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Talk of the bay
Reality meets HSN: Shopping channel to air inventor contest
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published September 5, 2005
Get ready for the story behind the "convertible stiletto" that's 10 shoe styles in one, the "instant waterfall" and the "quad zipper" that's touted as the biggest thing in fasteners since Velcro.
A sort of American Idol for wannabe inventors, the new USA Network series Made in the USA also is supposed to make a star of the never-ending search for new products at HSN in St. Petersburg.
Some of the show was taped at HSN studios in St. Petersburg and contestants are competing for a one-year contract to sell their brainstorms on the nation's first TV shopping channel.
The reality TV series, which debuts at 10 p.m. Sept. 14, is mostly in the can. But show producers, the same folks who created America's Next Top Model, have released clips from the first few episodes.
Based on that, Made in the USA promises to be a real hoot, if not a cable TV hit. The unconventional products were dreamed up by gabby off-the-wall entrepreneurs, some of whom mortgaged their futures to get their unusual products to market.
The series begins with a cattle call of 50 inventors pitching some wacky ideas. The panel of three judges - including Nolan Bushnell, the creator of Chuck E. Cheese and Pong, the video game; industrial designer Karin Rashid and HSN new product maven Joy Mangano - narrows the field to 12, then six. A viewing audience poll will pick the winner in a live broadcast.
Rather than spoil the plot, we won't share the early winners and losers.
Among the products, however, are a collection device for people who vomit a lot, a bra that can be adjusted without being taken off, a tool that makes it easier to lug plywood sheets and a novel barbecue fork that one judge thinks looks too much like a medieval weapon to sell on TV.
Whether Bushnell's pet phrase becomes as popular as Donald Trump's "You're fired" is another matter. Bushnell frequently pans products by throwing his hands up: "I just don't get it."
[Last modified September 2, 2005, 17:56:02]
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