The Rebel Billionaire: Episode 6
If a Tree Falls in the Woods…
By Eleanor Meilinger
December 9, 2004
I am going to forget about last week if you will. I suppose I got a little caught up in things. I had written an article slamming the newspapers that continue to reprint a Reuters press release that first appeared on November 10th, the day after The Rebel Billionaire premiered. "Fox television's "The Rebel Billionaire," starring daredevil British tycoon Sir Richard Branson, is going over with viewers like a lead balloon." is how it begins.
I have seen that opening in eleven different articles on the show so far. It bothered me that none of these reviewers had actually watched the show but instead chose to rely on one journalist's opinion to counsel their readers. I was about to launch a campaign to get people to give the series a chance and withhold judgment until they saw for themselves that even though the series is flawed, it was well worth watching.
Am I glad that it takes me so darned long to edit these things!
I suspended my own judgment in order to watch last night's episode. Perhaps the fact that it appears right before The Amazing Race was making it pale in comparison. I went so far as to put off watching TAR6 until after I finish my recap so I wouldn't be influenced by it's superior quality. Maybe my expectations were too high…
Maybe not.
This week we catch up with our nine remaining rebels still in London. The first thing of note is the fact that the intro has been changed. They take the time to name the nine contestants (which is a good thing because for a while I was thinking they might have accidentally left poor Candida and Michael back in Africa) and stress that tonight will be a business related challenge. For anyone else who may have lost track the field has been narrowed to: Heather, Erica, Nicole, Sara and Candida for the women and Michael, Shawn, Steve and Gabriel on the men's side. Possibly the execs are reading these recaps and the message boards. Of course, it's too late to go back and change the actual events, however misguided they may be, but at least they can clean up some of the editing blunders that have plagued us from the beginning. For anyone who hasn't visited the official Fox site, I recommend that you do so. Read the journal entries kept by one of the cameramen and watch the video clips from each episode. These have been very enlightening. They remind me that this did start out to be a fantastic adventure and a lot of interesting material has wound up on the cutting room floor, victim of overzealous editors eager to "create" drama rather than letting the action take center stage. If you wondered where the whitewater-rafting trip at Victoria Falls or the motorcycle caravan through London that was mentioned wound up, you can find them there.
Traveling through downtown London in a luxury motor coach Sir Richard pops open (literally) a bottle of Veuve Clicquot while teasing that they didn't get to see much of V-Fest. He then discloses that this week's challenge will revolve around publicity. Backed by clips of some of the more outrageous publicity stunts and promotions Richard Branson has pulled off over the years in order to promote Virgin enterprises, he explains how they once depended on drumming up free publicity to promote Virgin Airlines. He counsels that the key to doing a really successful publicity stunt is to do it with style and panache while insuring that the product you are promoting has substance as well. After seeing how things turn out I begin to wonder how many bottles were served on that bus ride. Somewhere along the line this important bit of advice got lost in translation and the end products of this challenge made for great comedy rather than good business strategy.
No mention is made of how the teams will be divided or leaders chosen but right away it becomes clear that they're sticking to the "Battle of the Sexes". The guys reach a decision pretty quickly once again. Shawn is elected team captain because they will promote his company "Lovesac", a retail furniture business that evolved from an oversized beanbag. He is quick to expound on his leadership abilities and explain that he is aware that he can be overbearing but can't control the fact that he believes his way is often the best way. It was an easy call to choose Lovesac as the focus of their promotion since Steve didn't launch his "Mooshpillow" company until after returning from this adventure (Chip Arndt, winner of The Amazing Race 4 was instrumental in helping Steve get his company started thanks to a serendipitous meeting after RB wrapped); Michael's job as a Wallstreet Strategist didn't offer any viable options for promotion and we never really learned if the title of "entrepreneur" refers to Gabriel's pizza parlors, real estate ventures or some other business he has his hand in.
Now you'd think with a product called Lovesac ideas for publicity stunts would just pour out - you'd be wrong. The first idea Shawn puts forth is to gather as many sofas as possible and set them on fire. I don't know how many other ideas he may have come up with that day but the editors chose that one to lead off with. It would have been great if we got to see some reaction shots from the others when they realized that this was a serious suggestion. Michael recognizes immediately that Shawn will need to be kept under control. (By the way, the very first thing that sprang to mind when I heard they were doing a plug for Lovesac was a re-enactment of "The Full Monty" with little "Lovesac" g-strings! But of course that would have been against Shawn's religion.)
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