Underplayed Gems

The Prodigy

The Prodigy poster
Country
United States
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A reality TV show in 2007 promised a million dollar prize to the winner. It turned out to be a scheme to recruit students to sell alarms for a security company. The show never aired and the company later went bankrupt.

deceptivesuspensefulfrustratingdisappointingexploitativemanipulativeshady

What happens

The Prodigy was an alleged proposed American reality TV show in 2007 that promised $1 million in cash and prizes to the ultimate winner, but was actually a recruiting scheme for an alarm sales company. The show staged casting events at college campuses throughout the country in 2007. The show's creative director and producer Bryan Ferre announced that they were recruiting field camera crew from Collins College (Arizona). Students were reportedly selected from around the country, perhaps as many as 2000. Many of the students cast in the show later claimed it was an elaborate scam by Utah-based security alarm company Firstline Security. The "show" was produced by "Actuality Entertainment", and producers promised the students it would air on a major network. Many students never saw any cameras, however. No show ever aired. Firstline subsequently went into bankruptcy, and the state of California launched an investigation of the company's practices which led to its license being revoked. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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