PELTING THE BOSS WITH DEAD FISH. MY BEST IDEA CAME AT THE WORST TIME IMAGINABLE.

Promoting “The Grudge Match” in New Orleans as war raged in the Middle East

Syndication is the area of the television business in which production companies, or their parent companies (like Warner Bros., Paramount or Fox) sell the shows they produce to television stations around the United States and overseas.  “Off-network” syndication involves programs that are sold as reruns after a program’s successful network run (like “Big Bang Theory,” “Friends” and “Seinfeld”), while “First-run” syndication is the sale of new programming which did not run on a network or cable (like “Wheel of Fortune,” “Judge Judy,” etc.).

After more than three years working as a marketing executive in TV syndication with TriStar Pictures and Stephen J. Cannell (overseeing the marketing of TriStar movies as well as SJC shows including “Hunter, “Wiseguy” and “21 Jump Street”), I took a job at Genesis Entertainment in the summer of 1990, which was a fast-growing company based in Agoura Hills, California.  Genesis had previously secured the rights and sold “Highway to Heaven,” off-net; the Michael Landon drama was a great success and allowed Genesis to secure more off-net product including “Tales from the Crypt” from HBO.

But Genesis’ future growth-area would be selling television product it produced and owned itself.  The show Genesis would launch in 1991 was a humorous competition program called “The Grudge Match,” in which everyday people would settle their grudges in a boxing ring, with unusual weapons like spaghetti, seltzer water or cream pies.

Genesis’ sales team would spread out across the country, paying calls on stations in more than 200 cities to secure clearances and good time slots.

But the best opportunity to reach a large number of television station program directors at one time was the annual convention of the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) in January.  The conference in 1991 was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Genesis’ booth would highlight “The Grudge Match” with oversize light boxes and other signage (including a “Wall of Weapons,” featuring the odd items used to settle scores on the show.

It was my job to oversee construction of our 2400-square foot booth, with a large open area and screening rooms for each of the sales staff.

Little did I know at the outset of that year’s conference, that world events would overshadow everything and leave an indelible mark on our memories of the 1991 NATPE Conference.

From my Journal, January 15, 1991:

            NATPE Day #1.  Trudged over from the Hilton to the Genesis booth at 8am, three and a half hours before opening but still a mess and far from completion when I arrived.  My team and I were working around Phil Oldham and the sales staff that had started a meeting at 7am and wouldn’t be done for at least another hour.  Keith Lee was working on our “Wall of Weapons” from Grudge Match right up until 11:30, the very moment the show floor opened.

            The Genesis booth is nice, but the screening rooms are small.  I made a note to install padding under the carpet next year, and avoid glass tables, which are tough to keep clean.  We also have an extraordinary amount of literature all over the place, but it’s an important sales tool.

            Things worked relatively well, and there was a good deal of traffic in the booth, mostly because the sales team had set up several appointments ahead of time.  Gary (Gannaway, Genesis’ founder and owner) was pleased, though had plenty of questions and suggestions during and at the end of the day.

            By 6:30pm, when the show floor closed, my feet and back were aching, and an hour’s sales meeting afterward did not help.  I returned to my room at the Hilton exhausted but had to turn around and head out a few minutes later for dinner at Arnaud’s, my favorite restaurant here in New Orleans; it lived up to all my expectations with first class service and excellent food once again.

            Back at the hotel relatively early for a change with no work to be done in the booth.  Turned on CNN which everyone has been watching today --- on the show floor and in the hotel bars --- because today was the deadline the United Nations gave to Saddam Hussein in Iraq to pull his troops out of Kuwait.  This is a scary time around the world…not just in the Middle East.

January 16, 1991:

            Wednesday at NATPE in New Orleans.  A long, eventful, memorable day, starting with a hot shower, no breakfast (haven’t gotten out of bed early enough to have time for breakfast all week), the comfortable walk over to the convention center, and then the craziness.

            Our big publicity stunt has been advertised, promoted, and talked about for days.  Today at 1pm we invited station executives to come throw things at Gary Gannaway; all Grudge Match weapons including spaghetti, slime balls, silly string, twinkies and dead fish.  A crowd gathered, videotape crews set up…there was no room to walk in our booth or in the hall around it!  Producer Rich Melcombe emceed…one station GM, National Geographic Marketing Director Todd Berman, and Gary’s secretary Michelene participated!  And it was a howl!

Gary Gannaway after pelting with “Grudge Match” weapons (above); Promotional ad for the publicity stunt (below)

            Gary hammed it up, and I believe we will get a lot of ink on this in the trades.  The mess took a while to clean up.  Everyone was pleased, and it was back to business for the rest of the afternoon.  Up until about 5:30, that is…

            I was walking down the convention hall visiting a few old friends when I noticed large groups of people clustered around the few live television sets on the floor, and stepped up to see CNN live, reporting that the attack on Iraq had begun.  Everyone expected it but didn’t want to believe it would happen.  The final hour on the NATPE show floor was somber…station executives filed out; some we were told booked early flights home, where they’d have to oversee the scheduling of news cut-ins and pre-emptions on their air.

            Dinner tonight was at the wonderful Commander’s Palace with Gerry & Syliva Rosen and Patti Mark.  All in all, I’ve been enjoying my evenings here in New Orleans, but tonight was different for another reason…the bombing going on in Iraq.

January 17, 1991:

            NATPE DAY #3.  Another incredibly diverse day of great highs and scary lows, starting with our publicity gimmick in the Genesis booth, where more station executives had a chance to “settle their grudge,” this time with Phil Oldham.  They threw spaghetti and pies…whipped cream pies…the highlight was when Liz Oldham, Phil’s wife, threw everything else on the table…balls covered with pancake batter, twinkies and soggy cupcakes…but the best was the dead fish on ice!  It didn’t draw the audience yesterday with Gary did (many station execs had left town), but it was much livelier, and we got a number of great photos.

Phil Oldham (above)

            The rest of the day on the floor was business as usual.  I had the chance to visit many of my counterparts in the other booths, but a big pall came over the show floor when word got around that Iraq had fired SCUD missiles at Israel, with several bombs hitting in Tel Aviv and Haifa.  Just as last night, everyone was gathering around the monitors, watching for the latest developments.  But information was so sketchy that there was no way to know how bad it was.

            The big company dinner was held tonight at Maximo’s, and it was one of the most bizarre evenings I can remember.  One minute Gary was toasting all of his hard-working employees, the next we were all watching a television report live from Jerusalem.  It was back and forth between laughing, joking, drinking and watching the latest reports from the Middle East.  Poor Kathy McMahon, whose husband is in Saudi Arabia right now.  She was understandably terrified with every mention of the conflict.

            The group split up shortly after dinner, and I was back in the hotel a little after midnight watching more updates from Israel.  Apparently, there weren’t heavy casualties in Iraq’s attack on Israel, but even one casualty is bad enough.

Trade ad for “The Grudge Match” (above)

January 18, 1991:

            NATPE 1991’s conclusion, a typically quiet Day #4 morning, with few station people coming through, but lots of other syndicators, press people and even janitors looking for T-shirts and other promotional items we brought to hand out to clients. A good indication of how much I can depend on my staff as a Senior Vice President was the fact that I could leave the show floor for my hotel and the airport before the show closed!  Because of the tight airport security necessitated by the current crisis in the Middle East, we were told to be at the airport two hours ahead of time. 

            Flew back to Burbank after a change of planes in Dallas.  I would have loved to stay one more night in New Orleans, when a blow-out evening party to celebrate a successful week could really be enjoyed.  But it’s been a long week away from home, and I missed my family an awful lot (my son Robbie was only nine days old when I flew out).  Elf picked me up and soon we were back in our comfy home, where I squeezed Joseph in a bear hug and looked in on a sleeping Robbie, who’s gained half a pound since I last saw him!

            Turned on the TV to CNN, since I hadn’t heard any news in about eight hours, and just knew something had to be going on in Israel or Iraq.  Sure enough, more horrible news…Israel had just absorbed a second missile attack.  They had not retaliated to yesterday’s attack at President Bush’s request, but after a failed U.S. attempt to knock out Iraqi SCUD missiles before Iraq’s second hit on Israel, Israeli retaliation is a virtual certainty now.

History on the world stage may be doomed to repeat itself, but in the television business, not so much.  The NATPE Conference’s show floor was forced to downsize over the years as station ownership consolidated under large groups who would make deals for up to 100 stations at one time, and it became unfeasible for syndicators to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for fewer meetings that were unlikely to generate that much in return.

In the years prior to Genesis Entertainment’s merger with New World in 1994, Wayne Lepoff kept unnecessary spending in check when other companies were operating as if there were no limits.  Wayne’s wisdom had kept Genesis profitable when other small syndicators were struggling.  At the time of the merger, when some executives at New World were hoping their team would learn by and adopt Genesis’ economical ways, New World’s spendthrift ways were frequently too difficult to reverse.  In 1995 I spent over $1 million for four days of New World/Genesis’ participation at NATPE.  Was it worth it?  Two years later, New World didn’t exist.