America 1982-Chapter 363 - 34: Please, Spare Tommy_3
The scumbag investors they were discussing referred to the EFF Alliance led by Tommy Hawk and Jason White.
According to the three nouveau riches, if not for their Asian identity, they wouldn’t dare to appear on television for a serious interview with their modest wealth. If word got back to Silicon Valley or Stanford University, it would only be met with ridicule. A fortune of thirty to fifty million was nothing to boast about in the Californian computer industry. Such wealth wouldn’t even rank in the top ten at EFF or Stanford, let alone compete for the top spot, which was always taken by either Jason White or Tommy Hawk since the companies ranking behind them definitely held their shares.
Nobody dared refuse them, though there had been companies that tried; most ended up either splitting up or shutting down completely. To put it bluntly, the small companies in Silicon Valley were like dolled-up maidens in the eyes of Tommy Hawk and Jason White. If they took an interest in you, and you still wanted to stay in the game, you had to get in bed with EFF. After the deed was done, EFF would toss you some investment.
Of course, EFF would help you devise a corporate strategy, but they would also gradually increase their influence within the company, constantly looking for opportunities to push for an IPO. It seemed that EFF’s involvement could accelerate business development, yet for the founders, the company was hardly their baby anymore—they were at best surrogate mothers to it.
This scathing industry commentary made Wolfe believe the current episode’s ratings should be pretty good. Unfortunately, before it could air, lawyers representing EFF arrived at the studio with one hand extending hush money and the other wielding a legal letter.
Consequently, that episode was hastily replaced with an interview featuring EFF initiator Jason White, who went on and on to the host about his great sacrifices for entrepreneurship, turning a serious financial talk show into a testimonial segment for "Pimp" magazine.
As for the three Asian founders of that company, Jason mentioned they seemed to have been arranged to head to Japan to explore the more magnificent prospects of the Asian market. If they weren’t keen on Asia, they had the African market as another option.
That was the first time Wolfe had heard Tommy’s name. When he finally met him, he found Tommy to be even more sincere than the rumors suggested. Tommy confessed to him that he was quite wealthy now and no longer needed to hustle every day to make money. He wanted to engage in endeavors that would enhance his personal value, such as promoting racial equality, or for instance, starting a TV station that truly met the needs of African-American viewers.
When one is wealthy, they begin to contemplate values, and Tommy’s words seemed perfectly logical to Wolfe. Moreover, Tommy put his money where his mouth was and gave Wolfe complete autonomy, never interfering with any of his decisions.
In this way, Wolfe helped Tommy conceive the style for the TV station and design programs. However, because Tommy was preoccupied with his studies and other businesses, BT Television’s progress was slow. Wolfe, having to answer to his team, knew too well that inertia could quickly set in if they remained idle and just collected salaries in the television industry. To maintain his team’s competitive edge and influence, Wolfe made the tough decision to resign and subsequently joined SBG to start working.
And now, as BT Television finally launched, he was invited to watch the damn "Finding Daddy in America," a program he had poured his heart into.
"Honey, I think it’s time for you to go to bed, it’s getting late," his wife suddenly spoke up in the living room, reminding their daughter to head to her room to sleep.
Her voice snapped Wolfe out of his thoughts. He came back to his senses and walked into the living room, "Don’t be too strict, dear... Let the child stay up late just this once... Darling! Go to your room right now! What the hell is that?"
On the television screen, a host was introducing something: Welcome to BT Television’s late-night family reality show, "Wife Swap Game," where two African-American families will welcome...
His daughter stood up, holding her stuffed toy, and walked toward her bedroom, saying, "Wife Swap Game, Daddy, what’s that about? The TV said black families can participate, so, is our family going to sign up?"
Wolfe’s wife also turned to look at him, as Wolfe struggled to control the twitching vein on his forehead and his fierce facial expressions, his voice almost squeezing through his teeth:
"Honey, if our family signs up for this game, I think the consequence will be that you and your mom might soon end up on an episode of ’Finding Daddy in America’."
After his daughter returned to her bedroom, confused, Wolfe turned back to the screen, "How shameless does one have to be, whether a black lawyer or a white showrunner, to come up with such a deranged reality show?"
"While it’s a bit bold, it certainly is refreshing. The name sounds more like a gimmick. From the introduction, it seems like it’s actually about two women who envy each other’s lives swapping places to experience the troubles outsiders can’t see and trying to find solutions," Wolfe’s wife explained as she sat on the couch, eyes on the screen, speaking to her husband.
Wolfe nodded slightly, "Is that so?"
"My goodness, that woman’s new husband looks so strong, it’s hard not to expect something to happen when you sleep with a man like that at night..." his wife said excitedly as the new family member of the female guest appeared on the screen.
Hearing the words that had popped out of his wife’s mouth, Wolfe changed the channel right away and then ran his fingers through his hair with force, "You’ve had a higher education, dear."
"But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying these kinds of shows. No one said a woman with a college degree can’t like reality TV. It’s actually your shows that I wouldn’t watch." The wife said, as she popped a chip into her mouth and delivered the most threatening line to her husband with a smile:
"Besides, if you don’t satisfy me at night, I might consider signing up for this show."
"I’ll go see Tommy tomorrow." Wolfe said, his face expressionless, after hearing his wife’s words. Then he stood up and headed towards the bathroom. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
From the couch, his wife asked in a deliberately puzzled voice, "Say hi to Tommy for me. And are you going to see him in hopes of getting me a green light to skip the application process and join the show?"
Wolfe’s wife had met Tommy numerous times while Wolfe worked at BT and was very familiar with him.
"That’s not funny, dear," Wolfe said, standing in the doorway to the bathroom, turning his head to look seriously at his wife.
"If you don’t obediently come back to my bed tonight, I’ll let you know just how funny things can get," his wife said, winking at him.
Wolfe drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and lowered his head, "I need to take a bath first before I can go to bed and wait for you."
After saying this, he walked into the bathroom with his mouth wide open and a fierce expression on his face, but without making a sound. Once his emotions abated, he took a bath and then looked at himself in the mirror, "Earl Rash, you damn, one-eyed Charlie. ’Wife Swap Game’, you really outdid yourself..."
Coming out of the bathroom, he muttered curses about Earl Rash, the man he considered the root cause of BT Television’s lost original intention, and then he saw that the television had switched to another program, evidently, he was still mistaken about the current standards of BT Television.
Because on the television screen, a Black host was chattering away:
"This is ’All-Around Gun Modding King’, where our motto is, spend the least money on the meanest gear..."
"Does anyone really like watching this gun modding show?" his wife complained discontentedly:
"Why can’t they just do a marathon? It’s a shame we have to wait until next week to see the second episode of ’Wife Swap Game’."
Wolfe sighed, "I don’t know who likes watching, but I do know the cops in America definitely don’t like this show. Tommy’s original concepts were so wonderful, and now look how terrible the outcomes are. I feel like I bear a great deal of responsibility for resigning. If I were still at BT, it definitely wouldn’t have turned into this mess."
"Want to hear my advice?" His wife, who didn’t like watching ’All-Around Gun Modding King’, said as she headed towards the bathroom, "These shows are quite good, much better than those on the Black channel at SBG that you worked on, so please, spare Tommy."
