Why no decent 4wd camping/touring shows?

[dazzler]

Hi Swaggers

As the title suggests why are there no decent 4wd camping / touring shows on commercial TV?  Given the market share that 4wd's, camping and touring has in this wonderful country why are we served up such trash as the hour of my life I wasted watching what I hoped would be a decent show.  I am not even going to bother naming it but it was such a let down. It actually got in the way of watching the real ads and I didn't know where the show ended and the ads started. 

This show, like the others out there, was just lazy.  This particular show was on the birdsville track (or the oodnadatta track maybe I lost my way amongst the ads).  Is it just me or do all these shows follow a similar theme;

1. Its in 'outback' Australia
2. There is the obligatory 'character' who is normally some sort of dero that broke down in some crap hole and never had the sense to move on.
3a What this dero has to say is supposed to keep us interested.
3. Every campsite stopped at is privately owned and most often the owner just happens by.
4. Every stop presents the opportunity to sell us another product that we couldnt do without .

Some jems from todays effort;

- Two of the hosts kids giving a rundown on what they love about their new swags.  Thank god they had been to Rays Outdoors in the previous infomercial otherwise they would not have known what to say.  (And they had three different swags from the same range - who'd have thought.)
- A Hema maps ipad app review.  No price and no mention whether it works with or without the 4g model ipad. This may be important if you actually are going to use it.
- Apparently I need a set of rear draws and a bullbar to carry my driving lights, UHF aerial and winch bar.  No mention of a tirfor or other recovery gear.  Luckily, there was a factory tour of the company that makes the bullbar and rear drawers so I know where to go.

If you are going to make a show on a particular track do you think it may help to say where it starts and ends? 
Maybe how many k's it is. 
What about whether you can make it without carrying spare fuel. 
Where to stay (and not just private places and pls say how much it is to stay)
Do you need to book places?
What would be a good itinerary?
What type of vehicle do you need?  Heavy, medium or light?
Whats the minimum recovery gear you need?  Is it a snatch strap and rated recovery points due to the high number of vehicles.  Is it a full kit?
Where the hell can you get bloody potable water on the trip?
Does anyone really care what 5yo billy has been told to say about a product.

I suppose I was spared a crap stupid cooking lesson on this episode so maybe there is an upside.

I understand supplier agreements when making these shows but surely it can be done better than this.  I know, and you would have to be pretty dopey to not know, that not one part of the show meant anything real.  Does it really transfer to after show sales? 

This particular program could have been so much better with just a little effort.  Do you think its possible to make a 4wd touring show that relies on the actual ads sold in the breaks to make it viable?  One where there are actual real life tests of products with real outcomes and recommendations?

(Apologies if this has been discussed before)

[McGirr]

Bring back Russell Coight 

Mark

[Paul (SA)]

McGirr is a man after my own heart. I think it should be mandatory on every trip to salute Russell with a brief episode.

[Top.ender]

Hi Swaggers

As the title suggests why are there no decent 4wd camping / touring shows on commercial TV?  Given the market share that 4wd's, camping and touring has in this wonderful country why are we served up such trash as the hour of my life I wasted watching what I hoped would be a decent show.  I am not even going to bother naming it but it was such a let down. It actually got in the way of watching the real ads and I didn't know where the show ended and the ads started. 

This show, like the others out there, was just lazy.  This particular show was on the birdsville track (or the oodnadatta track maybe I lost my way amongst the ads).  Is it just me or do all these shows follow a similar theme;

1. Its in 'outback' Australia
2. There is the obligatory 'character' who is normally some sort of dero that broke down in some crap hole and never had the sense to move on.
3a What this dero has to say is supposed to keep us interested.
3. Every campsite stopped at is privately owned and most often the owner just happens by.
4. Every stop presents the opportunity to sell us another product that we couldnt do without .

Some jems from todays effort;

- Two of the hosts kids giving a rundown on what they love about their new swags.  Thank god they had been to Rays Outdoors in the previous infomercial otherwise they would not have known what to say.  (And they had three different swags from the same range - who'd have thought.)
- A Hema maps ipad app review.  No price and no mention whether it works with or without the 4g model ipad. This may be important if you actually are going to use it.
- Apparently I need a set of rear draws and a bullbar to carry my driving lights, UHF aerial and winch bar.  No mention of a tirfor or other recovery gear.  Luckily, there was a factory tour of the company that makes the bullbar and rear drawers so I know where to go.

If you are going to make a show on a particular track do you think it may help to say where it starts and ends? 
Maybe how many k's it is. 
What about whether you can make it without carrying spare fuel. 
Where to stay (and not just private places and pls say how much it is to stay)
Do you need to book places?
What would be a good itinerary?
What type of vehicle do you need?  Heavy, medium or light?
Whats the minimum recovery gear you need?  Is it a snatch strap and rated recovery points due to the high number of vehicles.  Is it a full kit?
Where the hell can you get bloody potable water on the trip?
Does anyone really care what 5yo billy has been told to say about a product.

I suppose I was spared a crap stupid cooking lesson on this episode so maybe there is an upside.

I understand supplier agreements when making these shows but surely it can be done better than this.  I know, and you would have to be pretty dopey to not know, that not one part of the show meant anything real.  Does it really transfer to after show sales? 

This particular program could have been so much better with just a little effort.  Do you think its possible to make a 4wd touring show that relies on the actual ads sold in the breaks to make it viable?  One where there are actual real life tests of products with real outcomes and recommendations?

(Apologies if this has been discussed before)

Spot on Dazzler...

[Mrs smith]

These types of shows are just an infomercial shot on location, I find them a real insult
 to intelligence. Bring back shows like the Leyland Brothers or find another Macolm
Douglas or Jack Absalom, guy's that took you somewhere while you learned something and
you usually got a pretty good look at there gear and how they used it failures and all.

[xcvator]

Yeah, I voiced my opinion here http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=25033.msg399716#msg399716 several months ago  . Doesn't matter whether it's camping,4wd or fishing there is about 5 minutes of actual show and the rest is an advert of some sort.  it really gives me the shytes 

[cruisindub]

It sounds like the crap I started watching this afternoon about 3 hours after it viewed over your way I think..

I got fed up with it and turned it off and went to Woolies to go shopping .......

Wasn't overly I impressed.

Would rather watch WWE thats on an hour later...........

[02-SR5]

You cannot beat the original Leyland Brothers.

They never needed ARB this or CUB camper and all the gear from Rays Outdoors.

Didn't they get around with a cast iron pot, 8mm camera, a canvas tarp, Swiss Army knife all strapped to an orange combi van.

This is one of the big problems these days. Every time you pick up a magazine or log onto a forum, every body says you need the ARB catalog bolted to your Toyota and have every camping accessory available before you leave your driveway.

Oh the simple days.

[Paul (SA)]

I did laugh at an episode of Escape with ET where he was proudly showing off the latest Coleman furniture.

The chairs looked so fragile and unsteady with him sitting in them, I thought they were going to collapse!

I am sure on the inside he was thinking what is this crap I am promoting....

[Jenko67]

Bring back Russell Coight 

Mark

Mate, you stole my idea....lol.... I have mentioned this before....

ANy shows these days are one big ad for a commercial 4wd company... loses my interest.. not genuine..

[nbd73]

Harry Butler in the Wild was another "real" travel/outdoors show that had real content.  Agree with above comment RE ads paying for the show.  The actual show should not be an ad, otherwise it belongs in the 2am time slot with all the other home shopping shows.

[GS]

Passion, enthusiasm and content must not equal large profit margins.

Gone are the days when people produced television shows for the love if it. :-(

[GS]

Advertising used to fund television, television is now a tool to get people to watch ads.

[gclan]

Harry Butler in the Wild was another "real" travel/outdoors show that had real content.  Agree with above comment RE ads paying for the show.  The actual show should not be an ad, otherwise it belongs in the 2am time slot with all the other home shopping shows.

I wanted to be like Harry Butler when I was a kid (only the girl version of him obviously).

Have to agree with sticking some of them in the 2am time slot as well (sorry to all the shift workers), though stupidly I keep watching them hoping to actually see some of the countryside that they claim to be travelling through.

[jeb1900]

There are also very few good magazines.  It's a real struggle to find decent content to enjoy.

[JCAT]

I don't have pay tv. Has anyone seen Carlisles new show, does it differ from the majority of these tv infomercials.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Deseng]

I'm going insane here - two posts into this thread and each has disappeared into the ether!  If this one doesn't work I'm cancelling my 4WD Action subscription.

What we are seeing is the new world order.  Without getting into the argument that the advertorialinfomercial pays for the program, this is the new world in which we live.  The new breed of adventurers need all these essentials to survive in the rugged Australian bush - OK some are actually a wise move so I won't argue with that.

I saw "Wheels Across the Wilderness" (Leyland Bros - mmm, is that their real name or is it an advertising ploy since they drove Landrovers!! Food for thought.) as a primary school excursion to the pictures.  At least 6 of us got the bug at that time.  Despite lifes challenges most of us still have the bug in one form or another and most of us generally hanker for the simpler times.

I certainly did not need most of the current "essentials" in my 1950 Series 1 (#5371 in the lineage) which are now required on the expedition from Brisvegas to the Gold Coast.

Jack Absolom did more true adventure in that Sigma than many do today in their fully kitted fourbies.  And what about our the ABC program about our indigenous friends.  Their escapades in getting around the bush in old holdens was pure genius!

Our responsibility is to tell the younger ones (i.e. the future adventurers) about the "true" adventurers and to get them to seek out and enjoy the old footage (yes, it is still around in one form or another).  Talk to them about the Leyland's, the Beadell's, the Douglas's, the "hairy battlers's", the bush tucker man, the Absolom's, the Coight's (well, at least his uniquiness).  My young daughter knows about these people and appreciates their contribution to our family bush travel lifestyle.  She also understands the 'new world order' and rarely wants for any of the modern "essentials" for our trips - although she did indicate today, after the program in question, a new swag would be nice for her birthday!

Sorry - rant over - gotta go and fit the new latte machine to the fourby (apparently I can't survive in the bush without it accordingly to "hasbeen" in the latest video).

Deseng

[gramps]

Very true Dazzler.  You get far more relevant information reading through a couple of the online forums than those shows will ever provide.  The added bonus is you can ask questions and get unbiased feedback .... well, except from the Engel and Nissan owners of course 

[ozbogwam]

These shows aren't aimed at the majority of existing 4wders/tourers they ate aimed at those who may own a 4wd or aspire to own one. The idea is to introduce them the idea, showcase locations and products.

The Leyland Brother shows happened in a different time when cost to show a program on tv were considerably cheaper. Timeslots are expensive and need to be paid for, by bringing advertiser/sponsors with you when pitching a show makes it that much more inviting to the tv channel. I can only imagine the gamble Pat made to successfully launch his series and five years later it's still going strong so he must have hit his market


A true adventure show would be awesome in theory but I'm not sure it would be viable to our tv channels. There are adventure style shows that pop up everyone and then on Nat Geo and Discovery and Fuel channels on Fixtel. There was a good surfers journal one a few years back and also occassionaly one offs


I'd suggest sending feedback to Pat and Carlisle, it can't hurt. Maybe watch Simon Christies 4wdtv and Your 4x4.

Or better yet grab a camera, start filming your trips and maybe get an online blog going and build from there.

[McGirr]

Classic

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=6WSA4NqpZYc

Mark

[nbd73]

I think one of the reasons for making the "content" of shows into a form of advertising is the growing prevalence of PVR's in people's homes. We record all shows excepting live sport and watch later. If you have a close look at Pat's show for eg the producers are very clever how they blend the proper ad break material into the show's promos (usually straight after the official ad). You hit play thinking you have missed all the ads only to be bombarded with more propaganda. It's a cynical view that has a ring of truth to it...

[heath74]

Bring back Alby Mangels for mine.

[Black Diamond]

Bring back Russell Coight 

Mark

Yes!! I agree bloody legend

[Jenko67]

Bring back Alby Mangels for mine.

And the women he had on the show....

[nbd73]

Yes, despite the fact that many parts of the show were fake or staged it would still be preferable to more modern offerings.