"The Apprentice" 9/9/04

Cafe Society
41

The guys in the boardroom made some reference to the girls remaining in brainstorming mode til 11 PM (while they were done at 4 PM).

And so, when I first saw Bradford overrule his whole team and make an executive decision, I thought: What an ass.

Now I realize he has the patience of a saint and the wisdom of the ages to finally shut down the brainstorm-to-nowhere session.

Stacie is wacko. Trust me. I know because it’s a gift I have… and a curse.

Raj is a genius intellectual. He’s the type that that you find in Ivy League universities teaching “Edwardian Business Macroeconomics – Honors.” He has almost no pop culture IQ though (he doesn’t watch any TV!), which hinders his social skills. Usually, he keeps coming across as astoundingly accomplished and polished except for in one little detail that screws everything up. E.g., his clothes were perfectly eccentric without going over the edge (one of the other guys was really impressed)… until he used the cane. Throwing out names of English battleships was a good idea… making a big deal out of how you know all the names of English battleships is not a good idea.

If Raj can’t show that he can connect with a wide range of people on a personal level, Trump will bounce him.

The great thing about the Apprentice as compared to the other vote-out reality shows is that all the jerks go early. Donald has no interest in hiring them. He’ll fire someone with an overall jerkiness record over someone personable who made a mistake the last round (remember how far Troy got though he kept losing?).

I’m sure Donald’s minions are checking over all the free time interactions (he knew who broke the wall) and the to-the-camera confessionals to alert him as to who the asses are that none of them want to work with.

Peace.

42

I think Raj is this season’s Sam.
He must have spent a fortune on those duds, however. And he did stick out! How can you help but remember him?

43

She is DEFINITELY a wackjob!

44

I missed taping the “extended” version that aired Sat. night, but I managed to catch the extra boardroom scenes at the end…liked the additional footage. Did they add anything interesting to the beginning?

45

No, all the extra material was at the end – and you’re right, it was pretty interesting. Love, love, love watching Carolyn in action.

46

My very first thought upon hearing this task was, “Remote control something.” I loved remote control toys when I was a kid, and I see that hasn’t changed. Surprising indeed that the guys didn’t think of this. Crustacean Nation didn’t have a lot going for it.

I don’t remember it going down quite like that, though the edited the hell out of that portion of the show. Bradford was dead set on his football guy, and I knew that was a bad idea. The women were already talking about a remote control car, but he said no. It was only when the Mattel people shot down his idea that he allowed the women’s idea to go forward. Maybe he used more finesse than he showed, but just saying, “I’m making an executive decision, even though no one else likes my idea” probably won’t fly. There are better ways to say the same thing.

I thought Stacie was nutty, mostly because the reason why she wanted everyone to pay attention to her was because she was shaking the Magic Eight Ball. Does everyone really need to watch that? Especially after you’ve already shaken in 3 times? Do people really need to stop eating their lunch to look at you? She seemed paranoid and attention-hungry, and has already alienated her team. Her days are numbered.

Unlike a lot of other posters, I really liked Maria. She seemed smart and personable, and I didn’t think she was too scary or weird. The “boy’s first drag queen” idea was obviously a joke. The EZ Bake oven wasn’t a recommendation, either; they were saying, “What’s the boy equivalent of this, something that all boys wish they had, like all girls wish they had that oven.” I know I wanted one when I was a kid and my mom wouldn’t let me have one. :mad:

The only people who came across to me as really unlikable were Bradford, Pam, and Stacie, but that’s just first impressions. I knew Pam would get busted for mocking the children. That was just poor judgement.

As for Raj, when Trump asked why no one had anything bad to say about him, everyone said he was brilliant, good idea guy, and a team player. Clearly his eccentricities don’t get in the way of his team liking him, which is important. Sam never had that appeal. However, if you have Trump wondering why no one’s dinging you, that doesn’t bode well.

Did you see the look Carolyn gave Pam when she asked, “What is the advantage of bringing 3 people into the board room?” Like, duh! In the extended version on Saturday, Trump went on to express surprise that she only brought 2 guys in even after they explained. It’s hard to tell what the right move would have been, though Pam’s rationale worked for me.

47

My very first thought upon hearing this task was, “Remote control something.” I loved remote control toys when I was a kid, and I see that hasn’t changed. Surprising indeed that the guys didn’t think of this. Crustacean Nation didn’t have a lot going for it.

I don’t remember it going down quite like that, though the edited the hell out of that portion of the show. Bradford was dead set on his football guy, and I knew that was a bad idea. The women were already talking about a remote control car, but he said no. It was only when the Mattel people shot down his idea that he allowed the women’s idea to go forward. Maybe he used more finesse than he showed, but just saying, “I’m making an executive decision, even though no one else likes my idea” probably won’t fly. There are better ways to say the same thing.

I thought Stacie was nutty, mostly because the reason why she wanted everyone to pay attention to her was because she was shaking the Magic Eight Ball. Does everyone really need to watch that? Especially after you’ve already shaken in 3 times? Do people really need to stop eating their lunch to look at you? She seemed paranoid and attention-hungry, and has already alienated her team. Her days are numbered.

Unlike a lot of other posters, I really liked Maria. She seemed smart and personable, and I didn’t think she was too scary or weird. The “boy’s first drag queen” idea was obviously a joke. The EZ Bake oven wasn’t a recommendation, either; they were saying, “What’s the boy equivalent of this, something that all boys wish they had, like all girls wish they had that oven.” I know I wanted one when I was a kid and my mom wouldn’t let me have one. :mad:

The only people who came across to me as really unlikable were Bradford, Pam, and Stacie, but that’s just first impressions. I knew Pam would get busted for mocking the children. That was just poor judgement.

As for Raj, when Trump asked why no one had anything bad to say about him, everyone said he was brilliant, good idea guy, and a team player. Clearly his eccentricities don’t get in the way of his team liking him, which is important. Sam never had that appeal. However, if you have Trump wondering why no one’s dinging you, that doesn’t bode well.

Did you see the look Carolyn gave Pam when she asked, “What is the advantage of bringing 3 people into the board room?” Like, duh! In the extended version on Saturday, Trump went on to express surprise that she only brought 2 guys in even after they explained. It’s hard to tell what the right move would have been, though Pam’s rationale worked for me. It was a calculated risk but I think she did the right thing.

48

Whaa? Republican pants? I don’t get the reference.

49

Because they’re red. Red = Republican; blue = Democrat.

That’s my understanding, anyway.

50

I think it’s because Raj is dressed not entirely unlike Tucker Carlson. Also, because they look like the kind of clothes that one might wear to a stodgy, ultra-conservative country club (the kind where people wear dorky golf pants).

51

I’m glad that NBC ran the extended boardroom on Saturday night. It explained a bit better why Andy was included in the decision to go.

The interview with Sandy was a little freaky when she was talking about Stacie J. Sandy was acting like a total Heather.

In case you haven’t seen it, Omarosa wrote her own recap of the episode (is her TV talk show not panning out? Tee hee.) It’s pretty forgettable except for this gem: :dubious:

I’m curious who Trump tells to “shut-up” and calls “stupid” on 9/16’s episode. I was thinking it might be Stacie J if she got in the boardroom because I could see her ramble on nervously, except for the fact that I can’t see Trump speaking that way to a woman. (Especially after the nudging that someone should have pulled out Pamela’s chair for her.)

52

Yeah, that was just weird. You’d think he’d be one not to promote sexism. Oh well, makes for decent TV I suppose.

53

One thing that came across very clearly over the first series is that Trump had pretty nice manners AND he has little use for people who don’t. He observes the courtesies, he calls people out on interrupting each other (or himself!), he dislikes when someone stoops to name calling vs. presenting evidence of actual doings/sayings against someone else, and so forth.

If these people did their homework, they SHOULD be watching their manners.

54

Can someone post a summary of this extended thing from Saturday? Somehow, I didn’t even know about it!

55

It wasn’t that big a deal – the Saturday rerun was a full two hours, about 20 minutes longer than Thursday’s show – which meant about 10 extra minutes of show, what with commercials and all. Most (all?) of the extra time was from the boardroom – it was just a more detailed version of the conversation, with some extra comments from all six. I don’t remember anything too specific, just that I really dig Carolyn, but we already knew that.

56

Some stuff from the extra twenty minutes:

–We find out that several of the men, when asked to pick a second person who didn’t help the team much, besides Pam and Rob, picked Andy. They said that he contributed the name but not much else. Pam claims later that Andy had to check with her every 5 minutes before he did something, was an eager beaver but not confident enough to work on his own.

However, in the time that Carolyn, George, and Trump were chatting between board rooms, she disagreed and said that Andy was a strong team member and it wasn’t fair that he got dragged into the board room. She really went to bat for him. Clearly that influenced Trump’s decision to hang onto him.

Andy also pressed the point that, if he didn’t have good ideas and didn’t take any initiative, then why was it his idea (“Crustacean Nation”) that the team ran with? Rob admitted that he liked Andy’s idea, and so did Pam, but Rob said it didn’t matter if it was a good idea, they lost anyway.

–Trump expresses surprise that no one had anything bad to say about Raj. This would have been a great opportunity for Pam to slam him or bring him into the board room as her third, but she didn’t. She said he was brilliant, a contributer, opinionated with strong ideas but willing to let go of his personal preferences for the good of the team. Several of the other men agreed. Trump seemed genuinely surprised at how well-liked Raj was. This could be good or bad for Raj; it means Trump has noticed him but not in a positive way, but that the team liked him anyway might cause Trump to revise his opinion.

–Carolyn gave Pam more shit about making fun of the kids. Pam admitted that she didn’t have any kids and didn’t know a lot about them. Carolyn seemed really pissed off. However, later, when they were alone in the board room, she said that Pam seemed like a strong leader type.

–Rob tried to defend himself more. He said that he had kids and understood about toys but no one was paying attention to him. He tried to mention things he did but that seemed to fall on deaf ears. He also talked about what a great athlete and team player he was, what a great salesman, which impressed Trump not at all. Trump said you shouldn’t praise yourself like that-- let other people dish out compliments about you, but refrain from doing it yourself. Also, he’s not looking for a football player, and obviously Rob wasn’t such a great salesman if he couldn’t even sell himself.

I thought Rob came out looking pretty bad, overall. He didn’t have the calm demeanor that Pam and Andy maintained. He was doomed by being so defensive without actually being good at defending himself.

57

One thing I’ve wondered about is why there aren’t any older people, in their forties or even fifties, vying for this thing. A lot of the boo-boos and outright gaffes I see from these kids in the boardroom and among each other can be chalked up to a lack of life experience.

58

Because it’d be boring as hell.

59

Here’s the application for Apprentice 2 and it mentions that contestants have to be at least 21 years old but doesn’t give a maximum. The app. states that the contestants have to be of excellent mental health and we know that some of 'em have been fudging on that part. It doesn’t mention “no fat chicks”, but that seems to be an unspoken requirement. As for the age, WAG here, I’d think that most people that would be vying for that position would already be where they’d want to be in life that they wouldn’t want to risk it on a reality show.

I see that the weekly dossiers aren’t up for season 2 (yet). I hope they put them up again.