By Faith McQuinn
I’m not really one for reality television. On competition-type shows, I usually watch the first few episodes because — let’s face it — it’s fun to watch people act like fools on national television. Even though the foolish are less abounding than on AMERICAN IDOL, I am glad to report that the season premiere of AMERICAN INVENTOR had its fair share.
In the judges’ chairs this season are: George “lean mean grilling machine” Foreman, Sara Blakely, the inventor of Spanx shapewear, Pat Croce, the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and Peter Jones, the resident crabby Brit. But, who cares about the judges? On to the competition!
The night begins with Jamshid Hatami, a former insurance salesman who quit his high-paying job to pursue inventing full-time. He hides his invention under a dark hoodie. He should have kept it there. Jamshid quit his job to invent a contraption that keeps your head still. How does it work? You wear a hat (or a headband if you don’t want to muss your hair) and clip straps to it. The straps are attached to an odd contraption you wear on around your torso. Yeah, he didn’t get to move to the semi-finals. Jamshid was far from the craziest or the most memorable.
The crazy award must go to Steven Cousineau. Wearing a “Future Billionaire” shirt and straw hat with a flower on it, Steven just screams fanatical. (Plus, ABC told me he was crazy in the pre-commercial teaser.) Steven has supposedly invented “the wheels of change.” They are bicycle hubcaps that spread a subliminal message of safety to the environment. His need to change the world didn’t get through to the judges, though. Poor crazed Steven was so upset he had to be escorted out of the building.
The most memorable award definitely goes to Richard Kopell, the inventor of “My Therapy Buddy.” If you watched last season, you know about Richard and his little blue Buddy. The man creeped out the judges last season with his odd invention, but he’s not one to give up. He came back this time with not one My Therapy Buddy, but three. I’m sorry, Richard, but your buddies make me think of the alien robots from Spielberg’s ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE: AI. Hearing the eerie
voice tell me “Everything is going to be all right” really makes me believe everything is definitely not going to be all right. The judges don’t agree with me. Richard gets his wish and is sent through to the next round. Who knows? Maybe those little blue aliens will be on every therapist’s shelf come next fall.
Like all reality competitions, there must be a few genuinely good stories to balance out the laughable ones. AMERICAN INVENTOR brings us a doozie. Greg Chavez is a firefighter and a father to six children. He walks into the room in full firefighting gear to present his invention, the “Guardian Angel.” If he didn’t have the judges with his brilliant idea — a fire protector for Christmas trees — he captured them his horrific story of seeing a father running from a burning house with his lifeless child. Thankfully, Greg gets through, and my money is on him making it to the finals.
I can make all the jokes I want about how reality shows are the bane of American television, but I must admit that good things can come of some of them. AMERICAN INVENTOR is definitely not up to the spectacle of AMERICAN IDOL (or any of Fox’s reality programming), but for a heartfelt show with a few good crazy fools mixed in, AMERICAN INVENTOR is a mostly enjoyable hour of television.