Posted on 10/28/2004 6:13:42 PM PDT by ClintonBeGone
Apprentice Ping for tonight. Apparently there is suppose to be some good fireworks in the board room
'The Apprentice' is back full force with a top notch effort that met the billing. It featured cat fighting, abnormal perspiration and the Piano Man who managed to age half a century in the last ten years. Oh yeah, and the Donald showed that rules were meant to be broken by making his best decision since the pre-nup that had two contestants splitting cab fare.
I was a little skeptical of this week’s hype. The last time they played the “rules will be broken” card Maria took Apex $5,000 over budget and then diagnosed Stacie J. as a crackpot. It was interesting, but it was by no means cheating. And it was nowhere near as bad as they played it up.
And let's be honest, 'The Apprentice' hasn’t exactly been killing it lately. As always, we learn that what I think means nothing. This week, the rules were indeed shattered and I felt a little silly for ever doubting the Donald in the first place.
We start with uneven teams since Raj and Chris pulled back-to-back Charlie Gordons leaving Apex two down. The cast gets excited when the Donald announces, “Drop you buffs, time for new buffs.” Actually, he forces Mosaic to decide on the spot to pick someone to switch teams. After eight one-hundredths of a second, Wes realizes that Kelly and his exemption have got to go leaving the squinty Maria, the non-existent Jennifer and Andy who’s so young that he can’t the say the word “bellybutton” without giggling. I think Wes has his exit strategy in place.
The task was to design an in-store catalog for Levi’s jeans.
Apex beat the pants off Mosiac.
Immediately, Ivana makes an actual contribution, “I have an idea”. Welcome to the game Ivana! She thinks that instead of doing a standard brochure setup that they should make a wheel showing the different cut of jeans helping customers select the perfect cut. They end focusing the entire campaign on the derriere.
Instead of bringing in air brushed models, they decide to do it themselves. At which time, we find out the Jennifer cleans up quite well. She sums up the results of the show with one sentence, “Do we have enough shots from the back?”
At Mosaic, Maria grabs the reigns which is always somewhat scary. Weeks ago I compared Maria’s creepiness to the tongue-tied Burger King in the scariest commercial of all time. This episode, we see a different side of unpleasant behavior. She’s aggressive and controlling and when Wes steps in to tell her they were running out of time, she snaps at him to back off. As a superior leader, he decides that’s a good idea.
Mosaic shows up to the presentation in leather pants, a pair of Lucky's and a “Levi’s is a Sweatshop” t-shirt. Alright, I made that up, but they noticeably weren’t wearing Levi's. Andy is the only one concerned but his teammates turn a deaf ear.
They march in and Maria launches into her over thought “What if jeans could talk?” campaign. Her presentation was fraught with ridiculous sounding sentiments like “If being sexy is wrong, I don’t want to be right.” It had bras made out of bandanas and women’s skirts made out of men jeans. After her dissertation on the life of the blue jean, the president of Levi's made and obvious and overt observation, “Why aren’t there more shots from the back?”
Sometimes, it’s just that simple. Have you been watching Survivor lately? It doesn’t matter if it’s blurry or not, shots from the back move product. And sure enough, he also makes note that some of them are not wearing Levi’s.
Things don’t start off much better for Apex. Kevin gets the ball rolling, balls of sweat that is. His presentation has him sweating like Pat Robertson watching the first five minutes of Monday Night Football this week. He makes Joey Butafuco’s appearance on Celebrity Boxing seem like a West Texas drought. He passes to Ivana before he drowns in his own perspiration.
Apex's reward was meeting Billy Joel.
In the end, the president gives a long winded speech about Mosaic not targeting all markets and not giving enough focus to fit and style while deep down inside you know he was thinking, “If you only had more shots from the back.” You know the rest. Apex and their caboose centric campaign take it home.
They earn a meeting with the Stranger himself. Billy Joel, who is now 91 years old, advises the gang to take chances in life. But not at last call, right Billy?
Things are not going quite as well with Mosaic, Maria gives a fiery speech defending her actions and she’s blinking like a mad woman. If it was anybody else but Maria, I would have thought she had a staple stuck in each eye.
Since Maria and Wes were so hapless, I was only mildly concerned about Andy’s departure. He quickly put any small fear I had aside. Bill Rancic fired, “Andy, you’re a nationally ranked debate champion, yet in the presentation you said nothing.”
Right on beat, he returned, “Well, in being a debate champion, you need to know not only when to talk but also when to listen. I felt on this mission there was too much talking and not enough listening.” Oh yeah, that’s my boy. As Will Ferell said in Old School, “That’s how you do it, that’s how you debate!”
The boardroom was like a presidential election. It was just a question of who was worse. As Wes and Maria rant and rave, it becomes clear that deciding between the two seems impossible. And the Donald agrees, “Maria, you’re fired….And Wes, you’re also fired.”
Excellent summation.
I would just add: When Ivana was describing her idea (we were stunned she had one and it actually was a good one, too) Jennifer seemed dumber than a stump and either didn't "get it" or pretended out of spite not to.
My 10 year old understood the concept so I'm suspicious of spite, but she could be stupid and it's taken this long to become obvious.
Then during the presentation she took over explaining Ivana's baby, the wheel, and while she took credit Ivana made her usual unprofessional faces and mannerisms. The Levis guy ends up praising Jennifer right to Donald Trump for her "ideas" when she hadn't had a clue.
Kevin's sweating (and we've been backing him here in this house but he lost lots of points on this) reminded me more of algore.
The Maria and Wes firing was brilliant. We couldn't make up our minds which should go, we wanted them both fired and then they were!
I thought Maria's cab ride comments would have been cattier but with Wes there making more professional and generous remarks she had to sound more gracious ("great opportunity" blah blah blah).
We thought Andy made several wise comments that the group dismissed out of hand. Donald was wrong to say he didn't contribute. But how would he know if Andy doesnt' speak up. We decided last night he deserves to be in the top group, for sure.
This was the most shocking to me. All along Jen played dumb and then stepped right in there to take credit with her babbling responses. I'm curious how the discussion afterwards went on that one.
Wow. Your writeup of the show was better than the show itself! Well done.
WOW! What a lesson in leadership we got from Trump last night!!! And Wes should have run the project exactly like Donald Trump ran that boardroom.
I was so glad to see Maria get fired. I think she has some serious mental problems and seems "on the edge" all the time. I am sticking with my original prediction, Kelly and Andy for the final 2 and Andy wins.
>>Right on beat, he returned, “Well, in being a debate champion, you need to know not only when to talk but also when to listen. I felt on this mission there was too much talking and not enough listening.” Oh yeah, that’s my boy. As Will Ferell said in Old School, “That’s how you do it, that’s how you debate!” <<
This IS a great answer, but he was wrong: it has nothing to do with debate or being a debate champion. I was in high school and college debate, and it wasn't a contest of the best listeners.
But he accomplished what he wanted to do - he shut Bill the hell up.
Billy Joel did look like crap. I didn't even recognize him at first. Hey I'm a fan of his work but after Mosiac wins 50 grand I would be pissed with the reward. "Take risk, the more risk the greater reward" Revolutionary.
Anyone here been watching Fox's show with Richand Branson?
LOL. I definitely agree that the summations here are better than the show. But I still think it's the most fun show on tv. (After watching the first Amazing Race, I was disgusted with the quality of the contestants --professional wrestlers, playboy bunnies, Jerry Springer types, Apprentice remains #1 on on my very short list of shows I actually watch.)
For being beautiful, stupid, narcissistic, self-defeating and egotistical, I hereby award Maria the first annual Omarosa trophy. Wes made a huge mistake sending Kelly to the other team. In business, smart execs are always looking for even smarter employees to insure the company's success. For offing his strongest team member, Wes gets the coveted Wuss award (formerly held by Annan and Chirac). I had hopes for Jennifer all along, but this performance was so typically lawyerly -- underhanded and non-creative-- I'm sure she'll be trundling back to Dewey, Cheatem & Howe very soon.
Kelly, as someone mentioned, gets the "Being There" prize for just showing up on the winning team. Sometimes that's enough -- a positive presence changes others' attitudes without the positive person actually doing much. In a subtle way, it's a quality of leadership, and an important one. Recalling his creativity on the first clothing-design competition, I would say that had Kelly remained with Wuss's team, they might have won.
Andy continues to hold his own, though I was surprised that he didn't contribute more creative ideas, as his tv commercial for NYPD was simply stunning. But his inexperience is going to catch up with him. He won't win, but he'll be one of the last two or three. (I like this kid so much, someone called me "Andy's Mom.")
Kevin? He has strengths, but too many weaknesses, he'll say bye-bye soon though sweat aside, he did a bang-up job this time. Ivana as well. I've enjoyed watching her struggles, but her head is very close to the block. Both K & I are bright, likable, talented, energetic, full of real potential, but need much more polish. If I'm forgetting someone, it's because they're forgettable. Oh yeah, Sandy. Outside the bridal biz, she's pretty ho-hum.
I've said it before: this game is Kelly's to lose.
Loved your observations as always. Just returned from Las Vegas, got back in time to see Apprentice. Won $750, stayed at the Venetian in the new tower. They imploded the hotel next to us at 2:30am on Monday. Computer melted down as soon as we returned home, just got back online.
Hi there: Your trip to LV and good winnings are enviable! See you on the TAR thread tomorrow!
Andy should have gotten fired for the $100 "tips" alone. How tacky! How obnoxious!
Yeah, the tips were awful, as was the bottle design. But to fire a guy for getting eaten alive by women in an age when the alternative, to shut them the hell up, is socially impossible put the kid into a lose-lose.
I agree. The two women on Andy's team are useless. I cringe at the thought of either one of them being in the final four.
I also cringe at the thought of Ivana being in the final four. For me there are only two worth considering -- Kelly and Kevin. And I think Kelly has done the overall best job, even though I like Kevin's energy.
Let's just skip to the final two, LOL.
An enjoyable show last night! I didn't expect Andy to go this soon, tho I knew he would not win. I think withholding pizza was as bad as trailing hundred-dollar bills through the techie park. They might have done better with some food in their stomachs. Anyway, he was in way over his head this time and deserved the boot.
Jen is a snake for sure, but as I watch her maeuvering around the game, I see in her qualities of people who rise to the top in corporations all the time. I don't think they get to be CEOs, however. And as the Donald said, she's smart to get credit and save herself all the time. Sandy surprised me with her vehemence, which Donald said saved her from the ax. But not for long. Spherical Pepsi bottles? Bottles with tipppy bases? Complicated games? What a bunch of losers. No marketing talent at all.
Ivana continues to entertain. Did you catch her remark that her father bought her a Porche when she was a teen, which she promptly went out and wrecked? I hope she stays around for awhile, as I really like her spunk. But she walks close to the ax edge, so who knows?
Kelly's doing great. Those edgy bottles were distinctive, eye-catching, tho probably not economical to manufacture. Kevin is doing fine. Would be good to have them as the final two, but Jen may maneuver into #2 position.
Unless he makes some horrific error, Kelly will win.
Andy’s immaturity sunk him and his team from beginning in this task. He has an unhealthy obsession about beating Kelly. Plus he is in love with the word crustacean that is just way too freaky. He was too focused on beating Kelly than coming with a killer product marketing plan to win the task.
Then the board room strategy of teaming up with Jen over Sandy did not make sense. IMO he totally underestimated Sandy by evaluating her solely on her presentation performance and assumed she would make the same mistake in the boardroom as she did in the presentation. It was Sandy that came up with the game and slogan of taking it to the edge. In his immaturity he wanted be credited with coming up with the whole concept with Jen and Sandy along for the ride in a Slick Willie way of remembering things. It never occurred to him he was taking credit for losing concept. His strategy was to say to The Donald, “I worked the hardest and Jen worked the second hardest so you need to fire Sandy.” I think he expected Sandy to take it lying down but instead she blew his doors off in making points in the board room. He was way out debated and did not know how to react when Sandy started laying the smack down on him. I have to give Sandy credit she was really thinking on her feet and putting up a real fight.
Next week’s show looks like it is going to be fun. As for myself I wish Bradford had made it further he seems to be a more interesting character. To bad Raj got booted he was a lot of fun and I would have like to see how effective Little Stacy would have been leading a team.
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