I wish I could say that the creation of a TV show based on a commercial was a harbinger of the end times, but such a show has already aired – Baby Bob, based on a Quiznos commercial, back in 2000. And most of the people reading this site grew up on poorly animated cartoons that were less than thinly veiled commercials for toys. And then they grew up and bought the cartoons on DVD. So the precedent has been set for Cavemen, an ABC pilot based on a series of Geico commercials.
While I know that most of you see me as a elite, intellectual, hip, swinging New York man about town, the truth is that even I smile at the Geico caveman campaign, where some of our hairy ancestors* living today deal with anti-caveman attitudes in the modern world. LOL @ oppression of minorities and all that. Anyway, these ads have proven to be incredibly popular, and now ABC has ordered a pilot, written by Joe Lawson, the copywriter genius behind Geico’s caveman and fake reality show Tiny House ads, to write the pilot, which would have the cavemen coping with living in Atlanta, ground zero for CHUD.
I want this pilot to make series because I want to see how many stories they can squeeze from this set up. The whole thing feels a little gimmicky, and I think that maybe the commercials have already exhausted the concept. On the other hand, a regularly airing sitcom whose punchline is that minorities whine about stereotyping is bringing us one step closer to a dystopian TV future.
*As an Italian this implicates all of my immediate family, including the women.