Turkeys
Four that Flopped (The Bus 4.18)
Welcome aboard The Bus!
The Stop
Happy Thanksgiving to all American Bus Riders! In honour of the traditional/stereotypical centrepiece of the holiday meal, today’s Stop is a brief look at four turkeys: things which might have - or should have - worked when they were created, released or produced … but ultimately flopped.1
Betamax. Sony’s attempt to rival the larger VHS cassette tapes and players, Betamax was released in 1975 as the company’s foray into the video cassette format war. Despite its slightly smaller size and a higher quality image, the format eventually became obsolete in the face of the far more popular VHS tapes which had a longer recording capacity.2
New Coke. Introduced in April 1985 and finally discontinued in July 2002, New Coke was the product of blind taste tests and a fear of losing in a competitive market. When tests began to show a preference for the sweeter taste of Pepsi, the Coca-Cola Company decided to tweak the recipe of its most popular product to make it … sweeter. The result was the release of New Coke, and a consumer backlash that forced the company - in less than three months - to re-introduce the original formula in the guise of Coca-Cola Classic.3
Ford Edsel. The Edsel was an ‘automotive failure of such amazing scale’ it is used by Bill Gates as an example of how innovation can fail - even for market leaders. Named after Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, the model was launched in 1958 during an economic recession that ‘catastrophically affected sales of medium-priced cars.’ Considered overhyped, unattractive, and of general low quality, a loss of over $250 million4 on development, manufacturing, and marketing led Ford to discontinue the line before 1960.
Heaven’s Gate (1980). Directed by Michael Cimino5 and featuring an all-star cast including Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterson, Jeff Bridges and Joseph Cotten, the film should have been a success. However, its immediate failure - both critically and commercially6 - upon release saw it pulled from theatres by United Artists and become a by-word for Hollywood hubris and excess. Though Heaven’s Gate has since been reconsidered,7 the excesses surrounding its production affected the film industry as a whole. Frightened by the film’s runaway budget and failure to recoup, studios began taking away control from the director - a decision that, while financially sound, produced a rather dire landscape for truly independent films.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a weird advertisement (1:01) from 1985 - when Lou Reed made a commercial for Honda Scooters. More of an ad for New York City than the scooter itself, it’s certainly one of the odder examples of celebrity product endorsement - and met with its fair share of criticism from those who felt the avant garde punk rocker had sold out. Watch it for the NYC street life - all to the sound of ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’
The Recommendation
Today’s Recommendation is The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).8 Produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, the film is a stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy which tells the story of Jack Skellington - the King of ‘Halloween Town’ - who, while wandering around bored one day, stumbles across ‘Christmas Town’ and decides to take over the holiday.9 Filled with fantastic animated effects, songs and memorable characters and set pieces, the film was a commercial and critical success upon release and has since gained a large cult following. It’s a fun way to cross over the autumnal border into the holiday season. Enjoy!
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is a selection of five tracks which didn’t flop, though they were one-hit-wonders: ‘Sex and Candy’ (Marcy Playground, 1997), ‘In the Meantime’ (Spacehog, 1995), ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (Deep Blue Something, 1995), ‘The Safety Dance’ (Men Without Hats, 1982) and ‘Der Kommissar’ (After the Fire, 1982). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami:10
‘Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
All four turkeys have been on my list of potential Stops, but as I’ve never wanted to devote a single issue to any of them, I thought I’d group them together today. A small flock of turkeys, so to speak. Sources for today’s Stop include Innovation Failures and titular Wikipedia articles.
There were also many, many more ‘adult’ films released (and made at home) on the less-expensive VHS format, so it seems, in the end, that industry determined the victor.
It’s easy (and rather conspiratorial) to think this was a calculated ploy to enhance the original drink’s popularity, and there was a market surge on its re-issue. However, the amount initially lost from the research, development and roll-out of New Coke paints a different picture: that of a major company losing its focus. In the end, they got lucky.
Which is about $2.47 billion in today’s money.
Straight off of his success with The Deer Hunter, Cimino was the hot director. For more about him and his work, see: Michael Cimino (Britannica).
It earned only $3.5M against its $44M budget and was 219 minutes long.
Praise for Cimino’s perfectionism has led it to being seen as a ‘masterpiece.’
This is decidedly not a turkey, but I wasn’t going to recommend something you shouldn’t see.
Jack discovers a clearing in a forest, where there are several trees containing doors into other holiday-themed worlds. I’ve always wanted the filmmakers to do a sequel where they explore another world or two as it reminds me of my favourite example of this conceit - the ‘Wood between the Worlds’ in C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew (1955), where different pools serve as portals into different worlds.
For more about Murakami, see: Murakami (Britannica).
Bryan, I went down a Sex and Candy rabbit hole--do you know how many covers there are of that song? Check it out some time, there are some really good ones.
Hi Bryan, did you know that Megan wrote the novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas? It came out a month or two ago from Disney. It's really good! I saw your mom yesterday; she looks great. A beautiful lady.