quote:Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - The popular Geico "cavemen" may soon have a permanent spot on television.
On Friday, ABC announced they have ordered a pilot for the hairy, uncivilized men. Fourteen pilots are currently in the planning stages and shooting is scheduled to begin this spring. The pilot is also being written by the advertising copywriter who created the cavemen for the insurance ads.
The two cavemen characters were made popular by Geico commercials. In the ads, the insurance company's pitchman insists their website, loaded with information, is easy enough for a caveman to use.
The comedy will follow the cavemen as they "struggle with prejudice on a daily basis as they strive to live the lives of normal thirty-somethings in 2007 Atlanta."
"Cavemen" will reportedly be the title of the new series.
posted
Working for Geico's competition makes the idea interesting enough to at least watch the first episode.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I might watch the first episode, but to be honest, I don't have high hopes. I found the first commercial or two with the caveman/cavemen funny, but most of the ones since then I've just sighed and ignored. It's sort of like beating a dead horse.
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You know, the first commercial was amusing, and then they beat it to death. There's no way this show would get even a second of my viewing time.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Hah, i'm such a fan of the Caveman. It made me laugh everytime! Maybe I just have an odd since of humor but that's ok i'm definately going to watch the show if I ever get a day off work!
P.s. Caveman would totally beat the astronauts!
Posts: 97 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I doubt I would watch, because I don't watch TV in general, and sitcoms in particular. But I actually rather like the commercials, and don't think they have been beat to death. (Of course, not watching as much TV, maybe I have not been overexposed.) I particularly like the one where he's talking to his shrink, the phone rings, and he says, "It's my mother; I'll put it on speaker." What a brilliant line, and they just throw it in there rather than beat you over the head with it! (That's a peeve of mine with most of what passes for comedy these days: every joke gets extended too long and explained too much, as if viewers are too stupid to get it otherwise. It makes Leno and SNL both unwatchable.)
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The one where he's saying all of the cavemen's achievements and someone is like "Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the rock" is hysterical. Especially his reaction to that statement.
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posted
I will give it a shot. The commercials really are funny, but I don't see how they can pull off 22 eps at 30 mins each.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I may watch the first episode. After that I'm betting that it will start to suck.
It reminds me of when they made movies based on SNL skits such as The Coneheads. Taking what worked as a series of three or four minute skits and stretching that out into a feature-length movie just didn't work. I'm likewise skeptical that stretching a 30 second commercial out to a half-hour time slot will work either.
Posts: 241 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:It reminds me of when they made movies based on SNL skits such as The Coneheads. Taking what worked as a series of three or four minute skits and stretching that out into a feature-length movie just didn't work.
I beg to differ, the Wayne's World movies and The Blues Brothers movie being among my favorites.
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quote:(Wasn't this already a movie? Encino Man was enough of a caveman in a modern world movie for me.)
Great idea! They should just make Encino Man 2: The Reckoning and throw in a bunch of astronauts!
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posted
I would absolutely give a series like that a chance. Those are by far my favorite commercials at the moment. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by vonk: [QB] [QUOTE]It reminds me of when they made movies based on SNL skits such as The Coneheads. Taking what worked as a series of three or four minute skits and stretching that out into a feature-length movie just didn't work.
quote:I beg to differ, the Wayne's World movies and The Blues Brothers movie being among my favorites.
These two were good ones, but there were a bunch that were horribleThat's Pat Stuart Saves His Family Night at the Roxberry Superstar
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posted
I would like it if it were an occasional character in a Dilbert comic strip, like Cavebert or something. Otherwise, I just don't think the idea can sustain anything longer than a commercial before the horse beating would begin.
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posted
I love those commercials and will definantly give it a shot. Not sure if it could last more than 6 shows before getting old. At least I would like it for that long.
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If you had ever told me I'd be in love with a space western, I'd have laughed at you. For that reason, I'm willing to give this a shot.
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posted
What about that old Geico commercial for the new reality show, Tiny House? Compared to all the other reality shows actually on the air at the time, forcing people to live inside of a Tiny House for a while would have gotten ratings through the roof and been mildly entertaining to boot.
And 3rd Rock From the Sun was intended to be a filler show for the network, and look what happened there. You never know with these things.
Posts: 247 | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:Originally posted by hugh57: It reminds me of when they made movies based on SNL skits such as The Coneheads. Taking what worked as a series of three or four minute skits and stretching that out into a feature-length movie just didn't work. I'm likewise skeptical that stretching a 30 second commercial out to a half-hour time slot will work either.
The original The Blues Brothers movie is a classic. Don't be hating on the classics! ( )
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posted
You know, I actually still like those commercials. The one in the restaurant is hilarious. The one caveman orders a fancy dish, and the other one hands the menu back to the waiter and says, "I don't have much of an appetite, thank you," and then just gives this look to the Geico rep.
I have to say that I wonder how many episodes it could sustain before it starts to be just the same jokes over again. But I'd gladly give it a chance; I think it does have potential, at least.
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quote:Originally posted by SteveRogers: The original The Blues Brothers movie is a classic. Don't be hating on the classics! ( )
Actually, the Blues Brothers were more of a musical act than a skit on SNL. I had in mind more the skits that were made into movies, such as The Coneheads, Stuart Smalley, It's Pat and yes, Wayne's World.
And I have to admit that the original Blues Brothers movie is one of my all time favorites. Posts: 241 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I don't see this doing well at all, and I think whoever greenlighted it should lose his job, or at least be demoted several steps.
If we're going to give commercials their own tv shows, the Aflac duck should get one before the cavemen. Heh, that's a show I'd watch from time to time.
But serioualy, this thing has been beaten to death. The most recent commercial isn't even about Geico. It's about two guys arguing at a party, and then a third one says he got back together with his girlfriend or something and then at the end it says Geico. The commercials aren't even promoting anything anymore. They make zero sense at this point. The first few were funny. I admit I like the reaction the guy gives to the "wrong side of the rock" comment, and the psychiatrist thing was funny too. But they're just a couple one liners. Commercials are built on witty one liners. I probably won't even watch the first episode, half because I think 22 minutes of it would be extremely annoying, and half because I fully expect it to get cancelled and don't want to waste my time.
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The absolute best caveman commercial is when he's on the airport conveyor belt, and there's no dialog, just background music.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by SteveRogers: The original The Blues Brothers movie is a classic. Don't be hating on the classics! ( )
Actually, the Blues Brothers were more of a musical act than a skit on SNL. I had in mind more the skits that were made into movies, such as The Coneheads, Stuart Smalley, It's Pat and yes, Wayne's World.
And I have to admit that the original Blues Brothers movie is one of my all time favorites.
Don't forget Mary Catherine Gallagher, or whatever her name was... Superstar!Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:The most recent commercial isn't even about Geico. It's about two guys arguing at a party, and then a third one says he got back together with his girlfriend or something and then at the end it says Geico. The commercials aren't even promoting anything anymore.
To be fair, at the party, the cavemen are arguing because one of them joined Geico, and I believe the point was that Geico is so good at insurance providing that even if they insulted your people, you would still join. They are promoting Geico, albeit in an indirect way.
Here's the list of SNL based movies given by Wikipedia:
The Blues Brothers (1980) Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures (1986) Bob Roberts (1992) Mr. Saturday Night (1992) Wayne's World (1992) Wayne's World 2 (1993) Coneheads (1993) It's Pat! (1994) Stuart Saves His Family (1995) A Night at the Roxbury (1998) Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) Office Space (1999) Superstar (1999) The Ladies Man (2000)
Of those, I'd say that The Ladies Man, Office Space, Blues Brothers, both Wayne's Worlds and Coneheads are good movies. That's almost half the movies they made, which ain't a bad percentage.
They should just make a reality show a la Drawn Together with all of the insurance characters (the gecko, the esurance chick, the cavemen, the duck). I might watch that.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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They have that clip on Adult Swim where the esurance chick is blathering on about how during the day she's an insurance agent, but she's realy an undercover superhero, and Space Ghost is sitting there watching, thinking, "This chick....is HAWT."
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I was really hoping that the link in the original post was to an article in The Onion or something.
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The whole thing with the guy with the stapler who burns the place to the ground was an SNL cartoon.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Yeah, the "Milton" cartoons. Well, they were played on SNL, at any rate. They were made by Mike Judge, though, rather than the actual SNL people. But they were made for SNL, as far as I know, so Office Space would kind of count.
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What a brilliant line, and they just throw it in there rather than beat you over the head with it! (That's a peeve of mine with most of what passes for comedy these days: every joke gets extended too long and explained too much, as if viewers are too stupid to get it otherwise. It makes Leno and SNL both unwatchable.)
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