America 1982-Chapter 366 - 35: For the Common Ideal_3

"Rick, use that cleverness you had when you worked at the adult film company to come up with more programs that attract viewers. You’re the genius who could sell pornography to Christians! Use your brain!"

"I will, boss." Once Tommy left, Rick let out a sigh of relief, closed his eyes to ponder for a moment, and then looked up at his colleagues who were now staring at him:

"Tonight’s episode of ’Battle of Three Thousand Silks,’ designed to increase audience participation, will be suspended. We’ll run an extra episode of ’NiggerBoss’ instead to fill the slot. Megan, take the reality show proposal we passed on before and take it to the production company. If they refuse it for being too lowbrow, we’ll have Temptation Company handle the filming."

"We passed on a lot of proposals. Which one?" asked the woman who had earlier defended Rick to Tommy with great fervor.

"The one tentatively called ’Corrupting Morals,’" Rick said as he stood up and walked toward the door of the meeting room.

In the room, everyone gasped. The woman named Megan shrugged, quickly gathered her laptop, and got up to follow Rick, reminding her colleagues as she walked:

"You all better prepare yourselves to completely say goodbye to any dreams of Emmy recognition in your careers."

...

Tommy pushed open the door to his office to find Wolfe Tuck flipping through a ’Time’ magazine on the sofa. Seeing Tommy enter, he stood up and embraced him.

"You better not be here to congratulate me, Wolfe," Tommy said after releasing him. Instead of sitting back at his desk chair, he sat directly on the desk and offered his friend a wry smile.

Wolfe was Tommy’s mentor in the television industry. He’d enlightened him on the industry’s secrets, its unspoken rules, and its clandestine hierarchy and order. Without Wolfe’s advice, an established television pro, Tommy would not have found it so easy to take the path less trodden and create BT Television Network.

Of course, there was no need to let Wolfe know exactly why he had decided to create such a BT Television Network.

"What, I can’t congratulate your network’s launch?" Wolfe sat back down on the sofa, eyeing the Tommy he hadn’t seen in a long time, and smiled as he spoke.

"Launched last night, and today my secretary told me we received a call from the FCC. Congratulations, BT has gotten one hundred and sixty-seven complaints about the programs being vulgar and displeasing to viewers. I was just in a meeting with the programming team asking them what the hell went wrong. One hundred and sixty-seven complaint calls, are you proud? This caught me completely off guard!" Tommy said, rubbing his hands together despondently, then raised his head to look at Wolfe:

"Can you believe it? I’ve never been complained about by so many people in my life."

"It’s not your fault, Tommy. TV stations that prioritize ratings above all else tend to operate in a similar fashion—capturing viewers with sensational and vulgar content and then making money from advertisers. It doesn’t seem to be inherently wrong. A bunch of protests even broke out when FOX launched." Seeing Tommy’s demoralized expression, Wolfe wanted to question him, but the words got stuck. Instead, he walked over, patted Tommy’s shoulder, and spoke in a lighter tone to comfort him:

"Look on the bright side, your employees are working hard to make you money. And from the perspective of someone in the industry, your programs will definitely be favored by advertisers."

Tommy slowly nodded his head and remained silent for a long while before looking up: "But you know, I never intended to make money off the television station. If I wanted to make money, I wouldn’t have bothered with all this; I could easily return to Silicon Valley and make far more money than I would from advertising. It’s not about the money for me, Wolfe, it’s about achieving something of value in life."

"I know," Wolfe said, looking at Tommy and sighing as he settled back into his seat in front of the sofa: "Also, don’t worry about the number of viewer complaint calls; what’s not forbidden by law is permitted."

Tommy cracked a smile at Wolfe: "So you are encouraging me to keep this up? God, I was so angry when I saw the programs last night that I berated everyone in the meeting room. They just don’t understand television!"

"I’m not encouraging you, I’m just comforting you. I hope you can perk up. It’s not all bad. Although the nature of the programs ensures that BT can’t compete with the big three networks for ratings, from another angle, it’s likely that no FOX viewer can resist the allure of BT’s programs," Wolfe said with a chuckle.

Tommy was silent for a moment, as if he had made up his mind, and then looked at Wolfe earnestly: "Come back to us, Wolfe. Without you, I’m like a fly hitting walls everywhere. Remember what we said before? One day, I would be the best television network boss and you would be the best television producer. We would go to the Emmy Awards together and sweep all the prizes we could. Without you, what do I have to win with? ’Finding Daddy in America’ or ’Wife Swap Game’?"

Sophia brought in two cups of coffee, overhearing Tommy’s words and frowning slightly without avoiding Wolfe, spoke up on the spot to remind him: "Tommy, I want to remind you, the TV station just launched, and making major personnel changes at this time would be extremely foolish and irresponsible. Plus, as far as I know, Er is already negotiating with some big advertisers today. Although the programs he approved have some issues of taste, from a business standpoint..."

"I’ve said before, I’m not short of money, Sophia. I haven’t disregarded Er or anyone else’s accomplishments, but it seems like they have a misunderstanding. I explained to them the central idea of ’The Lamplighter,’ and what they gave me in response was ’Finding Daddy in America.’" Tommy took the coffee, set it aside, and spoke with an air of resignation.

"Sophia’s right, Tommy. Just starting out, any personnel changes will trigger a major chain reaction among the staff, especially when ad sales feedback is decent. If you insist, your employees will panic because they won’t understand what they did wrong to help the company make money and why they are being adjusted or fired. It’s an impulsive act you should not take," Wolfe said, taking his coffee from Sophia and advising Tommy.

Hearing Wolfe say the same thing, Tommy’s head sank in disappointment, but quickly he raised it again: "You’re both right, I really shouldn’t blame these employees who are trying to make money for the company. However, I have another idea, Wolfe."

"What?" Wolfe had been drinking his coffee with his head down but looked up at Tommy upon hearing his words.

"Let’s bypass BT and start over with the original preparation process. You and your team can build a new television network, keeping our initial shared vision in mind," Tommy said earnestly.