Cavemen: Spinning Ads Into TV Gold
What Next's After ABC's Geico-Inspired Sitcom?
Tuesday night saw the premier of "Cavemen" -- ABC's Neanderthal spin-off of the wildly successful Geico commercials -- which attempts to turn a 30-second spot into a 30-minute sitcom. The usual media evolution is book to movie, movie to television show and television show to spin-off TV show. Yes, there have been many mutations of this cycle, but the rarest mutation is probably TV-commercial-to-TV-show. The most well-known instance before "Cavemen" is the often-mocked California Raisins, which spawned not only a cartoon but also three studio albums and a video game.
Will "Cavemen" be the first of a wave of commercial-to-TV-show mutations? I don't know, but I did come up with a few pitches that studios may soon be hearing:
Pink Man Group (sitcom): Think Josie and the Pussycats meet Scooby Doo. Each week, Pepto Bismol's five dancing symptoms -- heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, nausea and diarrhea -- settle stomach-turning mysteries from "The Case of the Undercooked Flan" to "Explosions at the Santa Fe Chili Carnival."
Prospects: six episodes.
Mac & Me-PC (movie of the week): Playing on the "Odd Couple" theme, Comedy Central mainstays Justin Long and John Hodgman reprise their roles as dueling computer-humanoids, forced to share an apartment after mutual friend Linux bails on the lease to become a squatter. But the zany hijinks take a tragic turn when PC contracts a fatal virus and Mac is forced to care for him. During the touching bedside climax, it is revealed that they were in fact conjoined twins, separated at birth by mad scientists Dr. Jobs and Dr. Allen to answer the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. As PC's corrupted hard drive enters into a terminal error, his face takes on the visage of the smiley Apple startup logo, proving that despite external packaging and ports, we all have the same kernel code inside.
Prospects: three Emmys and a movie option.
Dennis and Chuck (action drama): With economic apocalypse on the horizon, only a rotoscoped cartoon and an aging hipster (who, thanks to copious drug use, sees the world as a giant rotoscoped cartoon), can prevent the Baby Boom from going Baby Bust. Chuck, the straight-shooting number-cruncher, and Dennis, the retirement rebel, battle the evil forces of inflation, trade deficits and their archenemy: mooching Gen Xers without health insurance. Each episode this dynamic duo learns that while money can't buy you love, saving it prudently can be the basis of a beautiful friendship.
Prospects: two episodes.
Here Comes The Son (sitcom): Hard-working, hard-drinking Jimmy Dean Sun has never had time for love or domestication. But when a moon-faced baby boy turns up on his doorstep before dawn one morning, he experiences a total eclipse of the heart. The scorching humor rises and falls each week as earth's closest star balances lighting and heating our planet with changing diapers and preparing formula without going supernova. Things get even more heated when old flame Venus comes back into orbit for a three-episode plot arc.
Prospects: pilot only.
Subprime: Lost Another Soul To Ditech (documentary): This 12-hour Ken Burns extravaganza follows the lives of washed-up subprime mortgage commercial spokespersons through unemployment, foreclosure and eventual homelessness. A tragic meditation on America's spend-now, pay-later consumerism, the series shows how pitchmen for the American dream are now living an American Nightmare. Watch as the fast-talking high rollers of Countrywide, E-LOAN and Ditech ads struggle against faltering investor confidence, rising defaults and inevitable rejection from the officious banks whose tight standards they once mocked.
Prospects: It takes home a Peabody.
Keebler In Chef (cartoon reality show): Think "Hell's Kitchen" meets "The Apprentice." Set inside the Keebler Elf baking tree, two teams of aspiring pastry chefs cook up tasty treats and more than a little romance while completing a mission each week. Keebler judges Elmer, Ernie and Fast Eddie grade their performance, grant the winning team immunity and decide which member of the losing team has to leave the tree. The last elf standing gets to join the Keebler cooking family. First Mission: A group of anti-elf loggers threaten to cut down their kitchen. Which team will be able to can their jealous egos long enough to pull together for an impromptu bake sale?
Prospects: three seasons.
Of course, the next obvious step would be to give Geico's cute cockney gecko 30 minutes of prime time. I see "Howard the Duck" meets "Mr. Belvedere," but how would you pitch it?
By Emil Steiner | October 3, 2007; 1:40 AM ET | Category: OFF/beat Politics
Posted by: Vern | September 26, 2007 10:51 AM
Remember death match on MTV. They could redo that show and have commercial animals like the Geico gecko and Tony the Tiger fight to the death. Make it on pay-per-view and have betting on it. Count Chocula vs Lucky Charms lepruchaun would be a good match
Posted by: YooWHOO? | September 26, 2007 11:57 AM
Could TV writers get any more lazy? Reality TV is bad enough now they are relying on commercials for content? wow
Posted by: Calvert, VA | September 26, 2007 12:12 PM
I'm not sure it wasn't that lazy to begin with. Ever heard of the Gong Show?
Posted by: | September 26, 2007 12:55 PM
I'm not sure it wasn't that lazy to begin with. Ever heard of the Gong Show?
Posted by: | September 26, 2007 1:30 PM
b-o-r-i-n-g... overused, stale, I see this one tanking..... quickly
Posted by: ithinkitshaditsday | September 26, 2007 1:40 PM
How about the old Charmin commercial with Mr. Whipple, the supermarket clerk who sternly asks his shoppers not to "squeeze the Charmin" but is then caught doing it himself...
A supermarket is such a microcosm.
Posted by: Jim | September 27, 2007 2:50 AM
I would like to see the kids from the PSAs for once get high and be like, you know what this is fun, I'm not addicted and I can still get good grades. Thanks for offering me that joint!
Posted by: Beavis | September 27, 2007 4:31 AM
Being a bit of a troglodyte myself, I'm looking forward to us being treated as the endangered species we are.
Look, there's more brilliance in the Geico commercials than in 9/10ths of what passes for entertainment on the networks.
So, give Cavemen a tussle before you send down the memory hole.
Point of confusion: you wrote that "Tuesday night saw the premier of 'Cavemen'" - yet MSN, and my DVR, tell me it's premier is next Tuesday (2 October). Did I miss it, or is MSM wrong?
Posted by: Jack Rich | September 27, 2007 9:43 AM
The trials and tribulations of herding cats. Anytime the herd is outside of a town, the wranglers can go to the cat-house and write it off as a business expense.
It's about time that we have a real old-time western again.
Posted by: SOMD | September 27, 2007 10:53 AM
I'm looking forward to seeing the show on October 2. Frankly, I think the Geico Caveman commercials are far more entertaining than most of the shows on broadcast and cable TV.
Posted by: Dave | September 27, 2007 12:52 PM
lizard people are kooler
Posted by: lizard | September 29, 2007 5:52 PM
That show was not good at all!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Sam | October 3, 2007 1:14 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
great list dude! How about something with that annoying kid from geico, I think, commercials who talks about slamming Mike Wallace into the wall all the time. He looks like a junior Nazi. Maybe a show where people could throw water baloons at him or something like that, maybe tomatoes