Duped by my own sense of importance

These days, when I am home before 8 PM, I usually avoid answering my land line. Simply put, most people who know me know I use my land line sporadically and anyone who calls me there is usually someone I don't want to talk to. But, sometimes I forget about this and get inudated by telemarketers. Last week, with my head in the clouds due to my impending engagement, I forgot about this and actually spoke to a telemarketer. They said they were doing market research related to a new sitcom pilot and offered to send me a free copy of the pilot if I agreed to watch it and answer some questions the next day. Being a pop culture lover and having watched preview versions of other shows before, I agreed.

The tape ended up arriving Friday while I was at my parents' house and I hadn't opened the package until last night. When I did, I found a video tape and a booklet of various products I was to select from to determine my "prize." This all seemed weird, but I figured what the hell? I threw the tape into my VCR (this should have been my first warning sign. I mean really, who uses VHS anymore?) and was greeted with a warning that this tape erased as it played and I should not fastforward or rewind it.

What then laid before me was one of the worst shows I've ever seen. It was called "Dads" and was essentially a Full House rip off. The name actors were C. Thomas Howell, Rue McLanahan and Ross's lesbian ex-wife from friends. After a few minutes with zero laughs, I got restless and went to google this. Turns out, this was a marketing scam concocted not by a tv studio but an advertising agency and there were embedded commercials in the show. Worse than that, it wasn't a new show; the show was filmed in 1997. Needless to say, I grabbed the tape and tossed it right then and there, twenty minutes of my life wasted then and there.

For those interested in this show, here's some more info:

http://www.greghoward.net/index.php/weblog/market_research/
http://joelavin.com/surveys.html