“Rhythms” still beating

Remember “Rhythms of the Road”? That was the musical television series taped at several spots along the Mother Road in October 2008. It was tentatively set to air this spring or summer.

You can go here to see the trailer.

Now, we’re on the cusp of September, and no sighting of “Rhythms.” So what happened?

Brian Greene at Green HD Productions, which produced the program, said in an e-mail that it will be made into a DVD, and has a major distributor in Los Angeles lined up. He anticipates the DVD will be on the market by spring 2010 — in time for Route 66 tourism season.

As for television, Greene said the downturn in the economy starting last fall led to cutbacks by all the television networks, with “very little programming being purchased.” But he said that same L.A. distributor is still talking to VH1, History Channel, A&E, Discovery and PBS, to name a few. So there’s hope the series will eventually turn up on the on TV somewhere.

Interestingly, Greene had a few irked words about NBC’s recently completed reality series “The Great American Road Trip.” He agreed with me that the show’s effect on Route 66 will be benign at worst. But he said “Road Trip” has made it harder to pitch his show.

I was more than a little disappointed at the recent series on NBC … it was a dismal attempt.  Reviews and ratings reflect that in a big way.  Unfortunately it has made our job harder since a network series on Route 66 failed so badly in ratings.  What’s worse is that most of it had nothing to do with the route.  They milked the hype of the name and then gave nothing back.  All of the incredibly stupid challenges could have taken place at real Route 66 stops; such a missed opportunity.  None of which I would care so much about if it did not have a direct impact on broadcasters’ belief that shows on Route 66 may not attract the audience they thought it might before “Road Trip” was broadcast. […]

I agree that the effect “Road Trip” had on Route 66 related to tourists is virtually nil.  It could have increased tourism if it had been a big success, but I doubt it changed things much.  But in the world of television broadcast on other Route 66 shows, I think its bad ratings hurt interest from potential advertisers.  Television exists because of advertising; it’s all about ratings.  “Road Trip” certainly did not help things in any way.

On a related note, Greene’s “Route 66 — The Marathon Tour” is running in most cable markets on ALN, aka American Life Network.   Greene said it is getting good ratings there, and it plans on running the complete 14-part series several times between now and 2010.  It airs each Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern.

3 thoughts on ““Rhythms” still beating

  1. Sorry to hear the show was put on hold….have seen these guys/gals on Johnnie High’s Country Music Review on TV and they are GREAT! The trailer was fantastic and a brief look as to what is to come on the show. I will certainly get the DVD when it becomes available. If you aren’t satisfied with the stops on Route 66 in this show, as well as the music, you might as well forget it, cause it don’t get no better!

  2. Thanks “D” for your support of our series. All 13 episodes are picture locked and we are placing final touches in color correction and audio mix during the month of September. Hopefully we can find a home for this series soon. It’s certainly more fun to watch than other popular shows like “Ice Road Truckers” and “Deadliest Catch.”

    So much in television today someone has to be risking life and limb for a broadcaster to be interested. Whatever happened to family programming?

    The first episode of Rhythms will be available for anyone to watch on our website starting late next week. Enjoy it and let me know your thoughts as we finialize the rest of the series!

    http://www.greenehdtv.com

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.