Reality Show Ideas - Create and Rate

[Colin Colenso]

A lot of people here have offered their idea of a successful pool reality show concept. Let this thread be an opportunity for you all to describe your idea, and for readers to rate them out of 10.

Each idea should have a TITLE (for easy reference), a SUMMARY and DESCRIPTION.

Here's mine as an example:

TITLE: PRO HUSTLER

SUMMARY: A player and his manager go out on the road hunting down the best pros and negotiating a handicap good enough that they might hustle the pro.

DESCRIPTION: First part of the show is the manager and player describing their next pro mark, a description of his achievements follow, then they contact the pro, a meeting ensues where a smooth talking manager and likeable semi-pro level player negotiate the terms of a 5k money match. All types of handicaps could be tried for variety, such as get all breaks, substitute breaker, orange crush, the 7 and 8. These would be described via bubbles and/or interviews. You guys know the many interesting sorts of handicaps much better than I, so it could provide a lot of interesting variety.

Once the match is set up, a highlights package of the actual match is made, perhaps 20 mins of the best & critical parts. Some great shots would assure great pool watching.

The final section is interviews with the characters involved, talking about where they did well or did badly in the negotiation and the actual match. Then a teaser for the next pro to be hustled.

I'd imagine there would be some artistic license in making sure that the hustler wins more than he loses, and so that some interesting and varied propositions eventuate. The 5k or 10k bet could entirely be a ruse. What pro wouldn't want to make a few k and get some good exposure? Of course, if the pro loses, it will be because he got out hustled, not out played... hence he still looks good.

Add your own idea, using this format... and/or rate and comment, referring to the TITLE.

 

[JAM]

I like your reality idea. It's actually not that hard to film. The difficulty enters in at the end when you need funding to get it broadcast. There's so much going on out there today.

That said, if someone has creativity and ability to follow through, a pool reality film can be accomplished. Angel Levine has one in the making that just might be a huge hit if she finds the right avenue to get it out there.

My idea of a reality series would be more in a neighborhood gathering place, the pool room, with a cast of regulars. You'd have a grumpy cook in the back and counter people, each one with a different personality. The cast of regulars, however, would be the pool players coming in.:grin:

I worked in a pool room, graveyard shift, back in the early '80s. I still was doing my day job on the side, and thank goodness, I didn't quite my day job.

The regulars in my pool room would have made for a good reality series. I think their names would provide a glimpse of their personalities: Cab Driver Pete, Drug Fair, Geese, Left-Handed Ronnie, Korean Lee, Tom-Tom, Old Man Mickey aka "Mr. Johnson" (bookmaker), Hadji, Baby Huey, Nick the Greek, Bus Driver Ronnie, Lawyer Robbie, Sea Breeze, West Virginia Frank . . . and I could go on and on and on.

Each night in that pool room was like a new adventure. One never knew who was going to walk in the door and what was about to unfold.

One night, a group of four guys came in, asked for the balls and proceeded to the back of the room and began to play each other. When we saw the C-notes being passed back and forth, every single action player in the room had their eyes locked on this group. A couple of the "regulars" walked up and asked if they could join, but the group of four wouldn't let anybody else in.

Soon there was a crowd gathered around, as these guys were soon playing for a dime for each game of 9-ball. We were all licking our chops as this action continued through the night.

I don't know how much money was passed back and forth, but by the end of the night, some of us guesstimated there was $100,000 in cash between the four of these guys. :yikes:

A day or two later, D.C. cracked down on the biggest kingpin bust ever, a man named Rayful Edmund. He is credited, according to law enforcement, for introducing crack cocaine to the Nation's Capital. They busted his entire crew, including his own mother, and got them on a RICO charge. It was headline news for weeks and weeks, all the way through the trial. When their pictures hit the front pages, we in the pool room were shocked to learn that it was Rayful Edmund and his gang who were gambling with each other in our presence. :embarrassed2:

Anyway, that's just one of many pool tales that happened in the pool room I worked at on graveyard shift. If done correctly, you could make weekly TV sitcom of a plain old neighborhood pool room. The stories are endless. :yes:

 

[336Robin]

Good Idea

A lot of people here have offered their idea of a successful pool reality show concept. Let this thread be an opportunity for you all to describe your idea, and for readers to rate them out of 10.

Each idea should have a TITLE (for easy reference), a SUMMARY and DESCRIPTION.

Here's mine as an example:

TITLE: PRO HUSTLER

SUMMARY: A player and his manager go out on the road hunting down the best pros and negotiating a handicap good enough that they might hustle the pro.

DESCRIPTION: First part of the show is the manager and player describing their next pro mark, a description of his achievements follow, then they contact the pro, a meeting ensues where a smooth talking manager and likeable semi-pro level player negotiate the terms of a 5k money match. All types of handicaps could be tried for variety, such as get all breaks, substitute breaker, orange crush, the 7 and 8. These would be described via bubbles and/or interviews. You guys know the many interesting sorts of handicaps much better than I, so it could provide a lot of interesting variety.

Once the match is set up, a highlights package of the actual match is made, perhaps 20 mins of the best & critical parts. Some great shots would assure great pool watching.

The final section is interviews with the characters involved, talking about where they did well or did badly in the negotiation and the actual match. Then a teaser for the next pro to be hustled.

I'd imagine there would be some artistic license in making sure that the hustler wins more than he loses, and so that some interesting and varied propositions eventuate. The 5k or 10k bet could entirely be a ruse. What pro wouldn't want to make a few k and get some good exposure? Of course, if the pro loses, it will be because he got out hustled, not out played... hence he still looks good.

Add your own idea, using this format... and/or rate and comment, referring to the TITLE.

Colin,
I like the idea of providing insight into what are considered the "Great Unknowns" the people who would follow the tournaments to get a chance at hustling the pros. Its a nice angle and a lot could be done with it.

Ive had an idea similar and never put to print so this may be fairly disorganized but here goes.

Title: The Coach

Summary: Old washed up Hustler picks up Young aspiring hustlers and teaches them the tricks of the trade and sets them on a path for success in life because he found the way to it through his hard knocks life and wants them to have better than he and they become the family he never had

Description:

Guy goes into a bar..Young guy. Old guy at the bar drinking. He tries to hide his speed and puts some stupid moves down so someone will play him and eventually someone does. The old guy sits and drinks and watches. The young guy gets himself into trouble, maybe gets his butt kicked or the old man bailed him out of trouble somehow and the old guy gives him his card and says something to him to set the hook. Later the old guy is shown in another bar saving another would be hustler and again gives them the card.

This ends up with some kids making their way to the old guys place, might be some phone calls because now they are broke, in trouble etc. The cast could be girls and guys.

The guy tells what date to be there, what time to be there and and you see them getting there and arriving basically at the same time. The old guy lets them in and he makes himself scarce.

At the appointed time he comes out, he is a old washed up hustler but he knows all of the tricks of the trade and he proceeds to tell each one of them the grave mistakes he caught them in. In front of the rest of the crowd and he also tells them the solutions. Then he walks them into the billiard room. Its a beautiful table and he lets them look at it and he tells them how great it is, what its made of, where its parts came from etc and how he was able to afford it and now he has a medical condition called age and he has lost his edge and his nerve but he is willing to show them the tricks of his chosen profession only if the do one thing........They must do as the are told...no questions.

All of these up comings are head strong and some rebel at the thought but eventually come back into the fold and the old man is the central part of the show . He knows the bars intimately within his areas of the country and many beyond and its here he makes his rounds sometimes in costume to drink at the bar and scope out new ways to make money for his conclave. Then he sends them in. The return from forays with piles of cash and they lay it on the table. The house takes its cut before the rest is split even among the hustlers.

As the episode progresses you see the old man putting up fans in the corners of the room. He has been working on the house making upgrades and accomodations for each of the players making it a place that he wants them to consider home...likely they haven't had one. He is asked why he is putting up the fans and he says well I like dry cloth and I want to be able to dry it quick but one day when the house is fixed up the way I like it...he used to do construction probably....we will all have what we want. A nice place to live and an income coming in, then there will be a Big Score. When the Big Score comes and they don't come often that is the day that the house backs down and we all split even, that is the day that that we dry the table off like I like it and we play and party for a week and we forget about the money. When its over we go back to business and then I know you guys have finally learned something, then you have a future. You have to accept who you are and you have to learn how to deal with it, and nothing looks worse than a broke down and broken hustler.

Then one day he comes in to the meeting before they go out when he tells them what to do and he tells them tonight is the big score and he gives them their assignments and the story shows each of them going where he sends them and doing what he asks. Each assignment builds and crafts the situation he has arranged into the Big Match Ups and then they do what he told them to do.......and they all get the Cash and they end up back at the house and one at a time they step up and place their stack in the center of the table and the pile builds. He looks around the room and say you did what I told you......their is music for this.....that builds and the old man says today we all split even, today nobody goes broke, today is our vacation for a week and then it starts over again and now I can show you how to make a life for yourselves being what it is that you are and loving the life that you have....simply because you did what I told you to and he turns on the fans and the cash flies and they all go crazy amid the music and it shows them partying it up.

In the next weeks he sets them up Ira's and investment counselors and they transition themselves out on their own and new kids on the block come in, or they find partners and go their separate ways. It becomes a Soap Opera of sorts built around the game and the people and bars.

That's my idea that started playing in my mind the first time I heard that some guy named Tor Lowery was thinking about doing a Reality Pool show.

There was a real possibility I saw within the Twilight series where they played baseball....I saw a pool game developing among the highest level of the Vampires, where they decided the fates of some of the naughty vampires with a Pool Game its perfect because most gambling is done at night and they sleep during the day..
and I apologize for the long tome but....here it is.

 

[Kid Dynomite]

Love the thread!

I love this thread and feel some great concepts will be generated as a result and may actually benefit the sport and industry!!

So, here is one of a few concepts I can think of!

1. Baby Sharks!!!

Concept: follow a young Junior players journey! Training routine, finding a coach, Fund raising, Parental Pressure from Dad to win, Parental Pressure from Mom to put down his cue and focus on school, Girls pulling on his time and school friends not understanding his OBSESSION! The kids are having a party friday night and he has a big money match scheduled or efren sighting reported at pool room. All those things would be an awesome story to explore and he makes it as a Junior champion and goes on to be SVB and mosconi cup champion. Have to through in a love story and female angle but a real page turning concept. You could even EXPLORE the dark side of the drug dealers, pimps, Loan sharks trying to indoctrinate him into their world. The local kids knocking off vending machines to fund their gambling addiction after he bust them. The stake horse getting his families approval! I could go on and on with this topic having lived it.

Oddly enough Mosconi was a baby shark at one time and so was most top players shane was a Junior Champion and the list of Baby sharks growing up into champions is pretty long! By the way!

KD

 

[Masayoshi]

Hustling with the Stars

Pros get paired up with a B or C list celebrity to be coached and play doubles matches with eachother at the end of every week. Losing teams are eliminated. To add in the hustling aspect, each pair is given say $5000 at the start of the show and are allowed and encouraged to bet the money on their matches in amounts they see fit and can even give weight to entice others to bet. Once a team is eliminated, their remaining money is given to a charity of their choice.

The first part of each episode should reveal the match ups to be held at the end of the week and should consist of the pros coaching the celebrities and the pairs woofing at eachother. The second part of each episode should reveal how much money is at stake each match and the weight and consist of highlights from each match, plus commentary and afterthoughts from each player.