confusing them, and Sean told me that FOX is working on a dance competition reality show with a similar format to 'Battle for Green Silk,' so we have canceled the plan for "Battle of Green Silk" for the time being." Rick Luthor heard Earl talk about the show, and then he answered:

"I had a meeting with the team and discussed it, considering that a purely competitive show needs to make people understand the cumbersome competition process, and there are too many similar shows on the market, so it would be better to borrow some ready-made gimmicks, similar to the idea that I tried to shoot a small adult movie called "Terminator" when I was in full bloom."

"My team and I looked at the bestsellers of the last three years, the highest-grossing movies, the highest-rated dramas, and then I found a book, published in the United States in 1949, and by 1970 it had been published and sold in seven million copies, and it started in 1984, maybe because of the title, maybe for other reasons, but in short, it appeared at the top of the all-time bestseller list, and it continued to be this year, so I asked Martin to visit the black community to find out if black people had heard of this name, and unexpectedly, Many low-level blacks have heard the name of this book, but they haven't read it, they have heard it on the radio, it's an alternate history, it's called "1984," and everyone in this room should have seen this bestseller. ”

Everyone, including Martin, nodded their heads when they heard the name, indicating that they understood the story.

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" is a dystopia created by British writer George Orwell, published in 1949, the story takes place in the alternate year of 1984, in the author's conception, in 1984, there are only three superpowers left in the world, namely Eurasia, East Asia and Ocean.

The Eurasian countries, whose territory is the European continent and the Siberian region of Russia, are actually the author's belief that sooner or later the Soviet Union will completely occupy Europe.

In East Asia, the territory is most of Asia, that is, the Asian yellow race unites to form a powerful state.

The main location of the story is Oceania, and the territory includes the entire Western Hemisphere, the British Isles, Australia and Africa, which is the most powerful of the three superpowers.

Of course, Tommy has read this popular bestseller, but in his opinion, the reason why the book can sell well in the United States, and even the US government hypes it up, and even broadcasts the audio story on the radio, is mainly because the idea in the book is in line with the government's malicious speculation about the Soviet Union, so he wants the people to see the story in the book, and treat it as a possible real event, so that the people can believe that once the Soviet Union really rules the world, their lives will be as miserable as depicted in the book.

Rick saw that everyone knew the story, so he continued: "In the book, the leader of Oceania is called Big Brother, and Big Brother uses a camera to monitor every move of all the people, every word, and the most famous line in it: Big Brother is watching you! This line impressed each of us. ”

"So, I want to adapt it into a reality show according to this idea, the name is "Big Brother is Watching Ling", only this time, all the audience is Big Brother, and the participants of the show are the people who are being watched, my idea is to arrange a villa to serve as the detention dormitory of the Ministry of Benevolence of the Oceania Country, and then select sixteen tenants who are strangers to each other to live in it, completely isolated from the outside world, and every move is exposed to the camera, every word said will be recorded by the microphone, and a separate whistleblower room is designed, And designed a high prize money, one person is eliminated every week, three months for a season, and the final winner takes away 100,000 US dollars. ”

"This also requires these contestants, if they want to win and take the money and leave the villa, they must be like the protagonist, with superb acting skills, strong hearts and ingenious scheming."

"In each issue, the tenants will anonymously vote for an eliminated roommate, and the audience will also vote to decide which one is the most disgusting, hypocritical, if the audience and the tenant are not elected by the same person, the two will need to have a final showdown, and we will design various tasks to increase the communication conflict between the tenant and the guest, amplify the human contradiction in this closed environment, the tenants can even go to bed, we play without violating the rules of TV broadcasting, in short, It's a reality show that satisfies voyeurism and penetrates human nature, and people will see the contestants do everything they can to avoid elimination, even if it's a body deal, in order to win. ”

"The preliminary plan is to edit out the essence of the week's life materials and make it into a one-hour program, which will be broadcast in prime time on Sunday."

After saying what his team thought, Rick looked at Tommy and the others excitedly, eager to get a reply, Tommy just nodded slightly, and 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 with a fat face, he said:

"Basically, people who have watched this or know this story may pay attention to this show, after all, many people's stereotypes of the Soviet Union in the United States are actually derived from this completely false historical hour, the gimmick is really good, after all, it is attacking the Soviet Union, if it is not too vulgar, the feedback is not bad, it is easy to use money to get the layout in some mainstream newspapers, increase the popularity and influence of some TV stations, but the premise is that the program link must be exquisitely produced and unconventional."

"I agree with Sean, at least the congressmen will be happy to see us smear the Soviet Union for free, I mean the Communications Committee or the Ethics Committee shouldn't be looking for trouble, because we can say that the people on the show are just showing the life of the Soviet people."

"Martin, are you interested in participating in this show?" Tommy asked, turning his head to look at Martin.

Martin shook his head: "I won't sign up, but I'd love to sit in front of the TV and watch other people's performances, you know, boss, it's me in front of the TV, I see which guy has a chance to get a bonus, I immediately pick up the phone and call the TV program team, vote to eliminate him, people like to watch other people work hard and pay a lot, but in the end they fail, I like to watch this kind of ending, I know a lot of black people also like it, think about it, a woman in order to earn a 100,000 bonus, slept with fifteen other men, I thought I would have the last laugh, and guess what, of course, the audience voted to eliminate this woman and look at her crazy expression. ”

"Don't use the actors from the Screen Actors Guild to help you with the trial recording, go back and ask Martin to take you to Compton to pick some black people, and the villa will choose the Beverly building where he temporarily uses it as a dormitory, reduce the cost as much as possible, try to shoot a week's worth of footage first, and edit it out to see if the show has enough and attractive highlights as you think it is." Tommy finally looked at Rick and spoke.

If you want to make money as soon as possible and expand your influence, it is not enough to broadcast programs on your own channel, so BT TV needs to make sure that the self-made program has enough attractive highlights, at least before the broadcast, you can let Earl Rush take the pilot tape to attract the heads of other small TV stations, so that they can recognize BT's production ability and see that there is a possibility of making money, so that they agree to cooperate with BT TV to broadcast programs produced by BT TV.

Only by helping other TV stations make money, they will be willing to hand over the operation of TV stations to BT TV stations, so that a new national TV network can be gradually formed around BT TV stations.

"Okay." Rick agreed, and then handed out a few pages of episode introductions to a few people: "Then, here's the list of episodes I'm going to buy to fill the length of the TV station." ”

Tommy sighed: "This list, Martin took the black community he visited, asked if the black people liked to read it, and he helped you get some feedback." ”

"So, Martin, what do they think of these episodes? I've picked it carefully. Hearing Tommy's words, Rick looked at Martin.

Martin nodded: "Yes, black people only have an impression of two, because except for these two, the other ones, no one has seen them, the first one, "Little House on the Prairie", when I asked my black cousins about this show, their reaction was, Mr. Martin Hart, you start a black TV station, and you're going to show this kind of to black people? Are you a white man's lackey? ”

"White lackeys? It's a children's comedy, and I want to show it to black kids during the day...... And although the starring role is a white little girl, there is also a black man who is an important role, he is a doctor with excellent medical skills, and he saved the protagonist's family, the scene is ......" Rick heard Martin talk about the impression of black people in the community on this show, his face was at a loss, and he even wondered if these black people had watched the show, and opened his mouth to explain.

"Listen, I know there's a stupid* doctor in the TV show, okay? I already knew, that's a good image of black people in the eyes of white people, and look, how fucking thoughtful we were, arranging a perfect impeccable role for a black actor, and also letting him save white people. Martin signaled that Rick didn't need to explain, and continued:

"My compatriots tell me that only fucking white people like to watch this kind of black guy, and if I'm going to show it, don't want them to watch our channel."

"Well, which one is the second one?" Rick asked with a sigh.

"Miami Vice, everyone has seen it, and it's the most well-known 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 set of big-scale production dramas is a bit high, and a single episode costs about 70,000, but if the audience is interested, it's no problem, we can rely on advertising time to ......"

Martin interrupted Rick again: "No, you misunderstood, Rick, the reason for their interest is ...... Mr. Hart, as a black big man from Miami, why haven't you arranged for your men to collapse that stupid* director and all the actors of the "Miami Vice" crew? ”

"So, they find it ugly?" Rick was stunned again: "A very wonderful action series, flying cars, explosions, gunfights, ......"

"They think it's ugly?" Martin repeated the phrase in Rick's puzzled tone, and then said, "Of course, of course they find it ugly, you think that the white cop protagonist has a black cop partner, and we should be elated?" The black gang members in that show all seem to be idiots, and every episode is a black police partner who is injured and waiting for the white protagonist to save him, if it weren't for the fact that there is no other show 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?" Wish we were like NBC and gave them a black idol, Eddie Murphy? ”

"I don't know who Eddie Murphy is, I'm just passing on the thoughts of those black people, which is that they don't like to see those moments on TV that are helping white people, kind black actors who are like black Jesus, want to hear the truth?" Martin looked at Rick.

"Of course."

"The blacks told me that they wanted to see blacks take revenge on whites, burn to death whites who had bullied them, and rob them of their property! Because white people have done this kind of thing to us in history, they are very curious, why every black actor on TV is like an amnesiac fool*, forgetting the difficult years when white people bullied black people, and instead reaching out to black people, for example, in the first part, "Little House on the Prairie", in which the black doctor helps a white family escape the pursuit of the local Native Americans? What a joke, the country and the whites owe us and the Indians, and this TV series is like a plate of steaming that forces blacks and Indians to open their mouths and swallow it! Do you think they'll enjoy watching it? Martin said in an excited tone.

Rick sighed vigorously: "So, are you saying that the bottom black people actually want to see the plots you said, take revenge on the white people, vent their resentment against the white people through TV shows, count their own suffering on the white people, and get inner satisfaction by defeating the white people." ”

"That's right." Martin nodded.

Noticing Tommy's thoughtful expression, Rick immediately spoke:

During this time, Earl was helping the TV station to contact some other local independent TV stations in California in preparation for the joint premiere event when the official start of the broadcast...... If he knew that BT TV was going to do this kind of black exploitation drama, it would definitely be detrimental to the work he was doing, Hollywood had a similar B-grade movie showing black killings, which was a specific category, black exploitation films, but this niche genre was already in the early eighties, because of the continuous pressure of the anti-black exploitation film alliance formed by the three major black associations to completely die out, and the high-quality blacks of those alliances did not want to see the image of black compatriots in the film too violent, even if it was the main character. ”

For the black people at the bottom, this kind of plot may have a sense of revenge, but those independent TV stations are not all black audiences, and no independent TV station wants to offend the three black associations.

The three major black associations are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formerly known as the Conference of Nonviolent Inclusion of Black Leaders, and the National Black Cities Alliance.

"Why B-movies? Why can't it be a movie that can be watched by men, women, and children? Earl asked, puzzled by Rick's words.

"Earl, no white person wants to go into the movie theater and watch a movie with a black man as the main character, that's the reality, and how many black people can have enough time and can afford to buy a movie ticket to see a black movie?" Rick explains why black movies can only be B-grade cheap films:

"So you can only reduce the production cost, and then use pornography, violence, and gore as a gimmick to attract some audiences, if you make a series that is suitable for all ages, you can also, NBC has a previous series called "Roots", which tells the story of a black American family after five generations, experienced being sold by slave traders, arrived in the United States as a slave, and was liberated to become a free man. But that requires a high cost and the involvement of well-known screenwriters, in other words, big companies can come up with tens of millions of trial and error, but we can't. ”

"Have you seen Rick's Roots? Martin. Tommy asked Martin.

Martin nodded: "I've seen it, it's a very good shot, just one problem, most of the white people in it are really kind, the kind white manor owner, the kind daughter, the kind white officer, the kind Lincoln...... Think about it, if the white man is not kind, the black man can only be obedient and obedient, and only after surviving under the whip can he have a chance to be arranged by the white manor owner to marry a woman and reproduce his offspring, but how can the black man be good-looking, so he needs to be kind to the white man. ”

"Violence, money, black rights, white bullying, these are all built together, I didn't expect a B-grade movie, instead, I thought of a black version of The Godfather, if black people are in need, we should give them what they want to see, and seeing Martin's dress, I even thought of the name of this black-only series." Tommy looked at the crowd:

"Nigger Boss, I have no ill will, Earl, Martin, two, I'm just saying the name of the show."

Seeing that Martin and Earl did not refute their own words, Tommy continued: "For example, designing a crime city, such as Compton, black people are not living well, the city has a high crime rate, black people are desperate, and all other problems are blamed on white mayors, white police chiefs, and even white firefighters, our protagonist is the black godfather, someone bullies his compatriots, he will help his compatriots solve trouble, and at the same time, bad white people will also collude with some bad black people to get rid of this thorn in the side, Probably this is the idea, in short, to design the black boss as the perfect image of the black people, although they fell into gangs because the government deprived the black people of their right to education, but they did not give up on themselves, thieves also have a way, stick to the bottom line, on the contrary, there is no bottom line are those white people, so he will go to war with white people on TV, will conquer white women, will take the wealth of white corrupt officials, send it to the blacks in the community, and eventually become the king of Compton, do you think the three major associations of this thing will find trouble? ”

"This gimmick is good, frankly speaking, since the release of "The Godfather", all the gangsters in film and television have become Italians in the past ten years, and I really want to see a black godfather appear, but frankly speaking, if you have a head, you will definitely be in trouble, and the black executives of the three major associations will receive donations from other TV stations, and when the time comes, they will jump out and accuse BT TV...... It's normal, because I don't do this kind of thing less. After hearing this, Sean nodded and said.

Tommy looked at Sean, "So, you're saying that if you want to make it impossible for them to speak, you have to put on a righteous and awe-inspiring coat for this black show." ”

"I had the idea that in 1984, the Miss America beauty pageant gave birth to the first black champion in history, but she was canceled immediately after she was elected, and then a white woman succeeded her as the champion." Earl looked at Tommy at this point, "She's a good coat, Vanessa Williams." ”

"That's right, it's her, I've heard this woman's name." Sean also reacted: "Yes, this woman is good, it just so happens that she is in trouble now." ”

Tommy looked at Earle, "You know her?" ”

"She approached me with her agent and asked my firm to help with her lawsuit against The Loft, but I didn't agree because there was no chance of winning, and the girl didn't have any money to pay me, but promised to give me a share of the compensation if she won." Earl explains how to get to know each other:

"So, she was boycotted by Hollywood and mainstream TV, and she came to star in this series, which can gain the sympathy of all black people, and until now, black people still believe that her loss of the championship is a conspiracy of white people, and they asked her to participate in this show, or simply use her real experience to process it, she was framed by white people, lost the championship crown, and then found the black godfather, hoping that NiggerBoss will help her administer justice, which can be used as the main story line of the first season."

"Sean, Earl gives you the contact information, and you're responsible for finding her and her agent." After listening to Earl's words, Tommy said decisively:

"This gimmick is good, truth and falsehood are intertwined, in the play, NiggerBoss saves her, and outside the play, BT TV saves her."

(End of chapter)