Author Topic: Produced in association with Exposure Unlimited (Read 7937 times)

Otm Shank · « **on:** March 09, 2012, 12:29:49 PM »

It was mentioned in the credits of every episode of Scrabble. I always wondered, what exactly was the role that "Exposure Unlimited" had with the production? I know that, particularly with Mark Goodson's shows, that each show had a different shell company that was listed in the copyright page of the credits (and that's another question for another day). Was that merely the name of the content producers, while Reg Grundy Productions handled the studio production? It seems safe to google it, but it comes up with nothing that existed in the 1980s. Any insight?

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 09, 2012, 12:49:23 PM »

I have no idea if its a related company or not, but there is a television advertising company located in Burbank named Exposure Unlimited:

http://www.showmelocal.com/profile.aspx?bid=4976985

tvrandywest · « **Reply #2 on:** March 09, 2012, 01:05:28 PM »

Quote from: Otm Shank on March 09, 2012, 12:29:49 PM

It was mentioned in the credits of every episode of Scrabble. I always wondered, what exactly was the role that "Exposure Unlimited" had with the production? I know that, particularly with Mark Goodson's shows, that each show had a different shell company that was listed in the copyright page of the credits (and that's another question for another day). Was that merely the name of the content producers, while Reg Grundy Productions handled the studio production? It seems safe to google it, but it comes up with nothing that existed in the 1980s. Any insight?

Exposure Unlimited was (is?) an advertising agency that specializes in product placement for clients' products and services as game show prizes. It's a niche business that has been called "prize shlepper." The most successful and respected independent of these companies is Promotional Consideration Inc., run by former "Squares" producer Art Alisi and his partner Dan Fox, two truly wonderful guys, who still work with WOF and other shows.

Quick story: I had become friendly with Art Alisi from my multiple appearances on shows and pilots. When I won prizes that I really didn't want on "All Star Blitz," Art bent the rules and applied the cash he had tied up in those goods in my favor, and orchestrated a trade for some trips which he acquired, in trade, from... Exposure Unlimited!

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Otm Shank · « **Reply #3 on:** March 09, 2012, 01:38:57 PM »

Thanks, Randy. Every time you reply, without fail, there is something interesting.

I had a hunch that they might be some sort of prize broker, but it was odd that Scrabble never* had major prizes, only consolation prizes. Perhaps Exposure Unlimited was subcontracted for the fee-plug portion of the show. And maybe some or all of the prize budget was subsidized from Exposure Unlimited's placements, thus the mention.

Interesting that Scrabble mentioned the prize schlepper, when other shows with a great deal of schlepping did not.

The Burbank-based Exposure Unlimited linked above seems to be related to the 1980s one, and perhaps they retooled their business after the prize wrangling market subsided. That said, it is odd that an advertising company does not have a web page, so either they have been acquired or are no more.

(*Whenever I speak in absolutes, someone pulls an exception out of their uh, archive, within 3 posts.)
----
EDIT:

And apparently they were acquired/merged with the aforementioned Promotional Consideration, Inc. The address listed in Modor's link above matches the address on PCI's website. (At the very least, they moved into the same building.) Mystery solved!

Adam Nedeff · « **Reply #4 on:** March 09, 2012, 08:50:58 PM »

Quote

And apparently they were acquired/merged with the aforementioned Promotional Consideration, Inc. The address listed in Modor's link above matches the address on PCI's website. (At the very least, they moved into the same building.) Mystery solved!

Yes, they did, and I briefly worked for both companies when I moved to Los Angeles nearly five years ago. All of them are incredibly pleasant, kind people and I enjoyed my time there.

To clarify their role in the show, it's been a while since the staff told me this story, but my understanding of this was that Exposure Unlimited brokered a deal with Selchow and Righter for the TV rights to "Scrabble." S&R really had no intention of doing anything on TV with "Scrabble," so they signed over the rights for a song. Exposure Unlimited then basically put a little bug in everybody's ear in Hollywood saying "If you ever come up with a Scrabble game show format, we have the TV production rights." Reg Grundy's office took the bait and produced the TV series. Exposure Unlimited really didn't have anything to do with developing the series, but they commanded a huge fee since they had that piece of paper saying they had the rights. Really smart businesswomen. And fun fact, one of the co-owners of the company was a contestant on "Concentration" with Jack Narz.

chris319 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 09, 2012, 10:43:24 PM »

Feel the love I have for Reg Grundy. My love for Mr. Grundy is big, hot and throbbing -- like a hemorrhoid.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #6 on:** March 10, 2012, 07:57:34 AM »

I wonder why Mr. Grundy didn't just make a show called "Scrabble," sell it to the network, and just worry about Selchow after it was a hit or became a flop?
/That's how he operated in Oz

tvrandywest · « **Reply #7 on:** March 10, 2012, 01:49:44 PM »

Quote from: Jimmy Owen on March 10, 2012, 07:57:34 AM

I wonder why Mr. Grundy didn't just make a show called "Scrabble," sell it to the network, and just worry about Selchow after it was a hit or became a flop?
/That's how he operated in Oz

Al Howard tells the story of Grundy arriving in a hotel room in New York with a pen and legal pad to watch American game shows so that he could "create" his new formats. The Jurrasic period for intellectual property copyright.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

chris319 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2012, 10:15:44 AM »

He became even more brazen than that. I've been told he used to tape the shows.

If he ripped off one of my formats and wanted to produce it after the copyright law changed, I'd be happy to let him do so -- for 75% of the profit and a quarterly audit of all production expenses.

Here is the cure for Reg Grundy.

Bryce L. · « **Reply #9 on:** May 13, 2012, 09:31:49 PM »

Quote from: tvrandywest on March 09, 2012, 01:05:28 PM

Quote from: Otm Shank on March 09, 2012, 12:29:49 PM
It was mentioned in the credits of every episode of Scrabble. I always wondered, what exactly was the role that "Exposure Unlimited" had with the production? I know that, particularly with Mark Goodson's shows, that each show had a different shell company that was listed in the copyright page of the credits (and that's another question for another day). Was that merely the name of the content producers, while Reg Grundy Productions handled the studio production? It seems safe to google it, but it comes up with nothing that existed in the 1980s. Any insight?
Exposure Unlimited was (is?) an advertising agency that specializes in product placement for clients' products and services as game show prizes. It's a niche business that has been called "prize shlepper." The most successful and respected independent of these companies is Promotional Consideration Inc., run by former "Squares" producer Art Alisi and his partner Dan Fox, two truly wonderful guys, who still work with WOF and other shows.

Quick story: I had become friendly with Art Alisi from my multiple appearances on shows and pilots. When I won prizes that I really didn't want on "All Star Blitz," Art bent the rules and applied the cash he had tied up in those goods in my favor, and orchestrated a trade for some trips which he acquired, in trade, from... Exposure Unlimited!

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I saw this kinda-sorta revived by a new post today, so here goes... in Stan Blits' book about "The Price is Right", he mentions that CBS has a department called Promotional Placement and Awards that tries to, as one of their duties, get prizes for its game shows... would Exposure Unlimited be one of the companies CBS' Promotional Placement and Awards department most likely would be in fairly frequent contact with (given that CBS now has "Let's Make A Deal" in daytime as well as "Price")?

Otm Shank · « **Reply #10 on:** May 14, 2012, 12:28:02 AM »

Quote from: Bryce L. on May 13, 2012, 09:31:49 PM

would Exposure Unlimited be one of the companies CBS' Promotional Placement and Awards department most likely would be in fairly frequent contact with (given that CBS now has "Let's Make A Deal" in daytime as well as "Price")?

Promotional Consideration, Inc. (as I found out through the discussion) is the successor organization to Exposure Unlimited. The PCI website does not list Let's Make A Deal as one of the shows that it services.

http://www.pcitv.net/shows.html

However, they did work with a version of Let's Make a Deal that aired on Univision, the 2003 Billy Bush-hosted show, and the 1996 knockoff The Big Deal.