TWoP Forums > 4-6: "Take Me Out To The Boardroom" 2005.10.27

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blocked writer

Oct 28, 2005 @ 3:50 pm

I agree completely---while she might be a bit unpleasant, Alla managed to pull off a major victory here with a smaller, MUCH weaker team and sell merchandise she knew nothing about---I fail to see the fabulousness of Marshawn OR Rebecca (who largely appears to do nothing more than stand around on crutches).[/quote]

For me, Marshawn's greatness has been only shown in snippets - the way she calmly and rationally speaks her mind the the boardroom, the way she stepped in the awkward silence during the Dairy Queen presentation.

When she interviews, she cuts to the chase, and doesn't get all emotional about it. She doesn't seem to relish trashing her competitors the way some others do, she just gives her opinion. All of them are obviously responding to questions, and I appreciate that Marshawn is cool and businesslike when she answers. JMHO, but I think she's contributed much more than we've seen.

Now whether she'll live up to the promise I've seen in her or not, remains to be seen. I know others who have seemed promising, yet crumbled under pressure. But I don't think that will happen to Marshawn. If she does get fired, I expect her to go out with a measure of dignity, the way David did on Martha's show this week. I certainly don't expect her to get all hysterical and swing between begging and threatening Trump like Jennifer did. What a nightmare that was! Trump was obviously swayed by Jennifer's looks, but there isn't enough beauty in the world to make up for that box of crazy that she opened up in the boardroom. I agree with those who compared her craziness to the character of Alex in Fatal Attraction. Girl was scary, although she seemed to regain some of her her sanity by the cab ride.

By the way, did they show the four firees walking through the lobby, or did they just cut to the cab? I was still picking up my jaw, and I don't remember seeing them walk past the doorman.

dsuggs

Oct 28, 2005 @ 3:52 pm

Arabella, I have to think you are correct about the firing being personal and not necessarily a ratings stunt. I thought Donald was disgusted with all four of them in the boardroom. And I felt he had good reason to be.

Raguel

Oct 28, 2005 @ 3:55 pm

My favorite, laugh-my-ass-off moment of the show?

"Life continues."

THAT, my friends, is why The Donald is the undisputed master of this. Martha S. can never hope to reach the heights of this man's insanity. Donald is just so entertainingly weird!

scarletsmith

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:03 pm

They forgot to ask the question of whether or not the batting cage would bring them more sales. Yes, it brought them attention, but it needed to bring them more sales than the other team. This is why Mark and James were fired. Yes, they were working hard instructing kids on how to hit; however, that wasn't the goal of the task.[/quote]

In many ways, this reminded me of the Casino task in TA1, where the teams had to come up with a game of chance and sign up casino patrons to participate, then the revenue generated from those patrons gambling would be used to determine the winner. Bill came up with the genius idea of getting exclusive access to the VIP desk, where he would have access to people who would spend significant sums of money gambling, recognizing immediately that this really was little more than a glorified sales task and the best way to get sales was to figure out who was likely to spend more money and appeal to them. That is why Bill won TA1, and why none of the idiots on Excel were fit to carry his water. That's also probably why he looked at them as such complete idiots--they couldn't even figure out the object of the task.

Ironically, Clay complained that Alla wasn't paying attention to the particulars and was looking at the big picture instead, which, again, was exactly what needed to be done. This is why Alla rules and Clay is firing fodder whose time will come soon enough.

GoddessMelissa

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:06 pm

What is it with Marshawn? She constantly delivers these very well worded critiques of her colleagues.[/quote]
On the extra-footage on Yahoo, she does stick up for Josh and she fumbles when they call her on his poor performance. But damn she recovers nicely. Actually, this week's footage is well-worth it as pointed out earlier.
Why didn't we see children almost braining each other and the apprenti with baseball bats?!

I was wondering why no one called her overwhelming support for the batting cages and the idea in the beginning. It was crap from the beginning.

"Life continues."[/quote]
I have been looking high and low for that clip. The words with his facial expressions had me laughing until the taxi ride--which only made me laugh more.

They should've had Jenthura push athletic supporters.

Hamhock96

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:10 pm

many of the exact same crappy end-of-day/step-up-to-the-plate chiches!!! [/quote]

Several times people are misserved by the editing. In the extended video, Bill makes a great deal of sense. It was edited to look as though he kept repeating that cliche. (which, by the way, is being repeated endlessly on telelvision today in discussion of this latest White House indictment. So it's just an Apprentice thing.)

momlyd

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:09 pm

Did anyone else catch the bait and switch of the promos for last night's episode?

To my (admittedly limited) recollection, the promos said something about The Donald being out of town, we see Carolyn gleefully move into his seat, the announcer says something so terrible has happened that he must RETURN EARLY, we see a jet landing, and The Donald walks in wearing a tux.

But, the jet landing was the winning team going to have fun on Long Island and The Donald said he was going to dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (they have a restaruant?) so that's why he was wearing the tux.

I guess not such a big thing in the larger scheme of things, but I felt cheated.

Well, until the cab ride. :-)

lostcawz

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:09 pm

I'm still not understanding what James/Mark could have done differently short of abandoning the batting cage (which was working brilliantly at getting people into the store) to sell stuff. That seems like too large of a decision to not be made by the PM. And it would have pissed off everyone in line as well. If the theory is that in tasks the only thing you should focus on is the primary part of the task then you end up with no one in necessary support roles.

And if sales was the major problem why were 3/4s of the sales force sent upstairs? Even if Jen had sold nothing (which she didn't) the rest of the sales team was below the baseline (66% sold vs. a baseline of 75%). So it's not like the 'great' sales of Rebecca, Marshawn, and Brian were anything to brag about. And certainly not anything to keep them in the game (except Brian's exemption obviously) over two guys who's job within the task was performed quite well apparently.

JTMacc99

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:15 pm

You guys just reminded me. Count me in with the group who, after the teams were picked, said "well, I now I know how one team is going to be so bad, that we're about to see the worst loss ever." Of course, I was completely wrong about the team. Alla's team sure looked like a disaster waiting to happen.

quaintirene

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:21 pm

The way it was set up, I agree. There wasn't much they could do. I think the problem with the batting cage was the batting cage. It was big, it attracted attention, and you couldn't do anything else except bat in it! And it took two of the team to handle.

Maybe if James and Mark could have switched out at some point and let someone else handle the ball thrower and the kids? But even then there wasn't much they could have done to help given the sport they'd chosen.

That task was lost IMO when we heard James say that he knew it had to be baseball. Which by the way is my favourite game in the world. But even I can see that there's not much you can sell around baseball compared to the acres of goodies you can get golfers to buy. Even non golfers who would like to look the part. After all, you can go to a golf club bar and wear your golf clothes and whatnot and never pick up a club.

BibiBella

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:28 pm

The Donald said he was going to dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (they have a restaruant?) so that's why he was wearing the tux. [/quote]

momlyd, the Met has several cafes and a cafeteria type place (not tuxedo worthy), but Trump would be going there for one of many high-society galas (catered by some of the city's top caterers) held routinely at the Met... so I'm sure has was off to some fundraiser or other type of gala event. Some of the open spaces (I can't think of the name of one huge garden like space with massive skylights) are stunning and are where many of those galas are held.

Hilltop

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:38 pm

How can we trust the credibility of a show that fires Mark and James before Markus and Clay? [/quote]

Because Markus and Clay actually sold a lot of merchandise for their team, as opposed to James and Mark who didn't. Anyway, it's not likely that Markus or Clay will win because their irritating personality traits will be their undoing, so it didn't bother me that James and Mark were fired before them.

And if sales was the major problem why were 3/4s of the sales force sent upstairs? [/quote]

Because, as was discussed in the boardroom, Rebecca and Marshawn sold more than the other people on their team. Brian was exempt from elimination, but even he sold more than the self-appointed "sales queen" Jen.

I'm still not understanding what James/Mark could have done differently short of abandoning the batting cage (which was working brilliantly at getting people into the store) to sell stuff. [/quote]

The team members could've taken turns manning the batting cage so everyone would have a chance to sell merchandise. It's really not that hard to come up with that idea.The team just lacked the common sense to do it. And this was mentioned earlier, but it was so dumb that the team didn't do this: allow customers to use the batting cage only if they bought something.

momo

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:45 pm

The interesting thing I saw is that I am sure James and Mark felt safe as soon as Jennifer/Josh started screaming at each other and Jennifer started saying that firing her would be a huge mistake. It's one of those board room moments where Trump tells someone to sit down and stay quiet because they are not getting fired unless they say something really stupid.

You could see how quiet they were and while they were not proud of their performance, I am sure that they thought "OK one of them is getting fired, so I better not say another word". Then DT jumps in and starts to talk about everyone and drops the huge one.

In my opinion, the most important reason they were fired is that Dick's Sporting Goods actually lost revenue. Some sponsors simply want an idea like DQ or Zathura, some help out in order to see their names on TV, but Dick's wanted that additional revenue and it didn't come, so Trump was genuinely pissed at them.

xavier03

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:46 pm

How can we trust the credibility of a show that fires Mark and James before Markus and Clay?[/quote]

Sadly the credibility of this show went out the window in season one. The show is purely for entertainment purposes.

I don't want to sound like I'm defending Markus and Clay but both men won when they were Project Managers and they've been on winning teams since then. Also, wasn't golf Markus' idea? IIRC, the one time when Markus and Clay were on the losing team, they weren't responsible for the loss. James was at fault but stupid Chris let his frat boy alliance get the better of him and hence he decided to bring Markus to BR with him. Of course Trump saw through that......The last time James sat before Trump he was in hot water. I'm pretty sure The Hair took all of that into consideration when he fired him last night. Besides, James and Mark by their own admission said they didn't sell anything. The point of the task was to sell so Trump was within his right to give them the heave ho.

Markus and Clay are on borrowed time. Both had better hope they stay on winning teams because you know if their team loses they'll be brought into the BR. I predict that when Donald opens a can of whoopass on them it will be immensely satisfying. I don't think it can eclipse The Firetastic Four but I'm sure it will be great too.

"Life continues."[/quote]

This was CLASSIC! I was ROTFL when he said this. OMG that was freaking hilarious. I watched this on tivo and I'm shame to admit the amount of times I pressed rewind just to see that part. That and: "You're all fired....All four are fired!.....Go Home. Go Home!" were my favorite LOL quotes of the night.

Beelzebubba

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:51 pm

Simply put, they were screwing around. The second they got into the boardroom, they knew they had fucked up, and you could see it in their faces. They showed no forward thinking and gave no consideration as to how the event was really working from the standpoint of how sales were doing.[/quote]Yup, ITA. Plus I think they took the week off because they didn't think they were in danger. Josh was clearly not going to bring Mark and James into the BR even if they lost, so even if they would have identified problems they didn't care enough to fix them.

I think Trump or the viceroys sniffed out that the other guys slacked because they didn't feel threatened.

Good to see that Bill has still not unclenched yet. That man could make diamonds in his spare time.

Quiddler

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:51 pm

Probably the only one, but I was completely underwhelmed and unsurprised by the mass firing. People had figured out that this was going to happen simply based upon the number of contestants/number of shows. I didn't find the episode to be particularly satisfying this week. Oh well. At least Jenthura went bye-bye.

Though .. it will be interesting to see the reaction of the suite next week. How many hours will go by before someone goes back up the elevator to see what's going on in the boardroom? <heh>

Slump

Oct 28, 2005 @ 4:54 pm

A few random thoughts:

If Excel's biggest problem was the batting cage obstructing the view of the merchandise, shouldn't someone have tried to figure out if there was a possibility to bring the merchandise out in the open so it could have been sold easier? Maybe they still wouldn't have won, but it probably could've at least kept them out of the red figures.

Letting the kids use the batting cage for free, while admirable, wasn't smart for a sales task. If anything, they could've let the kids hit there if the consumers spent an x amount of dollars on baseball merchandise.

Overall, I thought baseball shouldn't have been the main theme. Personally, I would've went with something like camping, or maybe even fitness equipment. I think they certainly would have sold more merchandise with those options.

To me, of course the best part of the episode was Josh completely striking out (pun intended) as the PM. For all of the snarking you did on Clay and Markus, at least they won as PMs, and although they may be on borrowed time, they lasted longer than you.

meowing

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:11 pm

Sheap

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:22 pm

Arabella (and others with the same idea) wrote:

I was catching up on the threads this morning and caught an article in the Media thread about how strongly Donald had to sell the show to Dick's, emphasizing that he hand-picked most of the Apprentices and practically guaranteeing a "yooge" boost in revenue.[/quote]

I don't think the task performance really mattered that much. Dick's is a yooge national chain. I don't know if their stores are corporate owned or if they have franchises, but either way, the amount of money taken in at the registers in one department at one store in one day is a drop in the bucket for them. Again without having figures, I would wager that the amount of revenue lost due to the bungling is a fraction of the amount of money Dick's paid to be on the show. Whether the apprentices tripled revenue or reduced it to zero, Dick's just isn't going to notice.

If Dick's expected anything, it was that being on the show would improve their exposure, and as far that goes, they got their money's worth. This is the most buzzworthy episode in a long time (look at the eleventy-billion posts in this thread) and will have more people talking about it - and therefore Dick's - than any other Apprentice show in a long time. Or basically, what binet said.

Therefore, I conclude the quad-firing is just how they wanted to do the show for whatever reason. In fact, given that Trump apparently had to really sell Dick's on the idea of being on the show, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he promised them the quad-firing ahead of time just so the Dick's management would feel better about the likelihood of their episode being "a good one."

stirling

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:23 pm

Overall, I thought baseball shouldn't have been the main theme. Personally, I would've went with something like camping, or maybe even fitness equipment. I think they certainly would have sold more merchandise with those options.[/quote] I agree, I also think that baseball probably has fairly continuous sales, while golf (at least in the Dick's I've been in) has somewhat infrequent sales. I was surprised that neither team went to the Dick's people and said "which sport has the most room for improvement." (Or did that happen and I missed it?) The minute I saw the task I thought Hockey! Being that even if you are buying used equipment it will cost you several hundred dollars for the gear - but then I remembered that it wasn't winter when they filmed, and it isn't Toronto where hockey equipment is a big seller all year.

tiggeril

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:39 pm

Nearly a day later, I've changed my tune a bit on this episode. I agree with some of the others on the boards that this was a publicity stunt for ratings. I think that Josh and Jen definitely deserved to go but firing 4 people was a way to try to get people excited again (about the show). I no longer think it is the best episode of all 4 seasons.
[/quote]
I don't agree with that logic.I mean, the whole show is a publicity stunt for ratings, you know? Reality TV as a whole is a publicity stunt for ratings. This is no different than other Most Exciting Boardrooms Ever!, or Most Exciting Rose Ceremonies Ever!, or Most Exciting Tribal Councils Ever! Same old, same old, but still hilarious.

Rodney

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:40 pm

Next week I'll miss seeing Bill as Not!George, but it will be great seeing George back. I always miss him when he's gone. BTW, has Carolyn ever had a Not!Carolyn?[/quote]
Yes. In season 3, a woman named Jill Cremer came and took her place for two straight weeks -- the weeks in which Michael and Tara were fired.

lessa2010

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:40 pm

Therefore, I conclude the quad-firing is just how they wanted to do the show for whatever reason.[/quote]

Definitely. On the one hand you supposedly had an angry sponser because one team really screwed up. On the other hand if this firing were not preplanned you now have three angry sponsers who lose their paid for airtime. No way DT would anger three to make one happy.

Besides, whose to say that Dick's lost money. Numbers may have been down for the baseball dept, but with the number of people in the store, sales for others departments may have went way up.

mjamief

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:41 pm

If I was the Donald, I would've canned Josh and Jenn and put James and Mark on probation. Essesentially this would involve each of them in the boardroom the next week explaining why they shouldn't be fired. This would be totally seperate from the next boardroom. If I liked what I heard, and Carolyn and George (or Bill) agreed, I'd keep them around for the results from the following week. If not, I fired one/both on the spot.

Something has to be done to stop, as someone already explained before, those not being the PM from letting the PM be the scapegoat and them doing nothing to try to fix the problem. It seemed as if this week, Mark and James thought that they were safe. I didn't like the fact that Trump unilaterally changed the selection process by the PM to bring 2 or 3 people in the board room. The probation would allow Trump to put anyone on probation who he feels needs it, whether they win or lose. I think this would stir things up and get rid of the annoying Survivorish behaviour we've seen in recent seasons.

thuganomics85

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:43 pm

What is it with Marshawn? She constantly delivers these very well worded critiques of her colleagues. Does she have anything positive to say? I have yet to see her make some major contribution.[/quote]

I like Marshawn, but I have noticed that this was the second episode in a row that she's talked about the PM in a negative way (Jenthura and Josh.) While she was in the right, I do wonder if she actually spoke to the PMs and tried to tell them her concerns. Because if she's just sitting back and letting them fail, then she's lost some of my respect. I hope that isn't the case.

One moment that also cracked me up was Mark's "I'm sorry, Mr. Trump. I'm not that bad." remark after getting fired. Then Trump responded harshly "I know!" It almost sounded like a conversation between a father and a son. And the son (Mark) just did something bad that disappointed the father (Trump). Hee!

One interesting thing about the massive firing is that two of them never were PM (Mark and James.) I think Adam is the only person left who hasn't been PM. That means we will seem some contestants get their second shot soon. I looking forward to seeing if Markus can get lucky again, if Randal can go 2 for 2, and if Rebecca can proove that she's as good as Trump thinks she is.

CheekyCricket

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:56 pm

In my opinion, the most important reason they were fired is that Dick's Sporting Goods actually lost revenue. Some sponsors simply want an idea like DQ or Zathura, some help out in order to see their names on TV, but Dick's wanted that additional revenue and it didn't come, so Trump was genuinely pissed at them.[/quote]
I would put it somewhat differently, in that a crucial part of their goal was to increase revenue in their featured section, and they ended up decreasing revenue--and not by a small amount, by 1/3rd of whatever standard they were being measured by. Whereas the other team increased revenue by 2/3rds. We don't know whether or not those particular Dick's stores (as a whole) lost money or gained money that day, or whether the Dick's staff was upset or not, but ultimately, the focus of the task wasn't increasing sales in the store, it was increasing the percentage of sales in a particular area of the store. A drop of 1/3rd is a substantial loss, and as he keeps reminding us, the Donald doesn't like losers, or loserdom, or what was the phrase he once used, "the general air of loser-ness."

alzwife

Oct 28, 2005 @ 5:59 pm

JMO- I think the firing of 4 was just a stunt for ratings. I did not like that fact that Trump did not even let Josh choose who was to go to the boardroom. James and Mark did as they were told, James did like the baseball idea, but Josh had the final say as to what was picked. Josh and Jenn should have been the ones to go.

lessa2010 says-

Besides, whose to say that Dick's lost money. Numbers may have been down for the baseball dept, but with the number of people in the store, sales for others departments may have went way up. [/quote]

As I had posted in the spoiler thread, Dick's did over $10,000.00 in sales during the time the baseball expo was going on (3 hours). Problem was most of the sales were in other departments. That store would normally do $40,000.00 + on a normal weekend day. That would be for the entire day, so $10,000.00 for 4 hours still leaves the store its morning and evening to do the usual sales. From what I was told at store level, Dick's was happy.

Hamhock96

Oct 28, 2005 @ 6:00 pm

Same old, same old, but still hilarious. [/quote]

So true, tiggeril/. You can't watch this stuff and expect logic.

Rose Dawn Scott

Oct 28, 2005 @ 6:27 pm

My huuuuge beef right now is that if Marshawn, Rebecca, and Brian were relatively aweomse compared to the four yahoos, how come we only saw Rebecca selling a baseball bat and Brian and Rebecca chatting on the sales floor?[/quote]

Scary Fairy, Brian's reprieval came about because he was exempt, having PM'd the leading team last week. Rebecca and Marshawn were the ones who were selling -- whether Brian was or was not, he'd have been exempt in any event.

The silent, squished cabterview was probably the funniest thing i've seen on TA:TD yet.

I've always liked Alla; even as part of the Bloven, she was obviously smart and lots of fun to watch. Her turn as PM was impressive -- she really did grasp that this was a sales task, and the putting green specifically for the kids, so their parents had time to listen to sales pitches, was a fantastic idea.

I give Clay credit for realizing that after he snots and snarks, he'd best follow up with some serious task-kicking. Markus, OTOH, is still being, well....a Markus.

Oh! Felisha surprised me, in a good way. Maybe it really was Kristi, or Kristi and Jen W., who were the actual fools in the Bloven -- I suspected Alla had it going on from early on, but I'd previously pegged Felisha as a sort of Kristi without the "I'm-so-damned-TUFF!" tude. After this episode, I'm wondering if Felisha will end up being a smart, competent stealth candidate...although she was so sucky as PM, it seems odd. Maybe now that she doesn't have to worry about setting Toral up, she'll actually step up to the...green? Hee!

Bassari99

Oct 28, 2005 @ 6:32 pm

The team members could've taken turns manning the batting cage so everyone would have a chance to sell merchandise. It's really not that hard to come up with that idea.The team just lacked the common sense to do it. And this was mentioned earlier, but it was so dumb that the team didn't do this: allow customers to use the batting cage only if they bought something.[/quote]
That could have worked if the others had any batting tips to teach. I got the impression that Marshawn, for instance, is not a jock. Rebecca, of course, was hobbled. Restricting the batting cage to customers who bought merchandise might have worked, though it could have chased just as many away. I know I wouldn't appreciate such a strong arm tactic if I were a customer there. Was there any rule against James touting himself as an almost Major League baseball player, and selling his tips to anyone who wanted to pay? Personally, I think the whole clinic idea was a bad one, in retrospect. It was too time-consuming and not sales oriented, which was supposed to be the point of the task. That is, to sell Dick's merchandise.

JennaC

Oct 28, 2005 @ 6:43 pm

How can we trust the credibility of a show that fires Mark and James before Markus and Clay?[/quote]

Say what you will about Markus and Clay, but both are winning PMs. They also sold alot of merchandise on this task and it was Markus who came up with the golf idea.

They aren't going to win, but their performance has been better than most of the people we have seen to date on this show.

Why would any manager fire employees that perform well?

RachelMargaux

Oct 28, 2005 @ 6:57 pm

I think the firing of 4 was just a stunt for ratings.[/quote]

Definitely! That man can be so erratic. In the Donny Deutsch Dove competition last season, BOTH teams lost. If ever there was a time to can a crop of people, that was it. How can the sporting goods loss be worse than having nothing to give to the sponsor? Yesterday might tie for worst but it ain't the only dismal defeat.

I think DT thinks in terms of numbers so maybe Josh's team being in the hole really embarrassed him. The criterion (matching one day sales versus sales in general) made it too subjective to compare that task versus others and conclude it is the worst defeat of a team ever.

He just loves the drama.

On another day, in another mood, TD would have kept James and Mark because they had been consistently on a winning team in the weeks prior. What-ev-uh.

CheekyCricket

Oct 28, 2005 @ 7:18 pm

Oh! Felisha surprised me, in a good way. Maybe it really was Kristi, or Kristi and Jen W., who were the actual fools in the Bloven -- I suspected Alla had it going on from early on, but I'd previously pegged Felisha as a sort of Kristi without the "I'm-so-damned-TUFF!" tude. After this episode, I'm wondering if Felisha will end up being a smart, competent stealth candidate...although she was so sucky as PM, it seems odd. Maybe now that she doesn't have to worry about setting Toral up, she'll actually step up to the...green? Hee! [/quote]
I thought she came off better this week, too, and her energy was turned to good purpose, although I think her real value is as a support person to Alla. It's still difficult for me to envision Felisha in the final four.

TheGeek

Oct 28, 2005 @ 7:26 pm

Did I see something wrong, or did I see, while they were setting up the golf attraction, a shot of Felisha walking away from the camera with that lovely and sophisticated "thong showing over the top of the low-slung pants" look? Looked clear as day to me, and I even saw it again in the Yahoo clips, but I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned it, given the activity on this board about this episode. Anybody else notice? Anybody else think that's just a swell look for an Aspiring Corporate Weasel (tm Miss Alli)?

2ys4me

Oct 28, 2005 @ 7:30 pm

The Donald's Golden Rule, pointed out by Momo:

Additionally, the question has been asked before: Was the true object to increase revenue in the area the team focuses? Then did the teams meet with Dick's people and inquire about the slow moving areas that may double sales in a day by simply having an exhibit manned by a greeter plus 6 extra salespeople pushing the merchandise?[/quote]

We never saw either team meet with Dick's Sales Management team to help determine which area to target: Know your customer base

Whether the choice would be a slow moving dept (I wouldn't necess. pick this) or a pop. medium price/high ticket one, information from the store regarding trends, stock, price points, 04/05 floorplans, etc would all play in to final picks.

Then yes, sales, sales, sales....

Excel. Even once they went with idea, as others say: react, revamp.

Jen. Top sales ploy: "Would you be interested?" while trying to sell the radar gun. I can't imagine why she didn't move any. Oh.Wait. She just was never given the chance.

The only thing left to say, "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

Way Wes Jr

Oct 28, 2005 @ 7:46 pm

I can post with content, rather than “me too’s”! Whoo Hoo!

PinkyTuscadero

Since when does Trump step in and tell the PM who to bring into the boardroom? If I were James and Mark I'd be PISSED. They were on the wrong team on the wrong task.

I think no matter which team lost, four people were getting canned. [/quote]

Another thought along the line, both teams were sent the three worst members of the other team. (In the PM’s eyes.) So, the theoretical math (3+ losing PM = best firing evah) worked out, even if the specifics didn't.

Dumbpants

Oct 28, 2005 @ 7:47 pm

Jenthura's downfall was beautiful. I can't believe she was dumb enough to hawk for the food vendor -- didn't she realize that this was their COMPETITION, and every $5 spent on food was $5 less for people to spend on baseball items? Sheesh. [/quote]

Don't forget, she was eating the fucking pretzels, too! Yeah, let me buy some expensive merchandise from you while you have your mouth full of shit. Moron.

lighthouser41

Oct 28, 2005 @ 7:59 pm

Where I live, baseball is a seasonal sport with most kids playing in the spring/summer. Equipment is bought during those seasons because kids grow and if things are bought off season then they can be outgrown before the next baseball season. I would assume this show was filmed in the fall. I can see why the radar guns that Jen promised to sell didn't sell. Not a wide usage item.

Our local Dicks already has a putting green ,so the one the other team used would not crowd out the sales displays like the batting cage did.

Just watched the firing again on cnbc. Somewhere Kristi is laughing her head off!

midnightoil

Oct 28, 2005 @ 8:03 pm

Watching the final boardroom again in the CNBC repeat, my hunch is that Donald was given terms by Burnett to fire x number of candidates over the total number of boardrooms, which probably averaged out to a few more candidates than boardrooms so he could do a couple of doubles or, as we saw, a quad. I wouldn't call it a ratings stunt as much as just a twist in the show's plot.

tiggeril

Oct 28, 2005 @ 8:34 pm

Also, how could it be a ratings stunt if no one really knew about it beforehand? (Present company excepted, of course.)

viva v

Oct 28, 2005 @ 8:48 pm

AlmondEyes

Oct 28, 2005 @ 8:51 pm

On the ratings stunt theory: not that the Trumpinator is adverse to such stunts but, as someone pointed out upthread, why not save such a BR decimation for November sweeps? Seems that it would make more sense then. However, firing 4 people at one time would surely create buzz. Look at the number of pages on this thread already. No doubt TD and Mark Burnett thought about this ahead of time.

I guess with Jennifer gone, there's very little future ex-wife material at the suite for Trump. Oh, I forgot about Rebecca.

I agree with other posters that the team's horrible performance that actually decreased revenue by 34% played a large part. Someone upthread said that Dick's (heh) had to be talked into participating in the show. For the Apprenti to ruin their sales for the day probably reflected poorly on Trump. And we know what happens when the teams poke the crazy that is Trump . . . basically, nothing rational or logical.

RabbitEars

Oct 28, 2005 @ 9:08 pm

A returned dumbbell is going to look as good as new...as was the case when Jenthura returned from the Boardroom at the beginning of the episode.[/quote]

Bwah!

When Mark said it HAD to be baseball, HAD TO BE, I figured they were toast. It's not that the choice was so rotten. It was the glint in the eye, the blind loyalty to the idea. As someone said above, they fell in love. They were having so much fun "playing baseball" they forgot to play the game. Remember when George told them they lost the Lambourghini task on the balcony? Same thing this time.

Who gave Carolyn a hot oil treatment before the final boardroom?

mjamief

Oct 28, 2005 @ 9:11 pm

I would classify the firing of four candidates as a ratings stunt simply because it generates buzz right before the ratings period starts. That way, viewers will tune in at the beginning of the ratings period and hopefully stick around for the remainder of the period.

I've heard Trump's upset with Martha because his show's ratings are declining. This was probably set up to generate buzz over hers. How many of us will tune in next week to see the other candidates' reaction when no one returns from the boardroom?

Hands?

That's what I thought.

henry518

Oct 28, 2005 @ 9:45 pm

I think the difference between Marshawn and Rebecca in the boardroom is that Marshawn hasn't been put under any reasonable amount of pressure yet.[/quote]
IMO, Rebecca hasn’t been under any reasonable pressure either. IMO, the difference between Marshawn and Rebecca is that Rebecca made bad decisions and that put her in the BR and even then, she wasn’t really in any real danger.

I like Marshawn, but I have noticed that this was the second episode in a row that she's talked about the PM in a negative way (Jenthura and Josh.) While she was in the right, I do wonder if she actually spoke to the PMs and tried to tell them her concerns. Because if she's just sitting back and letting them fail, then she's lost some of my respect. I hope that isn't the case.[/quote]
While this is a very valid point, I can't help but notice that the same could be said about Randal. We really haven't seen him do much either, and his critiques are generally on point and well worded like Marshawn's. Either way, I'm willing to give both of them the benefit of the doubt until I see some actual screen time of their performance.[/quote]
IMO, Randal is more diplomatic. I think a good example is the chat he had with Kristi (after the Zathura task.) Also, when Randal pointed out that the team didn’t listen to one another, it was more of a constructive criticism akin to something like: we have to fix this part of our team so that we can start winning. This is how Excel is winning, etc..

Hoola

Oct 28, 2005 @ 9:48 pm

Somethings can't be changed. After James and Josh decided to put up the cage, were they really going to chuck the idea because Marshawn expressed concern. When you're not in charge sometimes it's best to let the person who is make the big decisions. It's most efficient and even ethical to give deference to the PM. Too many chefs spoil the broth.

I agree about Randal; I don't think that Randal has been shown to do much, and yet everyone on the show thinks he's tops.

uranushertz

Oct 28, 2005 @ 9:52 pm

I'm conflicted: penisphone or golden dildo? Decisions, decisions...

smirnoff05

Oct 28, 2005 @ 9:55 pm

completely underwhelmed and unsurprised by the mass firing[/quote]
I see your point about seeing it coming when DT chose four people to stay himself... However, the silent-sardines cab ride ending more than made up for it.

Dick's (heh) had to be talked into participating in the show[/quote]
Yah, I'm sure they hated the publicity it would give them but did it anyway. For the kids.

solitaire

Oct 28, 2005 @ 10:10 pm

I was in awe of Trump.

(Only this once, though).

Four people. Goodness gracious. Is there some YOOGE TV show coming up on NBC and The Apprentice had to cut down on episodes or something??

thuganomics85

Oct 28, 2005 @ 10:10 pm

While this is a very valid point, I can't help but notice that the same could be said about Randal. We really haven't seen him do much either, and his critiques are generally on point and well worded like Marshawn's. Either way, I'm willing to give both of them the benefit of the doubt until I see some actual screen time of their performance.

IMO, Randal is more diplomatic. I think a good example is the chat he had with Kristi (after the Zathura task.) Also, when Randal pointed out that the team didn’t listen to one another, it was more of a constructive criticism akin to something like: we have to fix this part of our team so that we can start winning. This is how Excel is winning, etc..[/quote][/quote]

I agree. With the exception of Clay, Randal has mainly focused his criticism on the team, while Marshawn is more on the PM. And it does seem like Randal is putting more of an effort to fix the team, while Marshawn just points out problems to the camera I'm not saying she isn't trying too, because I suspect editing is playing a part. I just find it odd that Marshawn has made several great points, but there never is a clip of her trying to talk to Josh or Jennifer about her concerns.

But I do agree that Randal isn't getting enough screentime to really know if he is trying to help the team. His conversation with Kristi was one example, but I didn't see him doing anything else to help Jenn on that Zathura task. But I still like both Randal and Marshawn, and I hope both aren't just sitting back and watching the rest fail.

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