You know, the thing is that Richard is now a million dollars richer, he just lost 130 pounds, has exposure enough to get influence worth more than the million, and he wants to start a wilderness camp for troubled kids.
Oh, yeah, a real asshole, Richard.
Anyone notice what a gracious winner he was?
Tris
I at first thought this thread was about me.
-MM
I think there are two big reasons why America doesn’t like Richard. The first is his pompous, arrogant attitude. This made some people feel that he was being a real jerk. The second reason the audience held contempt for him was because of the alliance. Rich, along with the rest of his team, made the game real boring. Not only did they make the ejection of players slow, monotonous, and predictable, but they removed some players that the audience held in high favor.
I’ve equated RIchard with that protypical star football, hockey, basketball player whop on the field of play does what it takes to win. However, in “real life” they are just as normal, ethical, nice as the next guy.
I’ve heard a couple of comments to the effect once by Richard of “I couldn’t beleive some folks actually thought this was a vacation. It was like I was the only one playing the game.”
If this were people’s livlihoods, or a battle for the last parachute on a dying plane, or a true Survival Lord of the Flies situation I could understand people’s contempt. But given the situation I think talk of morality and ethics is ludicrous. Losers didn’t get a mill, too bad.
Just as a side observation, the Survivor “game psychologist” had a bit on Today the a few mornings ago. (It’s my brainless “get the heart started and get the weather” morning routine while drying my hair–not a ringing endorsement for impeccable journalism.)
When asked the appeal of the show, he stated (paraphrasing) that it’s interesting to see what other people will do in tense, controlled situations. Sounds reasonable to me.
Yeah, it was an elaborate game show, with elements of the Truman Show, etc. tossed in. Since I didn’t watch it, I can’t offer any opinions about Richard or other contestants. Well, I can, but they’re mostly drop-jawed stupefication a la “marry a millionaire”: where do they find these people?!
Fierce competitive spirit is one thing, but the voyeuristic element puts a slightly sickening spin on things. I mean, the Vince Lombardi “winning is the only thing” approach has been dissected ad nauseum, but turning the process into a Roman circus isn’t exactly elevating. I’m not convinced it’s more honest, either. It sure isn’t balanced in approach, plusses and minuses.
Maybe that’s what bothers me most: it was a high-tech (but pseudo-barbaric) Roman circus. And no matter what, the real winners were the clever folks who staged the affair.
Veb
Ian Fan - I wasn’t trying to be funny that time…but thanks anyway. 
I do what I can.
Triskadecamus - Yeah, I saw him in the reunion special, and it really put his machinations into perspective. He wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, he was following a strategy for winning a contest and having a little fun on the side. In contrast, Kelly seemed way too serious about the whole thing. Maybe it struck a little too close to home (think that credit card fraud case was on her mind when she talked about “losing her soul to the game” or whatever?), but she didn’t seem to enjoy the experience at all either during or after the event.
Friends? You have friends? I don’t, so I’m a better candidate for the money than you are!
I didn’t watch the show, but I read Suo Na’s Survivorsucks.com summaries, as well as the summaries presented on the official CBS website. That probably makes me familiar enough with the events and premise of the show, if not all the details.
(And even if it doesn’t, what the hell, I’m giving my opinion anyway. So there.)
One interesting thing about Survivor: for all it’s physical challenges, hardships, and exertions, the key to winning revolved around alliances and game theory. The whole concept of an alliance was embraced, at first, only by a certain subset of one of the two tribes: others thought it was somehow unsporting, went against the spirit of the game, or some such. It turned out to be the key to winning, as the four alliance members were the last four survivors.
Some of you dopers may be familiar with the game “Diplomacy” (IIRC, at least John Corrado is). This is a multi-player game where it is necessary to form and break alliances. You need to cooperate with other players to become stronger–any isolated player is soon teamed up on and picked off. However, to win Diplomacy, you must eventually break your alliances (usually not all at once). In games with really skilled players, it’s often very, very dangerous to take a big lead–you become an obvious target to be betrayed (“stabbed”) and ganged up on. You need to do well, but not too well, lest you attract attention.
Tying the Diplomacy example to Survivor, Richard wasn’t an asshole, at least not in terms of how he played the game. He did so brilliantly–the guy won only one immunity challenge (I believe), yet he was responsible for the winning strategy and worked it to near perfection. Remember that, in order to win, he had to convince 4 of 7 people who he helped eliminate to vote for him. An “asshole” who did something unethical would certainly have found it EXTREMELY difficult to get a majority of said votes. And, given the chance to address (and influence) the voters, Richard pointed to how well he played the game and stated he DESERVED to win. Apparently, a few believed him.
Richard was the mastermind behind the alliance. Everyone knew it. His position was analogous to being the frontrunner in the Diplomacy scenario above, yet he won, and did so by convincing those who were victims of his strategy that he merited the victory. Remember that more than half of the voters were members of the Pagong tribe, and one other was a non aligned member of his own tribe. These people were direct victims of his strategy, knew that he was the mastermind behind it, and yet he got a majority of the votes need.
A very intelligent friend of mine who is familiar with Diplomacy had been talking to me about Survivor before the final episode. He felt that Richard had NO chance of winning, because everyone saw him as the evil genius. He felt that the other three contestants would manuever to get themselves to be one of the final two, with Richard, because Richard would get creamed in the final vote.
Asshole? Hardly. To steal a phrase from The Lion in Winter:
“To these aged eyes, boy, that’s what winning looks like.”
If Richard knows how to play his cards right (as he has so far) he will lock in a couple of product endorsements and make far more that a million during his brief appearance in the spotlight. We already know he will soon be wearing a Milk Mustache.
If, sometime in the future, he feels he needs to polish his image he can do what John D. Rockefeller did and hire a P.R. agent.
I would be shocked if pretty much every Survivor alumni didn’t already have an agent.
I think one of the reasons they all got along so well in the end is that they have all pretty much made out like bandits from this thing. In Hollywood circles, a million bucks is nothing. A guest spot on a sitcom can earn them $40,000. A product endorsement can be worth a hundred grand or more. Sean is on “Guiding Light”. Joel apparently has a hollywood agent and is in ‘negotiations’ for something. I’m certain at least one of them will have a book out at some point, and they’ll probably get half a million for an advance on it. Susan and Kelly are both in negotiations with Hustler for a photo spread. Ramona is a reporter for ET.
Richard will make a fortune as a corporate trainer now. America loves a winner, and he probably just graduated from teaching classes for $100/hr to lecturing corporate executives for $50,000 a pop.
Jenna said that she would jump at the chance to pose for Playboy for half a million. They offered her $750,000, and she turned it down. Why? No doubt because in the interim she hooked up with an agent, who told her that she could get a lot more than that in TV and movies as long as she didn’t pose.
They’ve all already been making the rounds of the talk shows, getting appearance fees every time.
Even the ones who were out early and don’t have much charisma will do okay with local endorsements. They’re all heros in their respective home towns, and I’m sure plenty of local businesses will pay them a good chunk to endorse products.
A couple points:
Actually, I think only Sean believed him. Rudy was held by his sense of honor, Sue was driven by her hatred for Kelly, and Greg had the “pick a number”.
But Sue, Rudy, and Sean benefited from his strategy by getting farther than they would have otherwise; he only got 1/4 of the Pagong victim vote, and that by random selection.
I think the reason Richard is perceived as an asshole is not so much the alliance, but rather his arrogant manner. I think Kelly was just as deserving to win (she played the diplomacy game well enough to win the 3 votes she got) and though she did have her bad moments, she never seemed nearly as nasty about the whole deal as Richard. I will concede that the editing of the show could have changed the public perception significantly, but I personally think he could have played the strategy without being a jerk about it. IMHO, a truly intelligent player would have won much more decisively, with at least 4 or 5 solid votes rather than 2 solid, 1 wavering and 1 random. Even if you don’t care about the people you are playing the game with, it’s part of the game to at least act like you do…