Amarsir

That seems to be one of the differences a Shark makes. Businesses that get a deal are much more prepared for the Shark Swoon then ones that don't. (Presumably by now the Sharks know what kind of ramp up to expect and they have the funding to pre-stock.) I've also noticed that several of Kevin's follow-ups seem to feature him addressing the production process to clear up shipping delays. (Including this most recent one.) Now if that's something he pays special attention to, or it's just something he does for the camera, would I guess depend on how much benefit of the doubt you want to give him.

Really strong episode to come back from a week off. Justin's fakeout premature ending is something they can't do a lot but it really worked there. I noticed that the audience selection was considerably more random than in previous episodes. Normally they just pick someone for speed. This time there was the judge choice, the pillow toss, the popped bottlecap... I wonder if that's just coincidence or if they got feedback that audiences think "plant" when the magician makes the choice?

There are certain episodes where I wish I didn't know the name ahead of time. This is one of them. ("The Gang set Sweet Dee on Fire" is another.) The title card is set up so well as a punchline and knowing it ahead of time spoils that a bit. I like the Ponderosas as characters. It reminded me that we haven't seen the McPoyles yet this season. Not that I need a lot of them, but I imagine they'll show up with a bit of a grudge from the "Squashes Their Beefs" fire.

Here's an article with a brief update on Scholly and some other apps we've seen: http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/24/the-shark-tank-effect-on-apps/

That sums up my position as well. They're all adults and so is the entrepreneur so if they want to make that kind of play it's fair game. But I definitely think that the "I really care about your business" crap Lori pulls really shows hollow when she's making an inferior or time-limited offer. If she actually cared about what the guy was doing she'd want him to get the best partner even if it wasn't her. So again I defend her right to be selfish on the deal, but that's definitely what she was doing. I'm old too so I also remember the books. But I know for a fact that the "This person got $X million in scholarships!" stories were things back then too. Yes demographics matter a lot. Yes they're being generous with the adding by putting mutually-exclusive offers together. (You can apply to 100 schools, get an average of $2500/year offered from them, and call that a million dollars.) But they're also putting out a ton of applications because you don't know how successful you'll be. So it's an accomplishment. An app is interesting. I spent the episode thinking "this would be so much more natural on a website." Still mobile-accessible and a lot easier to type on. But then I remembered A) I'm old, and teens today think apps first and web second. And B) It's hard to monetize a website like that but an app has it built in. He should have a back-end website though and give scholarship funds the ability to enter info rather than manually doing it himself. I roughly agree. The reason I wouldn't have the backpacks made in the countries is because then you have a dozen manufacturing locations to manage. Much easier to control quality and ship from one place. Other than that I don't care where it's made. But it did seem much more genuine. "We celebrate the countries by buying local fabric designs from them" is so much more natural than "I help these people by hiring them to make sandals I designed." And although microloans are not full-on charity, it's a give-back aspect separate from the actual business which makes it more marketing-worthy. Plus they did it all without making their employees stand in a field for a "thank you" video. Maybe I'm overweighting that, but it really didn't sit right with me when Sseko did it. Yeah I think it was cut down a lot because some of the discussion implied there had been missteps so far and whatnot. But "not profitable enough yet" would probably sum it up. Especially if they're both working it full-time and needing to draw money out.

Charlie Day and Kaitlin Olson did a great job selling the chemistry with that pause. Even though I would never have put those characters together, for that brief moment I went "oh, really?" And then of course I realized what a terrible idea it is, as did they. But it worked. Dennis needs another angle besides raging at people. It's funny when they can do subtle hints of psychosis with him, but I feel there's no other direction to go most of the time. And seeing him rant at people, especially strangers, is just not as funny as what the other characters are bringing.

For a minute there I really thought Jim was going to back the Bigfoot guy. That would have been the craziest deal in DD history. Again Vikram makes an offer that's just not competitive. The biscotti family asked $100k for 15%. David offered just that. Arlene eventually offered that plus another $100k in marketing. But Vikram wanted 25% plus a 3% royalty. Even before Arlene came in he was clearly banking on his background offering value that I'm just not sure the pitchers are buying into.

I'm sure they are too. But don't make them stand in a field to say "thank you" into a camera. It's demeaning.

You might be right. Much as I said in another thread that Vikram needs to learn to undercut his deals as befits his place in the pecking order, Jim has learned that he doesn't have to and therefore acts like the alpha dog a bit too much.

I don't think anyone disputes that. But the man got a goofball edit and I think Marcus is equally to blame. It should have been handled by Marcus saying "Ewell you seem like a great guy for an office job, but we don't have any of those." Instead he was passive-aggressive and Ewell was trying to balance being supportive against knowing he didn't fit.We all side with the owners here but I think "not wanting to let down family" goes in both directions and Marcus was the one without any ties.

I know they've been taping for about the past month, so I'm going to keep that in mind if they do any topical jokes. (Like how Justin Bieber kept coming up in a prior season.) Apparently Penn & Teller were tapped as guests, as I learned from Penn's podcast. However I was cringing as he was talking because he was so excited about getting to improvise and talking about how he'd been brushing up with his improv friends so he could do a good job. And me sitting here knowing they're just going to be Living Scenery and then have Wayne sing about them.

You might have missed a bit. As I recall Trump asked 3 people who should win. They all said Leeza. Then they went to commercial. After commercial (and maybe another segment) he asked 3 more who all said Geraldo. My conspiracy theory at the time was that they didn't want to look make it look like a runaway so they asked in commercial who they could poll to support Geraldo. Because another segment later had more celebs say Leeza. No idea if that's what actually happened or if it was all known in advance or just happenstance. But overall the cast favored her more, I'm certain. I agree. It was pretty clear from early on that the only two competitors who could remotely stand in the finals were Geraldo and Leeza. (Vivica had some good talent but let herself get dragged down into fights too much. And Kevin blew himself up too early and might have been hurt by lack of experience anyway.) So I don't think Trump ever liked Geraldo all that much, but knew he needed him.

Unfortunately, for the industry they're in it probably helps the career more to push "I can act", "I can sing", "I can direct", "I'm recognizable" than to prove that you're a leader and team player. Not that it's entirely calculated, but I think that's why we get a lot of the self-promotion the way we do. Which creates this lovely self-fulfilling attribute. Trump chooses not to fire him a few times and then gets to call him "a survivor". Yes, he's very good at being favored by you. Quite the skill. You should favor him for that.

My instinct was the same as yours, but on second thought I believe he meant he was going to take his time with that sentence, possibly because a producer in his ear was telling him they had a strict time limit. I doubt it was his intent to announce a delayed start to the next season.

I really like what the live audiences adds, especially viewing the prerecorded stuff. For example when Geraldo referred to himself as "iconic" and we got to hear the audience laughter in the background, that was delightful.

It's why I'm fine outsourcing to China. Your iPhone purchase enables workers in low-income regions of China to feed their families! You're absolutely right. If the sourcing had been just one of the things they mentioned I'd have been fine with it; maybe considered it a slight positive. But she was way too anxious to show it off on a product that's utterly unexciting. Just the idea of making the workers stand in a field for a video piece already had me annoyed. I tend to measure episodes less by the quality of the products and more the quality of discussion. Mark went out early a lot but I almost like him better when he's playing my in-the-room surrogate. His comments were good with the Lumi woman and he was delighted when Barbara did the same kind of bid-sniping that he likes to do.

Woah. I wonder if they'll end up putting the show on hiatus or possibly doing some kind of reboot. Not that they need to, but not only would Jim be the only original Dragon, he'd be the only one with more than 1 season of experience.

That's true. While Vikram's a well-qualified Dragon, he's not fighting for deals the way he needs to. Not going in on enough things and not undercutting where he would have to. Not only does Jim have obviously better connections, but he just has a better track record on the show. If Vikram would fight for deal for a year or so, even offering higher valuation than he really wants to, I think he'd be able to come back for another season and have more entrepreneurs favoring him.

I wasn't as impressed by the challengers this week. The wizards were fine and brought it home, but neither pair was doing anything really that impressive. Also way too much use of curtains for a single show. It was not only noticeable by the quantity, but when they're obviously hiding something I start thinking about camera angles. And for a show that explicitly says "It's important you know that we don't use camera tricks" there are a lot of convenient cuts. Combine that with the implied dishonesty of the prep time and it really hurts the credibility.

I agree it could be the cheapest, but not at all the cleanest. What Marcus described is exactly what happened to Eduardo Saverin at Facebook. The result was one of the most high-profile lawsuits in recent history and pretty strong public sentiment on Saverin's side, plus a major out-of-court settlement. (Not that the movie didn't help him out a lot.) Even if Dean was a lazy do-nothing, he was a legitimate partner and Marcus using a finance trick to push him out would not play well. So considering that Marcus obviously thinks Sweet Pete's can be a multi-million dollar business, paying $50k to cleanly break with the old partner is a smart idea.

You can actually watch all 4 episodes, plus some bonuses, on their YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq-L_SNayTDy-rOLZPtY3cw Although I don't know why you'd want to. It's an amateurish take on candid reality shows and I couldn't make it through the 5 minutes of scale-gate. But it was pretty clear that Dane does not play well with others even then.

Must have been a great day for the visitors at Universal, constantly getting blocked off for stuff. When Brandi and Johnny took their "impromptu" ride, the entire car was cleared and they attached a camera to the front. That doesn't happen instantly. I do have to disagree that there was any intent to give Geraldo the better clue. Asking questions of the sponsor has always been a crucial part of setting up the task (which unfortunately it was cut out most of the season). But they just recited a standard piece of marketing spiel which to be honest was kind of nonsensical until the end. ("It's about thrilling and exhilarating experiences that immerse you in your favorite brand stories.") Ian (not Geraldo) was smart enough to ask "What's the one thing you want people to know?" Now I could maybe believe he was prompted to ask that question but the execs didn't say anything unusual.

Here's Kevin doing his best to support your theory: (If you watch until the end he actually gets a little more real, but still "in character".)

I was happy to see him lose too, but not for that reason. It's because the woman clearly wanted Lori and Mark had done nothing to woo her other than assume she'd want his partnership. But there's no hypocrisy there. He said "but sometimes there's a benefit to listening." That's a true statement I'm sure he'd agree with during his own shot clocks. He didn't say "always hear everyone out", he didn't bash Lori, and he wasn't rude when he lost. He just played an angle. Just like it's not inconsistent to sometimes shoot for 3 and other times drive to the basket, there's nothing wrong with sometimes having a deadline and other times telling people to ignore it.

That is a terrible shame. Not only was he broadly interested in all kinds of businesses and entrepreneurs, but he was behind a lot of the den camaraderie. Without him I fear there will be fewer joint deals, less joking around, and generally less fun. I can't imagine who they'll get to replace him, but I certainly wouldn't mind another woman on the panel also.