[BlogEntry] American Inventor : Everything Is Going To Be All Right

Ok, I am psyched for the new season of American Inventor. The worst thing about last season was the whole "sob story" aspect, where if you didn't waste your life on your idea you didn't go on to the next round. Ridiculous.

This year they've got 3 new judges – George Foreman, Pat Croce, and the woman who started Spanx whose name I will have to go look up. Plus we brought back Peter, the mean guy from last year.

And it's obvious, in the first 15 minutes, that George Foreman is going to be the center of attention. He's the "yes" man to everything, but he also just likes to talk ("I drive a Rolls Royce", "When I told everybody I was gonna be the Champ they laughed at me, too…") So, basically, he's replacing Doug Hall who was far from a "yes" man, but he was the talker of the bunch who never knew when to shut up.

The "everything is going to be all right" guy is back! Good for him, not giving it up. Still being shown as a wacko, but hey. Now he's got twins (which he named Peter and Simon, nice). He's even got a baby doll! To his credit, last year when he was on I did get lots of people looking for the thing. And yes, you can already buy them (for $69.99, apparently, if that's still the price). He gets through this year! Good job. What's he going to do with $50k, though, I have no idea.

Oh, god, they end with a firefighter, dressed in his gear, surrounded by his family, telling stories about seeing children die. Ya think he's going through? I do, without even seeing his invention. So much for not having the sob stories this season. It appears to be an angel for sitting on top of the tree that turns into a sprinkler when it senses that the tree might be on fire. Be interesting to see if it is technically feasible, since he doesn't know for instance when exactly it will go off, how long it will take and so on. It could be the case that in a real situation the whole thing just melts completely and doesn't work.

And that's it for this week. Only one obvious sob story. I actually thought the "auto napkin" lady would have gone through – hey, it was about on a par with the bathroom clip from last year – but I don't think her pitch was good enough. She needed some velcro or straps or something else that took it beyond just "I unfolded a napkin over myself."