...but how do you keep the secret? The contestants are already showing mild signs of suspicions, at least in the 'coming in future weeks' previews. If you're a FOX scriptwriter, trying to create the impression of a multi-billion corporate monolith, what do you have to do?

My initial bets:

1. The tasks won't involve much in the way of Internet access, and the penthouse doesn't have computers. This is because I just did a search for www.iocor.com and found it registered, under construction, and pretty much blank except for the title. It wouldn't have surprised me to find something -- a little fake site put together by FOX for the occasion -- but a near-blank means the contestants can't have any chance to indulge their curiosity.

2. Similarly, no business magazines that weren't created in full by the producers, no library visits, and don't even think about calling 411.

3. No contact with the corporate world outside IOCOR's umbrella. Any chance for someone to say 'Who?' is one too many. We'll see a lot of tasks involving the little fake parts of the big fake whole -- but no Mattel, no Donnie Deutsch. There's a slight chance of interacting with the local FOX affiliate, but don't count on it.

4. The contestants are not allowed to mention IOCOR during their contact with the public. This is one of the easiest parts of the con to enforce, because you can put it right into the initial contract. How often do you see the Apprentice teams yelling 'We're trying to win a job with Donald Trump!' Never, because it's not allowed. That clause wouldn't surprise anyone.

5. No contact with the remaining contestants post-firing. Once they're home, they're free to research all they like, and if they found out and pulled a Big Brother by flying a message banner around the penthouse... I'm guessing the 'fired' contestants were either very completely debriefed with the small print of their contract pointed out every five seconds, or sequestered until the show wrapped filming.

Any other ideas on how FOX would try to pull this off?

• RE: The con is on...,HistoryDetective, 12:13 PM, 11-15-04
  • RE: The con is on...,Estee, 03:18 PM, 11-15-04
• The jig is up,Ricky, 05:11 PM, 11-15-04
• RE: The con is on...,ladro, 09:34 PM, 11-15-04
  • RE: The con is on...,Ricky, 00:26 AM, 11-16-04
    • RE: The con is on...,ladro, 04:18 PM, 11-16-04
• now who's being naive,shakes the clown, 02:46 PM, 11-16-04
  • RE: now who's being naive,Estee, 04:22 PM, 11-16-04
  • RE: now who's being naive,HistoryDetective, 07:44 PM, 11-16-04
    • RE: now who's being naive,KMan, 11:15 AM, 11-17-04
  • RE: now who's being naive,amea_gari, 06:30 AM, 11-17-04

I think they need to tone down some of the characters just a little if they want to keep the players from getting too suspicious. Let the eccentric boss keep going full tilt but have his two subordinates be a little more professional, lending the impression that the business holds together because at least one or two competent people work there. Let the family be as wild as they want to be.

There's a difference between this program and the Fiancee scam. Everybody knows some sort of over-the-top family, so when the bride's family met the groom's family they could just chalk it up to a weird family. In a business setting, however, there are bound to be some weird or incompetent people, but (I hope) the situation on MBFOB really veers away from the reality that the players experience in their own businesses.

They've at least got to believe NPT is capable of making money. Eccentric plays pretty well among the rich -- a little less money and he'd be insane like everyone else -- but not the type that prevents people from making any contacts and being unable to function in the business world. Yhere's little point being Mark Cuban if everyone else on the planet is Daniel Stern.

Toning down the subordinates... not sure. They've got their own characters to play, and like does attract like in a business setting (although there's a weird near-truism that says people should look to hire their opposites). The family can easily go over the top. Think Hilton, but not for too long or you'll want to strange something.

And the business world can be very, very weird. It just has to be weird and functional. Maybe the best way to solidify the illusion is to show them NPT making a mint right in front of them. For example, he's very free to buy FOX.

(Side thought: the prior con job shows were isolated settings with, at most, supervised visits outside that setting. Sort of like a cult indoctronation: you're kept cut off from people who can tell you what reality normally is, until you start to accept a new definition of reality. This is the first con show out in the great wide world, and that lack of insultation is going to be a problem.)

>5. I'm guessing
>the 'fired' contestants were either
>very completely debriefed with the
>small print of their contract
>pointed out every five seconds,
>or sequestered until the show
>wrapped filming.

The Apprentice sequestered the fired contestants, I'm sure this show would have to do the same - even more so.

>Any other ideas on how FOX would try to pull this off?

Even after two episodes I'm having a hard time believing that FOX is "pulling it off" at all. The contestants can't really be this dumb. Come on now pan handling and then having the loser sleep out on the street. Calling someone "short" and saying "one of these broads is going home". My guess is they are all at least suspicious if they haven't already caught on.

(but I love it anyway )

Get the hell out of my office !! lol

The biggest problem I have with MBFOPB, is the same as that with MBFOF, and JoeSchmoe2. The people that are being conned have a vested interest in going along with the gag. I am convinced that the father in MBFOF figured out (or was told) what was going on, regardless of what he says.

There probably are suspicous comments made by the contestants, those comments just don't get aired. The most suspicous contestants are probably pulled aside and told "no show, no money" wink, wink. Unlike MBFOF, there are no family ties between the contestants hence I tend to think that most of the MBFOB contestants have not picked up on the gag, so the show is still watchable for me at this point.

The issue of internet access is one of the first things I thought of. Clearly the security around the contestants must of have been extreme to prevent them from researching the nonexistant company. This is quite in contrast to the Apprentice where the contestants had internet computers in their suite and were allowed to make phone calls.

Another problem I see with show is that there is just too much down time for the contestants to compare notes and speculate. I think that the show would have been better if half the contestants had been moles, coached to pick fights and flirt.

>I think that the show would have been better if half the
>contestants had been moles, coached to pick fights and flirt.

Good idea for My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss II. Or maybe some of the contestants are moles since the "real boss" decides who goes or who stays - hmmmm.

One other thing that's bothering me at this late hour is that although the show is called My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss, he is not Big and Fat - only obnoxiuos. That's false advertising. Maybe he was the winner of The Biggest Loser before this show.

I speculated in another thread that 'the real boss' is a huge pig, literally. Hence the tie in with the title.

How
>often do you see the
>Apprentice teams yelling 'We're trying
>to win a job with
>Donald Trump!' Never, because
>it's not allowed. That
>clause wouldn't surprise anyone.
>

...no way! The reason you don't see it on the Apprentice is not because it isn't allowed, but because it is left on the cutting room floor wisely by Mark Burnett. I GUARANTEE that the Apprentice candidates play the "trump card" about 10,000 times a day when doing a task and trying to get help from the outside world. Plus, the cameras might be a pretty big clue as well. Do you really think they could complete some of those tasks and get all those business people to go out of their way and help them without the benefit of knowing they are going to be on TV??? You have to be crazy if you really think that.

So don't take the simple
fact that I think Shakes is godlike to mean that I think he isn't an ass. -Samiam 10/12/04

Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

I was taking a stretch from some shows where I know people aren't allowed to mention what they're doing or who they're doing it for: it made sense that Apprentice would be on the list. And it especially made sense because it's a Burnett series, and the last thing MB wants is someone going home after their ice cream purchase and posting 'Guess what? I saw...' to a spoiler board.

I don't doubt they'd try to play it if they could, or that someone's made the attempt while the cameras weren't looking, but otherwise, I'm guessing they're not allowed to bring it up.

Either way, the cameras definitely help.

You may be right, shakes, but there is a difference between "thinking you are going to be on TV" when you see a camera and "knowing that the camera is there for the Trump show." I don't know the rules for The Apprentice, but I do know that Amazing Race participants are expressly forbidden to tell people that they are running the Race (as if you couldn't figure it out from some of their color-coded bags, outfits, etc. - they practically wear a TAR logo).

Amazing Race contestants are constantly telling taxi drivers, ticket agents, etc. that they are in a hurry because they're in a race.

film and video crews have these peons known as PA's who walk around with lots of paper work, and when someone makes it on camera, the peons have to go running after them with a clipboard and have them sign a release form. I don't know to what lengths they go to on the Apprentice to get these signatures, but on the TINY projects I have been on, they do their best. I imagine on the Apprentice crew, the rules about getting release forms signed are even more stringent.
So, yeah, people know there's something going on.
That doesn't mean that they know WHAT is going on. The crews I have been on didn't give out details beyond "This is for a documentary" or whatever.
I remember last season, the charity event seemed to be a pretty obvious competition. I think the people involved with that knew what the contestants were doing.

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