Golf architecture series on The Golf Channel

[Tim_Cronin]

As I understand it, their average audience per-minute across the day just before they started their PGA Tour contract was 44,000 homes. That was incuding infomercials, tournament coverage, the works. That's out of the 80 million homes the channel reaches in the U.S.
Including Tour coverage, the average audience is higher. How much,it's hard to say, because GC combines their Tour telecast ratings (live and replay), and thus breaking them out to match the rest of the day takes both a slide rule and access to more info than they release. But the numbers can't be sterling.

[Charlie Goerges]

It's all about the story. Subject matter with far less mass appeal than golf or even GCA can be the subject of a well-made or successful documentary. Try watching "The Yes Men" (the WTO) or "LORDS OF THE GOURD: THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE" (pumpkin growing); fun, interesting documentaries, inexpensive to make, and probably made a good return.

The one story that would probably translate well to the Ken Burns' style is George Crump at Pine Valley (bonus points on him dying before completion).

[Chris_Clouser]

Charlie,

My point exactly.  Do shows about the great courses of the world and people will watch.  But masquerade the shows true architectural study within the history of the course.  Places like Pine Valley, Pebble Beach and Augusta are full of that kind of stuff and if given to the public they would love, they just don't know they are getting it.  But like little kids, sometimes you have to hide the good food in something that is more acceptable to their bland palates...

It could be done, but you can't come out and openly say the show is about golf course architecture.  No one will be drawn in by that except for a small niche audience.  Something much to small for the Golf Channel to be interested in.

 

[Thomas MacWood]

Chris
I don't think that is what Charlie is saying. In his view the most important factor is the story being interesting. If you do a series on the great golf courses your audience is going to be very limited. If you do an intersting story, with heavy emphasis on interesting, whatever the topic might be (pumpkin farming or anarchists) and your potential audience is much greater. In other words the story transends the obscure subject. A compelling Crump story would be much more interesting to the public than a look at Pine Valley.

[Chuck Brown]

Playing Lessons With the Pros could not be more devoted to architecture.

A golfer whose livelihood requires a keen understanding of golf course architecture surveys the shot, tells you what he sees, and tells you how his interpretation of what lies in front of him dictates the shot.

How is this show not about golf course architecture?

I actually agree with what you say.  Which is part of why I think it is the best independently-produced show on the channel.  Except that in many of the shows that they have produced to date (with some very notable exceptions) the course is an afterthought, with the emphasis being on "the Star Professional."  And, in the latest incarnation, the emphasis is on "the Star Professional and the attractive, credible-player hostess..."

Still, just going out for four hours with just three cameras and a sound crew, and little else, fits the bill of low-cost production for Golf Channel.  It seems actually doable to me.

[Dan Herrmann]

Chuck - If I recall correctly, the Corey Pavin show was shot at The 'Mink, and it certainly involved architecure.

[Dan_Callahan]

It's all about the story. Subject matter with far less mass appeal than golf or even GCA can be the subject of a well-made or successful documentary.

I agree. Who would have thought a show about crab fishermen would be anything less than a snoozefest? But with the right cameramen and editors, and some great imagination by the folks who conceived of it initially, the Deadliest Catch is one of the most addictive shows on TV.

[Charlie Goerges]

Tom you got the gist of my post absolutely correct. The story is what matters. But that is not to say that the intent of the filmmaker wouldn't be closer to Chris' point of view. In fact, even fun, lighthearted documentaries probably carry some message, though I couldn't begin to know the intent of the maker of "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen".

Plus, I could definately see a modern-day architect discussing the genius of Pine Valley in "George Crump at Pine Valley or How One Man Gave His Live for the Game of Golf".

[Charlie Goerges]

Dan C, you're right, those shows (I think many of the shows in that vein are produced by the same company including Ice Truckers et. al.) prove that no niche is too small. I go back through my netflix rentals of documentaries and fine gems like "Word Wars", the aforementioned films, and more serious fare like the biography I watched of Frank Lloyd Wright. I mean, FLW has no more mass appeal than Crump nowadays, though he was very important and well known at various earlier times in the century.

By the way, if anyone knows of a good film biography of Bertrand Russell, I'd love to know about it.

Charlie

[Thomas MacWood]

Speaking of obscure but interesting stories, there is a documentary on PBS tonight (Secrets of the Dead) on the Dr. Crippen story. Crippen was tried (and hung I believe) for the murder of his wife. I had never heard of Crippen before, but it has been said it was the OJ Simpson trial of its day (1910 England)....evidently they've used DNA testing to determine if the good doctor's death penalty was warranted.

[Tim Gavrich]

I don't think the golf TV-watching audience is ready for a hardcore architecture-centered show at this point.  I see two related steps that should be taken to plant the architecture seed in TV audiences:

1. Get commentators to talk more about the architecture during network coverage.  Talk about what's so great about the different holes on courses the pros are playing week in and week out.

2. For goodness' sakes, bring back Shell's Wonderful World of Golf!  Make such exhibitions a showcase for the charity work that the PGA Tour does all the time, and hold them at the world's great golf courses.  Fill the down-time between shots (because there are only two players) with mention of the architectural merits of the course they're playing.  Plant the seed in people's minds and see how they react.