Circuit City Meets Frazier
Hollywood gets its inspiration, or lack thereof, for new television shows from a variety of sources; however, I never expected a writer’s muse to be a failed consumer electronics chain.But that was until I read this Reuter’s piece that discusses three new TV shows for the fall.
It seems Circuit City’s failure inspired a new show called “Hank.” The show, starring Kelsey Grammer, is about a failed Wall Street honcho who must learn to live a simple, less extravagant life.
According to Reuters:
“Creator Tucker Cawley said ‘Hank’ was inspired by the failure last year of consumer electronics retailing giant Circuit City, which was for decades a family-run business.
“We will be touching on riches-to-rags things. But Kelsey’s character doesn’t look on the new situation as something people should feel sorry about. It’s the kind of old-fashioned American optimism with which he views the world which hopefully will be appealing,” Cawley said.
Near the end, Circuit was anything but a family-run business, but it was just another corporation that hired a string of CEOs in an attempt to stay afloat. Here is a look at Circuit’s history.
Too bad failure is funnier than success or I would recommend that the writer take a look at some of the dozens of smaller CE and major appliance chains that are surviving the recession quite well.
ex cc customer commented:
It’s a shame that CC Scammed some of us by selling warranty’s for electronics under the guise of Assurant plus plans only to find out later your stuck with the same basic plan as the manufacter offered
Damn Shame commented:
Circuit City was driven out because the had a superior website that enabled people to buy online and then go pick up at their store and also they had excellent customer service. This was too much for their competition to emulate so they were eliminated.
All this talk about free trade and competition is a bunch of bull. The status quo has unfortunately gained way too much power and will kill anything that threatens their control of the benjamins. It’s gonna be a fierce battle to take our country back and I don’t mean like those townhall people think (or don’t…)
ExCCPT Employee commented:
I worked PT at CC last fall and during the holiday season before the liquidation was announced. It’s a damn shame that things went the way that they did as I found the CC staffers to be a joy to work with (and you might say I’ve been around the block in the CE biz.)To a person these people showed a ton of character in the face of a very difficult situation. The problem with the premise of that show is NONE of the mgmt people (or BOD) that ran CC into the ground have had to figure out how to makes things work on their million dollar severence plans. My guess they would not know the inside of a Dollar Store unless they bought one!
another ex-CCer commented:
They should be sure to include a sketch with Kelsey remembering the ex-CEO talking about sailing his yacht. I mean all of us lowly workers could totally relate to that. After all, steering the company into the ground is apparently a great deal like sailing. I mean, you have to steer both, right? Maybe they could also focus the comedy on the board of directors. They would be hard pressed to find a better band of fools. After all, it was the board who decided to hire one loser after another to ruin the company - then give each millions in bonuses for doing it!
It is truly (very sad) comedy indeed.
ex Circuit City employee commented:
Doug - nice choice of words to say “Too bad failure is funnier than success”….I am sure families of the 35,000+ employees at Circuit City didn’t find it too funny when the company had to announce liquidation.
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