Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

The episode is available on Freeform's app, if you have a pay-TV subscription to log in with.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Never experienced this kind of tolerance. If you're over by .1 lbs you have to go under. Weight is probably the most rigid constraint in FRC, even with the variance in scales.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

I can't wait for the CMP episode where they discover that basically every semi-decent team there has an engineering mentor, maybe even two.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Having read this thread without watching the episode, I figured this controversy was, you know, justified. It's not. A whole lot here can be written off to teenage drama. Other than that, ungracious behaviour was mostly called out. Maybe there's no teams like them, but we've all met a coach like the Palomar (sp?) guy*. The team's coach was mentor-ly ("Didn't we talk about that?" to the swerve/mecanum/omni drive). The crude language was used for excitement purposes, not unlike the will.i.am line. Not sure what people are getting so worked up about.

*If you haven't, there's a decent chance it's you

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Dude, it's CD in the Summertime. They need something to get some excitement going around here.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Anyone else notice the random 2 or 3 seconds from Einstein? Came out of nowhere.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Exactly.

+1

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Yep. That was sneaky.

Loved the "cheese hole" reference.

Is there a list of real FRC teams involved?

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Yes, the show could have used an elite team without an evil mentor, but that would have eroded their story-line about an underdog (i.e. "under-mentored") team overcoming insurmountable odds. Writers sometimes go to extremes in developing characters to emphasize their story. I doubt the intent was to make a statement about the "involved mentor" vs "student operated" team paradigm.

I know the writers were at the Los Angeles regional observing teams in the pits, watching matches and talking with volunteers, students, mentors, etc. I'm sure they were looking for the context of the event (it is, after all, a VERY unique environment). I'm sure they (like any uninformed observer) saw the disparity among the teams. The "haves and have nots" aspect of FRC does not go unnoticed by team members and spectators. We'd like to think ALL elite teams assist teams with less resources, unfortunately that doesn't always happen at competitions.

I wouldn't put too much on the FIRST advisor about the story-line and script. The producers, director and writers really are responsible for their product, which they craft for their viewership. I'm sure the FIRST advisor did not advocate the "b*itches get things done" line, but there it was! I'm sure the FIRST advisor was trying hard just to avoid gross degradation of the program.

BTW, the director didn't get why the FIRST members in the stands would not "boo" loudly when the pinning occurred without the referees making the call. (In spite of the FIRST advisor saying spectators just don't behave like that in FRC). Maybe the culture of FIRST was a bit too foreign for the director??

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Just watched the story arc on Vimeo. A couple of observations:

Nice that they had a female ref, although she was criticized (indirectly, since she was the only ref highlighted) for missing the call.

I noticed that Blair does not get credit on IMDB for his speaking part, which was much more than the ref or inspector.

While the mentor was a fair ways 'over the top' it was good that they didn't dwell on the team 'hating' on him, after their mentor told them to forget about him. In the real world we sometimes encounter such people and often that is the right response-- so that aspect was done well.

How many FRC'ers (especially students) will reach out to the Foster's fan discussion boards to inform and help those who had their FIRST exposure to FRC better understand the program and the fact that they can get involved-- with links to 'real' FIRST Stronghold matches !

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Thanks for the context Dave, much appreciated. Sounds like the writers got to observe a lot of FRC, that is great!

Loved your story about the "boo-ing". This is definitely a great aspect of our community! However, I have witnessed one or two instances of "boo-ing" at local FRC events, I'd bet the people boo-ing have the same impression of mentor involvement as the Fosters presented :(

Thanks,

-Mike

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Was looking around to find some online forums or something about the show to see what people were saying. This is what I found on this forum, located here.

"I did not really care about the whole robotics thing. I hope the mention of another competition means the show's not dropping Mariana taking Jesus' pills."

"I wasn't into it either, have no idea how true to life it was. I did like Mariana's strategy paying off, but it felt a little tropey with the insufferable teacher from Palomar."

"I don't love the robotics thing either, but I do like that they gave this storyline to Mariana (and Jesus, I guess!)."

"I don't get how it was okay for the teacher at the other school to be basically doing the work and standing behind the line during the competition. I can buy that the school has a lot of extra "coaches" that help build the robot, but why was he more involved during the competition itself? And why couldn't the Anchor Beach coach not complain about it?"

" I hope I never see another robot competition on this show or anywhere else!"

"I also was bored with the Robotics competition. I think the problem was I had no idea what was going on. They should have made it clear either this episode or over the course of the time they were working on it, exactly what the robot was meant to do. I had no investment because I couldn't tell if they were winning or losing at any given moment. Mariana rocked it with her quick thinking, but I still don't understand how the robot was pinned for longer than 5 seconds yet the referee just ignored it?"

This is every quote I could find that had the robotics competition mentioned. Interesting to see some of the feedback from people not already aware of FRC or FIRST.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

Honestly, that speaks volumes about the competition regardless of whether you watch it actively. That line alone could have been straight off of a CD thread.

It was a bit disheartening though that so many people dislike it... I mean, I can understand it, but part of it was the "teen drama", part of it was "ugh, robots". It was an interesting matchup to begin with between Freeform and FIRST.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

I think I like this comment the best out of this whole thread, because this is the part where we, as the FIRST community, get to react and do something in response to integration in mainstream media. Obviously there are inaccuracies and aspects people are less than happy with. That's what happens when you condense an entire weekend's worth of activity into 20 minutes of teenage tv drama. Is that all though? Could they have done better at portraying FIRST while still making a good story for viewers? My guess is probably. FIRST is complicated and tv producers are human. Worst case scenario, honestly, is that we get people coming into this program that believe that the contents of this episode are all FIRST has to offer. The good news is we can still teach them otherwise.

That being said, props to everyone involved for being so dedicated and getting as much right as they did.

Re: FIRST on "The Fosters" - Monday Nights on FreeForm 8e/5p Starting Tonight!
 

The IMDB message boards were not much better:

"Boring as hell! ... I really hope that they will abandon this storyline now that the competition is over and focus on more interesting things."

"Agreed. This week's whole episode was a snore fest."


Regarding the word "coopertate":

"Lol nice blooper"

"it was said that way on purpose."

"Either way it's stupid."

Honestly, that one stung the most. This should be what we are most upset about, not misrepresentation.