Chapter 383: Syndication!
[Saturday]
[Well, the first week of school is finally over, so today I slept in.]
[Most kids wake up early on Saturday to watch cartoons or whatever, but not me...]
And pause at that... for now.
Alexander just had to. He needed to.
How many of these had he done already? Just about 4 of them now... but it sure felt like a lot.
Was it because he didn't get much sleep last night?
In any case, for these past few days, did he actually sink into some sort of Jeff-of-Kinny-esque perspective?
Or does writing Greg's entries just do that to people?
It sure was quite the peculiar day-to-day, first-person, diary thinking...
Alexander, who much preferred third-person omniscience, really had to exit himself from that groove and get back to his own.
Fortunately, book stuff can be handled at a later time and with something else being booked on this day, why not shift to that?
This was Saturday, was it not?
Suffice to say... something about this day will culminate this September a whole lot.
It was the 13th of September. For 1986, that's a Saturday.
And still quite early in the morning.
Consequently, Greg was talking about not watching cartoons, was he not?
Putting all those together, something should come up...
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Hence... to the living room...
Prepping the television...
Picking the channel...
Finding comfortable positions...
And that's that.
With time to spare, so...
"Alex..."
"Yeah..."
"Shouldn't you be in headquarters for this? This is very important, after all." She asked and he shrugged. "It's still around six in the morning. And work doesn't start yet until later, so here I am."
Besides, personal at-home viewing is more practical than inter-company-wide collective watching.
80s projectors and televised broadcasts just don't mesh well.
Consequently, if every employee were to watch the program in the comfort of their own homes... it may not seem much but that should boost ratings, right?
"Regardless of the good news or bad news or the final statistics... viewing it here at home will eventually converge as the hubbub for HQ later anyways."
The hubbub in this case is about professionally strategizing, of course. None of the cheers, "kampai", congratulations, better luck next time, it's alright, and all that crap.
Milla just blinked at that, only to be curious about another thing. "Why aren't these in Nickelodeon again?"
Considering the matter in consideration, this option sure wasn't a stretch, was it? Nickelodeon was known for this sort of stuff, after all.
"We could've but we just didn't." Good old Nick just wasn't the right fit in Alexander's opinion.
Despite said channel being a home for all the nick toon-y stuff... being a nick toon isn't actually the only way to go about it.
It's a limited cable channel and given what's at stake, the calculated returns and expected reach just couldn't be justified.
As for the better options, namely ABC, CBS, and NBC... well shucks to them.
Unlike how it was with Nickelodeon, these three bordered more as a want but just couldn't.
Programming schedules were tense and Creed's prospects weren't too good and pretty much in limbo because of it.
Conclusively, Alexander just said. "It's quite complicated than you think... and it isn't as easy as opting towards Nickelodeon for it."
"Wouldn't it have been different if you control all that stuff? Shouldn't Creed TV, Creed Channel, or Creed Network already be in the works? I really thought that you and Grandpa Sullivan would be doing all that by now." With what she knew of them, this was really possible.
"We really might have but it's hard to pull off." Alexander even had ideas on the ready.
Unfortunately, they're just ideas... and vying for any station, channel, program, network, and all that could only be shelved.
For starters, Creed's acquisition expenses are more focused on other things. Mainly Marvel, of course.
That took priority. Besides, with just two TV projects, it's really stretching it to assume that that is enough to fill an entire programming block.
Then again, other options are available.
Interestingly enough, an option that Alexander was eyeing was already shaping up.
Even disturbing Hollywood for quite a while now.
After all, just recently this August 9th, Broadcasting Mogul Ted Turner had acquired MGM-UA.
That in itself sent Hollywood abuzz.
If memory serves right, Turner would actually just sell it back to Kirk Kerkorian within a few weeks.
The film library will sneakily be kept though and old animated works from Hanna-Barbera and the like would be in the bag.
That move in itself would damage ye olde famous roaring lion, however, it will serve as a foundation for Turner's next CNN.
Simplified to CN. Namely Cartoon Network.
Need more be said about that and need more be said about the complications that would come up when trying to get a piece of it.
Which was why Alexander wasn't too hung up on it.
There's still other ways.
Like taking New World's opportunity once again by partnering up with Hallmark to form the Hallmark channel. But too bad... it's Hallmark...
There's the proposal to change up MTV but it's going to take something like Aeon Flux and Beavis & Butt-Head to convince them to do that.
Then there's the ultra-extremist of extreme option.
40+, Arouse, SkiN TV, Fresh! and Spice, Brazzers TV, Hot Choice, Hustler TV, Penthouse TV, Playboy TV, Vivid TV... and if it's not clear yet... these are porn channels.
If left with no choice... Alexander could really go with the Silicone Valley reformation route once again.
Then again... problems and problems.
"Suffice to say, owning and even partly owning something like Creed TV or Channel or Network or whatever is just too far away... for now." Alexander left it at that.
"Why is it with this unfamiliar channel from San Fernando then?" Milla pointed out as it actually was the channel that they're perusing as of current.
"Well, being a simple program provider isn't too bad as a start, and working with a local broadcast like this one happens to be the most optimal for many reasons." Alexander could really say so.
Of course, it's not just the local San Fernando station, many other local broadcasts across many localizations across the country are accounted for to make it quite the reach.
"After many twists and turns, limitations, rejections, and complications... we found out that broadcast syndication is just the way to go."
Of course, this simple broadcast syndication approach is actually far deeper than how it is at first glance.
Alexander's choice to opt for this option is a conspiracy, after all.
This was the red herring that misled the eager scholar for the ChaosNet... but it goes far deeper than that.
Getting so many local broadcasting stations to agree and have one's show be televised at almost the same time is quite the feat.
Even Alexander can't take much credit for that since having two quality programming projects, Back to the Future licensing, and even Top Gun dangling just isn't enough.
One actually needs to be tricky like a fox.
More than anything, it needed the power of some kind of syndicate to get so many independent stations to do so.
Syndicate, huh? Maybe that's the reason it's called syndication and syndicated broadcast.
Even Alexander can't help but muse at that.
"Alex..." Milla, on the other hand, could only point out. "You're not saying much but you're thinking about a lot of things again."
He really was but Alexander just shrugged at that. It's not like this was the first time he's done this anyways.
The topic was just too interesting...
Meanwhile... his train of thought had too many secrets that can be quite shocking, so he can't just be haphazardly divulging.
Hence, he can't be too spoiling.
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Well, that's fine too.
It's not like Milla had much to complain about.
Alex's shrug did disturb her though... so, she repositioned herself and snuggled back in.
Of course, to her boyfriend's embrace.
This time, Alexander's arm openly wrapped around her waist and did he have to question his innocence again?
Yes and nope. He was and he wasn't... but did that really matter?
Milla just found herself sinking in the gesture...
Alex is now her boyfriend, after all.
As the girlfriend, of course, she's warmly smiling. Why shouldn't she be?
By the living room... on the sofa... side-by-side... facing the TV...
What more can be said?
As that special atmosphere continued to settle...
The realization also sunk in...
It was really real. No joke at all.
And Drew, who had been the quiet third party, could only complain at that. "Alex this and Alex that. Don't you have anything better to do than acting spoiled and asking too many questions?!"
"Hehe! You're just jealous."
"I can ask questions too."
"But you're not being hugged and you're not the girlfriend. That's what you're jealous about. Hehe!"
"Tsk!" Drew really was jealous of that but she can still ask her question though. "Prince charming, why her?!"
Alexander just answered... methodically.
The cause: "We kissed, she liked it, I liked it and I have a feeling that we're going to be doing a whole lot more of it."
The reason: "We've known each other for quite a long while now and with all that we've been through, and how obvious she was with things... it will get here eventually."
The conclusion: "So to save everyone involved from the potential hassle... I just asked permission, set some boundaries, and got it over with."
There's more to say but Alexander found it best to leave it at that.
"Wow." Drew was "shocked". Why wouldn't she be?
So she advised. "That was so not romantic at all. Milla, you should break up with him."
"Yeah... nope!" Milica, who knew Alexander's personality, just grinned as she mocked the trick and the trickster. "I really just wouldn't want to be you."
Drew found that confusing. "Why wouldn't you want to be me?"
Consequently, Milla just gave her a stare.
After all, Drew currently looked disheveled with her hair in a mess. Of course, that could be because she just woke up.
Then again, she also looked tired with baggy eyes as if she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep and did a whole lot of crying.
After a quick compiling of that, Milica confidently assumed. "You must have been so heartbroken last night that you didn't get some sleep, hence the baggy eyes. You cried a lot, which is why you seem teary. You also twisted and tumbled which is why you look messy. I'm right at all of it, aren't I?"
"What the...!" Drew was really shocked... at how wrong that was.
Shaking her head, she thought... you know nothing, Jovo-bitch.
If only you knew. If only you knew.
Then she looked at prince charming and snickered. If only Jovo-bitch knew...
Maybe she should tell Jovo-bitch...
On second thought, maybe it's best that Jovo-bitch didn't know.
Hehe! That would be a ton of fun, wouldn't it?
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Anyways... for what it's worth... it's almost finally here...
Alexander was so close...
To the syndication and justification of his monumental endeavor towards a field called animation!