I've firmly established the fact that we have no real editors here at TV by the Numbers, so I'm letting folks see the near final draft of the single Fan Excuse Bingo card I assembled after looking at the recent poll I ran and making a few adjustments. One other change from the earlier cards was replacing TVBTN in the header row with BINGO.
While you can suggest anything you want in the comments, what I'm most interested in is simply more eyes to look at it besides mine to find things I've missed.
Also, while I'd likely default to using Cafepress.com for any items, I have no experience with them, or their competition. Anything folks would like to add in the comments about that decision would be interesting to me as well.
Hey, center row for Dollhouse!
“Our petition has a million signatures.”
“It wasn't promoted enough.”
“It has great internet buzz.”
“People are too stupid to get it.”
BINGO!!!!!!!!
One thing, maybe “Our petition has a million signatures” should be “Our petition has a ton of signatures.”
(awaits Joss' Biggest Fan to lay a Whedonesque smackdown on him)
“Networks cancel shows too soon. Remember Seinfeld.” isn't centered in the square. Also, since nothing else has periods I would do it: “Networks cancel shows too soon — remember Seinfeld?”
“All the shows I like are being canceled” isn't much of an excuse, is it?
“The network doesn't listen to its fans” is also not centered.
“Nielsen is an antiquated system” should be Nielson.
As for Cafepress, I'm not a fan. They are over priced, and all they do is iron on a decal, plus the shirts are cheap and uncomfortable. So you're paying $20 (at least) for something you could make at home for $5. The main competition that I know of is Zazzle. I haven't really looked too closely at anything they have, so I'm not sure what their prices are like or what their quality is like. Probably similar to Cafepress.
The best thing to do is to find a company that will print up a batch for you and do all the shipping and such yourself. It's more work, and more complicated with setting up a store and such, but you'll come out with better quality and the fans don't have to pay through the nose for a t-shirt. To make sure you don't lose money on it, I would set up a pre-sale to make sure you get the minimum order required by the company printing the shirts. If you don't within a certain amount of time, you can refund the money and go with Cafepress.
Oh, and if you want to make me REALLY happy, you'll find someone who prints on American Apparel tees and use the 50/25/25 Track Shirt. OMG softest t-shirts I own.
Hmm. I'm not so sure that “I will boycott the network if they cancel it” is really an excuse. And aren't “Networks cancel shows too soon” and “It needs time to grow” basically the same excuse? I also agree with Julia about “All the shows I like…”
Otherwise, though, these are great. My personal favorites are probably the ones about Nielsen and viewers being stupid.
Are you considering some color on the final artwork? I would suggest at least the center “free” TV By the Numbers square be a light color like light yellow. We all like colorful tee shirts.
These all made me chuckle.
Don't we have a new one though? “Daylight Savings Time killed my show”
lol just kidding
CafePress is great. I've used them. You can not only do shirts, but mugs, magnets, even mousepads.
here's mine
http://dosomethingelse.tumblr.com/post/45682394…
I appoint J.R. SVP of BINGO Card Design and Merchandising.
It does need to be more colorful, but I'm not sure about the font.
What about — “It has great overseas sales” ??? Didn't one of the Melrose Place actors say that? BINGO!!!
JR — that's fabulous!!
It is a fan excuse, but more of a reason to keep it rather than a reason why it failed.
I second basically everything Julia said (about the edits to the card; my knowledge of Cafepress vs. others is practically none existent). I think Lisa is probably right about the duplication in canceling shows too early/needing time to grow. Also I like J.R.'s color scheme though I think if they were centered instead of left justified and it looks like they're in italics which doesn't seem to work too well.
Final thoughts on Bill's vs. J.R.'s: I like Bill's for its precision and J.R.'s for its catchiness. Perhaps a compromise could be reached where some of the longer ones could be simplified and some of J.R.'s explained better. Example: a compromise between “DVR gains” (JR) and “It had great DVR numbers” (Bill) would be “Big DVR Gains.” Overall though I think shortening some of the excuses will make the card more interesting to read.
Final thoughts on Bill's vs. J.R.'s: I like Bill's for its precision and J.R.'s for its catchiness. Perhaps a compromise could be reached where some of the longer ones could be simplified and some of J.R.'s explained better. Example: a compromise between “DVR gains” (JR) and “It had great DVR numbers” (Bill) would be “Big DVR Gains.” Overall though I think shortening some of the excuses will make the card more interesting to read.
The left column is surely Chuck considering the NBC reference.
I'm with Julia on the font. Those type of fonts don't reproduce well on fabric. Keep it clean and simple sans fonts do much better, as boring as they are.
It is a fan excuse, but more of a reason to keep it rather than a reason why it failed.
I second basically everything Julia said (about the edits to the card; my knowledge of Cafepress vs. others is practically none existent). I think Lisa is probably right about the duplication in canceling shows too early/needing time to grow. Also I like J.R.'s color scheme though I think if they were centered instead of left justified it would be better and it looks like they're in italics which doesn't seem to work too well. Otherwise I prefer his font choice.
EDIT-However, if it is the font that is giving it the italics look then I recommend another block style font.