America 1982

On his way to the judges' audition for Stephen's new film, Tommy received a call from Earl Rush.

The ratings survey results of BT TV’s previous self-paid TV stations have finally been released. As a free TV network that does not have regional flagship TV stations and is all partner TV stations, its performance is very good.

The ratings of "Searching for Dad America" ​​are 4.7.

The ratings of "NiggerBoss" are 3.9.

Calculated based on the Nielsen ratings of 1% for every 1.5 million viewers, 7.05 million people have watched BT TV's "American Dad" and 5.85 million people have watched Tommy's crime drama series "Nigger BOSS" specially filmed for black people.

Such ratings may not seem worth mentioning in the United States, which has a population of 240 million, but in fact, all three major TV networks now know the name of BT TV Network.

Of course, some people in the industry have paid attention to the establishment of BT before, such as FOX's Jamie Crosby, but after learning that the BT TV network did not have its own flagship TV station, they all regarded it as a joke. The founder was definitely an outsider. We will set up a TV network where all the TV stations under its jurisdiction are cooperative franchises, and wait until it closes down.

But now, in their eyes, although Tommy is still a business idiot, he is not considered a TV amateur, because the BT TV network's programs are well-produced and every one of them is full of gimmicks.

The two programs "Daddy America" ​​and "Nigger Boss" are broadcast during prime time, which means that when they are broadcast, they have to compete with the signature programs of the three major TV networks and FOX TV network for ratings. Rate.

CBS's same-time program had a ratings of 14.3, NBC's same-time program had a ratings of 14, ABC's same-time program had a ratings of 17.5, and FOX's same-time program had a ratings of 15.9.

If this is just a comparison, BT TV Network is definitely a small player. What really made the TV industry pay attention to the existence of BT TV Network was the late-night period.

The ratings of "Wife Swap Game" were 12.3, and the ratings of "Almighty Gunman" were 9.1, both breaking 9.

CBS is 6.7 in the same period, NBC is 7.1 in the same period, ABC is 8.1 in the same period, and FOX is 8.6 in the same period.

The late-night ratings of CBS and NBC are low. The main reason is that the viewing groups of these two TV networks tend to be middle-aged and older viewers. Generally, these viewers have to go to bed after watching prime-time programs.

Before the establishment of FOX, ABC was the late-night king. For the two major TV networks, ABC made a lot of optimizations to its late-night programs for young people who like to stay up late. For example, it often works late at night for those whose parents are asleep but dare not secretly subscribe. The majority of American teenagers on the Little Movie Channel play some marginal youth romance movies and provide benefits.

This also allowed it to maintain a rating of over 9 in the late-night slot before the establishment of FOX. However, with the establishment of FOX, ABC was immediately kicked out of the late-night slot, because FOX was more unscrupulous, and ABC only broadcast some marginal youth romance. Movie?

FOX directly broadcasts movies with accidentally exposed scenes due to "careless editing".

The FCC has issued fines to FOX for careless editing all year round, but FOX insists that it would rather pay the fine than lock the eyes of young people on its own channel. In popular terms, FOX is the typical LZ good guy among American teenagers.

Such a shameless approach has also earned FOX the honorary title of "Immoral Television Network", "R-rated Television Network", "Minor-Prohibited Television Network" and other honorary titles in the United States.

And now, the throne has been replaced late at night, and a new king has stepped on the bones of the old one to ascend the throne?

Moreover, the BT TV network seems to have a completely different style from FOX. The FOX TV network is about what young people want to see and immediately arranges for them to see what they want to see, such as falling in love, having sex, kissing, etc.

BT, on the other hand, pays more attention to voyeurism and teenage fantasies. In the program "Wife Swap Game", although the two heroines are black and white, their figures and looks are good enough. It will definitely satisfy many young people's fantasies about mature women, and it will be easier for them to do so. Let them have wild imaginations based on what will happen to them after such a mature and beautiful woman moves into their home.

As a popular science program broadcast in the middle of the night, "Almighty Gunman" is actually higher than FOX's popular science program "Temptation" which aims to help young people understand the world of two people. This surprised many people. , and at the same time, I was very upset. Why did I not expect to come up with such a firearms science program to improve young people's hands-on skills?

The most important thing is that the two late-night programs of BT TV Network do not violate any laws. Unlike FOX TV Network, which needs to pay regular fines, because BT's programs have no exposure points and do not have any bad tendencies. All viewers feel that these two programs have bad tendencies. BT There are 10,000 reasons to tell them that it is all your own random thoughts. Our original intention in producing the two programs was very pure.

"The Wife Swap Game" is an ordinary family reality show. Through the appearance of a new mother, it shows the audience a different family life from before.

"Almighty Gun Modifier" claims that in order to improve the self-defense ability of families, it has invited specialized firearms experts to provide guidance on how to increase the power of common old firearms so that housewives or the elderly feel more secure when they are alone at home.

The whole world knows that it is impossible for housewives and the elderly to get up in the middle of the night to watch such a popular science program. This is a small weapons class specially opened for young people, and it can also collect advertising fees from weapons dealers or gun shops.

"If a criminal wears protective equipment comparable to a body armor, how can we scare him away with a pistol." This is the first episode of "Almighty Gun Changing King", the host introduced the current topic at the beginning of the program.

It can be summarized in one sentence. It is simple and concise, but absolutely practical. It is just short of directly telling the eager audience how to use a pistol to deal with the police when they are wearing body armor and looking for trouble.

Moreover, the latest issue of "American Television Observer" magazine published an article by TV critic David Vanney commenting on the FOX TV network. One paragraph specifically mentioned the BT TV network that had just launched:

"Whether it is political leanings or program style, FOX TV network is conservative and criticized by the industry. It is different from the three major TV networks. It strives to attract young viewers with vulgarity, excitement and personality, trying to make itself known among young viewers. Everyone knows about the label of being anti-traditional, and young people in our country are flocking to the label of being anti-traditional. Those who are condemned should support it, and those who are banned should try it."

“FOX realized that they had obtained the ratings code by capturing the attention of young people. Although the ratings during most periods are still lagging behind the three major TV networks, everyone believes that with this code, FOX has become the fourth largest TV network in the United States. It’s just a matter of time before the internet comes online.”

"Because the three major TV networks cannot abandon their own style and audience to blindly block FOX TV network. They continue to make harsh words and criticize FOX at industry conferences, but they cannot really cause a blow to FOX in terms of ratings."

"It wasn't until I finished the article that I saw a newly launched BT TV network's recording program. The name tells everyone that this is a TV network that mainly targets the black community. First of all, I want to give my opinion. This TV network is a gateway. It's only a matter of time before it fails. There are big problems in its management and business operations, which are not discussed in this review. My opinion is that if it can persist for a period of time, it is likely to greatly delay FOX from becoming the fourth largest The speed of the TV network, because a large part of its audience overlaps with FOX, is what can really hit FOX, and the BT TV network's method of subdividing the audience also provides TV to the three major TV networks The idea of ​​​​a new competitive pattern in the industry is to split FOX’s ratings by Lingchi.”

"In my opinion, the smarter thing about BT TV Network is that viewers cannot criticize its programs for being vulgar from a legal perspective. It will not receive FCC fines like FOX every week, but the look and feel makes me feel that it is better than FOX's programs. It feels more exciting.”

"If the style of the NBC television network is gorgeous and gentle, the style of the CBS television network is tradition and depth, the style of the ABC television network is fun and innovative, and the style of the FOX television network is vulgar and spicy, then it has just launched and is destined to be short-lived. BT TV network, the style label is sharp and shameless."

"Having one more shameless industry competitor is not a bad thing for the three major TV networks, at least not now that they are helpless against FOX."

Tommy sat in the back seat of the car, listening to Earl Rush on the phone talking excitedly about the news he had collected from the BT TV network.

There is a reason for Earl Rush to be excited. Although he knows that he is just a passer-by on the BT TV network. If the BT TV network really grows, sooner or later more professional talents will take over from him to take care of it. As a black executive, he Just because of his status and connections, the CEO will handle Tommy's situation for a while. When he finds someone to take over, he will continue on the path of becoming a politician, but by then, he will be relying on the powerful public opinion weapon of the BT TV network.

"So, when are you going to acquire several TV stations in big cities as your own flagship TV station?" After Earl finished talking about the outside world's views on BT, he asked Tommy: "When some magazines called to invite interviews, they all Asked this question.”

But the answer Tommy gave the next second left him stunned:

"BT TV has no plans to acquire or establish its own regional flagship TV stations in the past two years."

"Are you crazy?" Earl Rush asked in disbelief.

BT TV station can gather more than a hundred cooperative TV stations in the United States to join and form the so-called BT TV network. This does not mean that this TV network is really a TV network. At best, it is just an alliance with loose cooperation. Even if Earl is not an industry insider, Understand that if you want to stabilize the structure of the TV network, BT TV station must have its own sub-stations as flagship stations in at least five to six major cities.

The role of these five or six flagship TV stations is to ensure that even if other partner TV stations in the region break their contracts and no longer cooperate, BT TV can still maintain a certain local ratings and will not be completely kicked out of the region.

The three major TV networks and FOX all operate in this way. They not only fully own several flagship TV stations, but also hold shares in more than a dozen TV stations with high ratings, and arrange their own professionals to operate and manage them. Finally, the TV networks At the bottom are the affiliated TV stations that have cooperated and joined.

If Tommy doesn't follow this approach and fully acquire several large TV stations to serve as flagships, and doesn't own more than a dozen TV stations to take over the operation, and just relies on more than 100 cooperative TV stations to maintain it, as the comments say, it will definitely close down. .

First, BT TV station has no clear idea of ​​the advertising revenue status of cooperative TV stations in various places. Even if the other party breaches the contract, BT may find it difficult to detect. For example, a TV station broadcasts BT's self-made program, but during the period, it secretly inserts advertisements received by its own station. And so on, and even use yin and yang contracts with advertisers in the area to bypass BT's share of the revenue. For example, BT learned that the TV station charged 100,000 yuan in advertising fees, but the TV station secretly signed another 1 million contract with the advertiser, and BT could not detect it. , it can only be divided with the TV station based on 100,000 yuan, and 1 million will go into the account of the cooperative TV station. If there is a local TV station that it owns shares in and understands the local advertising market, the cooperative TV station will not dare to engage in such small tricks.

Second, the cooperative TV station has falsified the ratings. Once the contract is about to expire, the cooperative TV station will inevitably falsify the ratings in order to get the maximum benefit from the renewal negotiation. This is almost everyone in the industry knows that, and if BT holds it close to the other party, The TV station can use its own viewing data to infer how accurate the other party's data is, easily expose the other party's lies, and also increase the confidence in negotiations. That is, I own a self-sustained TV station in the region. The worst is not to renew the contract, no matter how late it is. Slowly looking for partners, anyway, even if the ratings drop, it will be within the acceptable range.

Third, although it is unlikely to happen, if FOX or the three major TV networks are really planning to kill Tommy's BT TV network, it will be very easy. That is to negotiate with more than 100 partner TV stations of the BT TV network. No need All of them refuse to renew their contracts. As long as 30% of the partner TV stations refuse to renew their contracts, it will be enough to cause a chain reaction, causing a large number of partner TV stations to start to wait and see and delay the renewal of the contract. By then, no matter how exciting the BT TV network's programs are, the audience will also If you can’t see it, it will naturally be closed.

"All my money has been invested in the news network, which requires a lot of money, so I don't have much money to acquire TV stations recently." Tommy held Otilia in one hand and the phone in the other, looking at the scenery and scenery outside the window. The girlfriend next to me said in a relaxed tone.

"Don't think I don't know, Tommy, I also have some connections in California. I heard that your friend named Stephen, relying on his family connections, is borrowing money for you from a bank under the California consortium." Mi said he had no money, and Earl immediately exposed it:

"You are not prepared to invest your own money at all. I don't care if you are willing to pay, Tommy. I just want to say that the BT TV network must have its own TV station, otherwise all partner TV stations will treat us as idiots. Bargain with us so that if a competitor attacks, we have no power to fight back.”

"Earl..." Tommy laughed when he heard Earl's somewhat sullen voice: "You are a lawyer, don't get too involved, don't really think of yourself as a practitioner in the TV industry, those TV stations want to take advantage, casual, self-made I will continue to pay for programs, program purchase, personnel expenses and other expenses, but I will not use money to acquire TV stations, I will just develop cooperative TV stations."

"Why?" Earl asked in confusion.

Tommy cleared his throat: "Because I'm not here to make money, I'm here to realize the value of life."

"There's a difference between realizing the value of life and being an idiot in the industry, Tommy." Earl felt that Tommy's words were an insult to his IQ as a lawyer.

"You are a black man, Earl, why did I choose you? Don't forget, don't let the temptation of money lose your heart, you must learn to resist the temptation." Tommy did not give an answer, just finished the sentence and hung up. The call was disconnected.

…

Taft Building, Vine Street Plaza, Hollywood.

It wasn't until Otilia ran to see the stars on the street outside the main entrance of the Taft Building that Tommy took her arm and walked into the twelve-story building built in 1887.

This guy Stephen is definitely not a filmmaker in Tommy's mind, but he definitely believes that to most people in Hollywood, Stephen must be a filmmaker, because this guy's company is located in the Taft Building, and small companies do not have offices in the Taft Building. The courage and strength to open an office here.

Since the golden age of American movies, all well-known Hollywood production companies have set up offices in this building.

Otilia went out of her way to see stars like Charlie Chaplin, Audrey Hepburn and other stars who left the Taft Building and stayed in Hollywood. They were located just outside the main entrance of the Taft Building.

Don't worry about whether Stephen is professional when shooting movies, but the attitude he shows is very bluffing.

When Tommy and Otilia entered the "Made in Heaven" film company run by Stephen, Zoe had already arrived. At this time, she and Stephen were in a creative studio and were specially notified to communicate with the character prototypes to ensure a deeper understanding of the characters. chatting with the actors of the new film.

There are only three actors here today, one male and two female. The male is responsible for playing Tommy, and the female is responsible for playing Zoe and Otilia.

Other actors had different schedules due to different schedules.

"Otilia, long time no see." Zoe saw Tommy and Otilia appear, got up from her seat, quickly came over and hugged Otilia, and said in surprise.

She had met Tommy before at David's wedding, but this was the first time Otilia had reunited since they were separated at summer camp.

"You look unchanged, you are still as charming as before." Zoe let go of Otilia, looked at the female teacher back then, and said with emotion: "Five years have not left any traces on you, Ottilia." Leah.”

Otilia responded happily to Zoe: "You have changed a lot, Zoe. You were a delicate and quiet doll back then, but now you look like, although you are still beautiful, you have a more independent woman's look to your whole person." charm."

Stephen stood up lazily and introduced Tommy and Otilia to the three actors who stood up at this moment: "The ones who came in just now are Tommy and Otilia, yes, the protagonist Tommy and his instructor , what you are seeing now is a horrific plot that does not exist in the movie script. The high school student finally lives happily with his female teacher. In order to avoid irritating the high school students, I promise not to put this plot on the big screen. "

At this time, Tommy and Otilia also walked towards the three actors who got up.

Walking at the front was a young man with a dark brown porcupine head, wearing simple jeans and a T-shirt, with a bright smile. He reached out to Tommy and Otilia: "Hello, I'm Matt Dillon. , call me Matt.”

Tommy and Otilia recognized each other without each other having to introduce themselves.

"Wow~ Matt Dillon." Tommy stretched out his hand and shook it with him, and said in surprise: "I thought that guy Stephen would invite celebrities, but I didn't expect you to show up and play Tommy Ho Grams? To be honest, the way I bullied the nerds in high school and my good friend Dennis losing his virginity were all inspired by your movie."

What Tommy said is absolutely true. Even though Tom Cruise is now famous, many young men and women in their twenties and thirties still firmly believe that Matt Dillon is the real young American idol.

In the eyes of most young people, Tommy Cruise will only trick everyone into joining the army, and Matt Dillon will tell you what it means to be charming.

Matt Dillon started making movies in 1979. Most of his roles were troubled teenagers who were very cool and fashionable in the eyes of his peers. In the movies, he played tricks on his nerdy classmates, and invited his beloved girls to camp to find opportunities to say goodbye to his virginity. The operation influenced a large number of Tommy, Dennis and Pam, his peers.

Even when Matt Dillon became a hit with "The Little Godfather" in 1983, today's Tom Cruise can only play a minor role in that movie.

"This is not the first time I've heard that." Matt Dillon said with a smile after hearing Tommy say that he was influenced by the movie he starred in to bully his classmates.

The second blond woman who came over was an old acquaintance of Tommy's, whom they had met openly for a long time, Diane Lane.

Her hair is actually not as dazzling as Otilia's, and it looks like she must have dyed it recently.

"Diane Lane?" Otilia shook hands with Diane in surprise: "Oh my god..."

She turned her head and looked at Stephen: "Stephen, thank you for inviting Diane Lane to play me, wow..."

Tommy didn't know that Stephen hired Matt Dillon because he didn't care who would play him in a bad movie, but he knew that Diane Lane would play Ottilia, and it was simple enough that he was in the movie. The price for making a lot of money from this guy Stephen is to sign with Susan's agency.

Therefore, she is considered one of Tommy's own, and even if she is not as beautiful as Otilia, Tommy doesn't mind.

Compared to the surprise on Ottilia's face when she saw her, Diane Lane's heart was filled with sadness when she looked at the woman named Ottilia in front of her.

Tommy Hawke was helping the beautiful woman in front of him give a speech on the phone while allowing himself to help him fuck her.

She thought it was the most bizarre and exaggerated thing that could happen to her. It wasn't until today that she realized that there was no bottom line for being shameless.

That asshole cast himself as his girlfriend in the movie.

When Diane Lane learned the news, her first reaction was that it would be great if there was a sequel. She wanted to see which woman would play herself to help Tommy when the girlfriend she played called Tommy.

It's best to let the woman in front of you see what a shameless person her boyfriend is.

Compared to what Otilia said in surprise to Diane Lane, Tommy simply smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, Ms. Lane." Then he set his sights on the last woman.

That's the one he's focused on, the actress who plays Zoe Winters, Sandra Bullock.

"Hello, I'm Tommy, Tommy Hawke." Tommy extended his hand to the woman in front of him and smiled.

Sandra Bullock smiled and stretched out her hand: "I am Sandra Bullock, hello, Mr. Hawke."

After the greetings, everyone sat down and chatted around the script written by Stephen. Otilia, Zoe, and Stephen talked about many interesting things about the summer camp. The three actors also asked some questions about the roles they played.

When Tommy was still thinking about how to chat with Sandra Bullock, he didn't expect that the other party took advantage of Matt Dillon to go to the bathroom, sat down opposite Tommy, and asked with a smile: "Mr. Hawke? Can I ask Do you have a question?"

"Of course." Tommy sat up straight in surprise, looked at the other person, and made a gesture of invitation.

Sandra Bullock glanced at Stephen, Zoe, Otilia and Diane Lane who were talking animatedly not far away, and asked Tommy in a low voice: "Matt Dillon, Diane Lane Well, there are other stars who will be auditioning for this movie, so I specifically asked Mr. Stephen Bean why I am here, I mean my resume is not competitive with those people. .”

"How did he answer?" Tommy asked as he carefully polished the formed ice ball with an ice file.

Sandra observed Tommy's movements and said slowly: "I accidentally asked him the answer, saying that I was selected by Tommy to play Zoe."

"He's so honest." Tommy exhaled without denying it. He squashed the ice ball, put it in a wine glass, and then went to the small bar to mix a cocktail and brought it to Otilia. After all this, he Wiping his hands, he sat back in front of Sandra Bullock:

"How is your father doing? Say hello to him for me."

When Sandra heard Tommy mention her father, she frowned slightly, and then said something that made Tommy's pupils tremble:

"He passed away."