I decided to start this new thread so more people would look at it and help out in this joint POCA and Pantera Internation Clubs effort to get the TV program "Rides" on TLC to cover the 2005 POCA Vegas Track Meet, sponsored by Pantera Club of Northern California, PCNC.
I started a thread a couple of days ago called "TV tour of Lamborghini factory" and with a little encouragement from Mark, I've been pursuing the goal of getting "Rides" to cover the next Vegas Track Meet, which will be happening at the end of April. This is a very short time frame to get this project underway. I think there's a good story line, with a great message, and the visuals will be great. It will really enhance the value of our cars, and could help our marque to loftier status like that of Shelby, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. The problem is time is of the essence. We are a club and in fact, I've been in both clubs for years, like many of you. Like many of you, I look for films that have Panteras in them, like the recent movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" which I paused to see the Pantera in a couple of scenes. Thus, I believe you folks might do the same when you see a Pantera on TV or in a movie. By extension of logic, I predict you'd like to see an episode on TV about Panteras and about our clubs. So, I presume we have a common goal, and we'd all like to contribute to this goal. We'd probably see ourselves on TV with our cars, and that would be really cool too.
So, I'm therefore asking for active participation in this effort. The synopsis of the story line and the the genesis of the idea can be found in the prior thread, mentioned above. Further research, or at least a quick search using Google has identified the Producer of "Rides" (and "Overhaulin'") but I still haven't found a way to contact him to get the concept across. If he made the decision to go for it, he'd have to activate his film crews pronto to get them at the POCA event. We all have schedules, and he'd have to schedule them to be there. Another post was made about Million Dollar Cars, and the author mentioned one of the production team members (I forgot his name and title) is a member of POCA and/or Pantera International. Thus, since this is known, how about approaching the Pantera contact and asking for a little help, if it's not too awkward to get involved or the idea doesn't seem like a loser, let's talk to this insider and ask for contact info. I could contact Hot Rod magazine or TLC, a division of Discovery Channel for contact info, or to forward the message, but I'm afraid it would get lost in high traffic correspondence to those media moguls. This would thwart any chance of getting this project off the ground for the next TV season, with this year's Vegas meet covered.
So, here's the latest research, yielding the producer of "Rides"
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With His Shows Overhaulin' and Rides Redefining Hot Rodding for the 21st Century, Bud Brutsman Is the King of Car TV
By John Pearly Huffman
Photography: Randy Lorentzen
Bud Brutsman never appears on camera in either of his shows, but he's on set for a good chunk of the time, and as executive producer, he has final say on what gets done and what gets on the air.
"You're not necessarily a producer until you mortgage your house for an idea you have," says Bud Brutsman, the executive producer and creator of both Overhaulin' and Rides on cable television's TLC. "Your return is equal to your risk."
Brutsman admits that bank loans bridge much of the budgetary gap between what he gets from TLC and what it actually costs to produce each episode. If the shows are hits, he'll more than make up the difference in foreign rights and ancillary revenue streams such as licensing, or at least that's what we've been reading in Business Week. Fortunately for Brutsman, his big risk will apparently pay off, because both his shows are among the most popular on cable television and the hottest things going at don' call it The Learning Channel TLC. According to the ratings, the most popular automotive makeover show is Pimp My Ride on MTV, but pimpin' isn't rodding. Monster Garage is still pounding away on Discovery, but too many of its projects are flat-out stupid, and Jesse James may have overstayed his welcome. Shows like Chop, Cut, Rebuild, and Tuner Transformation on Speed Channel are only slightly less amateurish than your cousin's tape of her daughter's junior high school graduation. And anything we say about HOT ROD TV either belies our lack of objectivity or undermines our sophisticated cross-platform brand extension strategy. Right now, for good or ill, the profile of hot rodding among the general public is at its highest on Overhaulin' and Rides.
On the set of Overhaulin', Brutsman, 34, has the producer thing going good. His hair is coifed and aerodynamic. He has a cell phone on his belt and a pager in his pocket. He wears golf shirts with the shows' names embroidered onto them (and he tucks them into his pleated pants). He looks you in the eye when he shakes your hand, and if he's not genuinely interested in what you're saying, then he does a brilliant job of pretending he is. He's built like the personal trainer he once was. He's constantly juggling sixty different things, and he vibrates with so much manic energy that he should be mixing paint. What's surprising is that he's not some Harvard grad who snuck in on his father's connections, but a high school dropout from Wyoming, and his dad's connections don't extend much beyond the Cheyenne-area dirt tracks he used to race on. He's an aggressive, obviously smart, self-made, hyper-entrepreneurial guy--the sort of person with whom you want to be in business.
Brutsman has been in show business for a dozen years, starting in video distribution and moving into production. "I know guys who spent 80 or 90 grand going through UCLA film school," says Brutsman in contrast to his practical training, "and they don't know jack."
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