Supermono’s ”Forever Drive”
Bigfoot (Truck) -Wikipedia
“In 1979, Chandler started making appearances at truck and tractor pulls, as well as car shows, with his newly christened “Bigfoot” to show off the truck’s capabilities as well as to promote his shop. The truck’s growing popularity led to its appearance in the 1981 Gus Trikonis film “Take This Job and Shove It,” which also features USA-1 credited under a different name.
While these accomplishments were certainly admirable, Chandler’s next experiment would not only change the life and fortunes of a middle-class pickup owner from the St. Louis area, it would change the motorsports world forever. In 1981, Chandler obtained permission from a local farmer to place two dilapidated cars in his field, so that Chandler could videotape himself crushing the cars with Bigfoot as a joke. When Chandler began playing the video in his shop, a man promoting a motorsports event in Columbia, Missouri asked him to duplicate the stunt in front of a crowd. After initial hesitation because of the destructive image it would convey, Chandler eventually agreed to perform at the event in April of the following year in what is believed to be the first public car crush. Later that year, a second Bigfoot (built to help meet the steadily rising demand to see the vehicle) received more major media attention by crushing cars at the Pontiac Silverdome inPontiac, Michigan. In 1983, Bigfoot began receiving sponsorship from Ford Motor Company a relationship which continued until 2005.
By 1984, many truck owners around the country had taken to imitating Chandler’s template of outfitting their vehicles with tires standing 66 inches tall, with some trucks sporting even larger tires. Promoters of truck and tractor pulls, such as SRO Motorsports (later the United States Hot Rod Association) and Golden State Promotions, noticed the exploding popularity of the giant trucks and began booking several to crush cars at their events, with the eventual result being the advent of side-by-side, drag-racing style car crushing events. A popular example of the early days of monster truck racing is portrayed in the 1986 home video release Return of the Monster Trucks, which involves a truck pull, car crushing, and mud bogging all in the same course. That event, held in the Louisiana Superdome, was won by Bigfoot, as well as most of the events it was entered into in the mid 1980s. By this point, Chandler had already built an entire fleet of “Bigfoot” trucks to accommodate the vast demand for his vehicle, which remained as the most popular and marketable monster truck despite the large number of imitators. In 1987, Chandler added to his innovations by founding the Monster Truck Racing Association, which remains today as the chief voice in monster truck safety.”
“The settlement marks the first time a mobile app developer has been targeted by the FTC on the grounds of child privacy.”
“The traditional single-player only game experience will not exist by the end of 2014.”
Survivor media
“COPS is an American reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff’s deputies during patrols and other police activities. It is one of the longest-running television programs in the United States and in May 2011 became longest-running show on Fox with the announcement that America’s Most Wanted was being cancelled after 23 years.
The first segment is usually an action segment to hook the viewer, followed by a slower, or more “lyrical” segment, and concluding with a more “thoughtful” segment. This has been the formula and visual style of COPS as the first network reality TV series and has remained so from episode one until the present day. Other innovations for its time included Langley’s insistence that as few edits as possible be used, that all cameramen throw away their tripods and shoot exclusively handheld, and that natural audio be the score of the series.”
I am interested in long-running programs like COPS. There’s an aspect to their success that I might describe as “survivor” media - programs that have weathered decades of twists and turns in consumer taste, yet somehow still hold on to an audience with an iron grip.
Whether on TV, radio, the web, print - survival is hard. It’s about more than just building a brand, or establishing a bar of quality that customers trust. You can only push the quality boulder up that hill for so long - at some point, even with the best intentions, you slip, and it can be difficult, if not impossible, to win your audience back.
Survivor media usually isn’t the cleanest, most polished or well-crafted experience. COPS, for example, is a mess of bumpy footchases, poor lighting and choppy editing. But even though it is over 20 years old, the show somehow feels compelling - no doubt exactly related to those messy, highly authentic cues. And the show is undeniably repetitive - but the variables often change. There’s a familiarity to the formula and the problem solving that can be learned as mastered as a viewer. After watching long enough, you start to feel a bit like an expert. Yet the producers somehow surprise you, again and again. It’s an artful exchange.
There are other lessons I take away from survivors like COPS. For example, real people are often more interesting than fictional characters. The world needs good guys and bad guys. Happy endings don’t always happen, but neither does tragedy. Action matters. Hometowns matter. Riding along can be thrilling - you don’t always have to drive. And most of all, if you find a good theme song, don’t change it.
