"Survey Says"

[Skynet74]

The following text is Reposted from Another Television message Board that I frequent. None of it comes from me.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We were up in Burlington last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday visiting family and I happened across a very bizarre game show on one of the Burlington Cable TV local access channels. It was a cheezy knockoff of \"Family Feud\" called \"Survey Says\"....reminded me of a cross between Fernwood 2Nite and maybe some high school or college TV production class projects. Upon returning home, I was so intrigued that I did some Google-ing and found an entire website (http://www.geocities.com/polliproductions/) was actually devoted to the show and the resident cast of characters.

Never laughed so hard in my life......any Burlington area locals have any insights into this farce beyond the information available on the webpages ?

[Matt Ottinger]

Hey, doing game shows on public access is how I got the start to what I laughingly call a career, and those were from the early eighties so I can only imagine what they must look like now!

Still, at least I had the good sense and imagination to do an original one.  I can't imagine putting so much time and effort into something that at BEST will get you a cease-and-desist order from Fremantle.

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Sep 29 2003, 09:08 AM\'] Hey, doing game shows on public access is how I got the start to what I laughingly call a career, and those were from the early eighties so I can only imagine what they must look like now!

Still, at least I had the good sense and imagination to do an original one.  I can't imagine putting so much time and effort into something that at BEST will get you a cease-and-desist order from Fremantle. [/quote]
 I went there this morning and it was working fine. Now, it's not available. Hmmm..

The site says the host has been doing this for 3 years and previously worked on TPIR.

Do you think a cease-and-desist would be worth it for a public access show that so few people see?

I don't think there would be much confusion in the marketplace confusing this with the real Feud.

[Jimmy Owen]

This may fall under fair use as parody.  Isn't any show with a buzzer and questions ripping off \"Winner Take All\"?

[Matt Ottinger]

I went there this morning and it was working fine. Now, it's not available. Hmmm..

The site says the host has been doing this for 3 years and previously worked on TPIR.

Do you think a cease-and-desist would be worth it for a public access show that so few people see?

1) The fact that it's not working now is a function of GeoCities' preposterously small bandwidth allowances and the sudden curiosity factor due to this and the other message board.

2)  He \"worked\" on TPIR one summer in 1999.  My guess is that it was an internship.  I don't want to trash the guy, he sounds like a big game show fan with big dreams, and that describes most of the people on this forum after all.  Heck, he might even BE a member of this forum for all I know.  But to go from one summer of working backstage to being the next Bob Barker is a bit of a leap.

3) No, of course it's not worth Fremantle's time to bother with a public access show.  My point is that this is as far as it'll ever go.  With an original format at least he'd have more options while pursuing his dreams.

As for Jimmy's comment, I don't think \"parody\" counts unless you really are using it for some sort of satiric purpose or at the very least that it's a small part of a larger program (like a radio givaway).  Best I can tell, this is a flat-out copy they're not even trying to disguise.   As I said, Fremantle really has no reason to bother with it, but if copyright protection doesn't apply here, I can't imagine where it would.

[Jimmy Owen]

Maybe he's just compiling an elaborate audition tape in an effort to replace Richard Karn?