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

[FIRSTonTV]

FIRST Robotics Community-

Here is a sneak peak of the next and last episode. Most of the extras were actual team members and volunteers of FRC in Southern California! See who you can spot! You might even recognize the MC's voice as a familiar sound at competitions and championship!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_dc4fJO5tA

Make sure to watch, this episode will feature a lot of familiar story lines that your teams might have faced during competition!

The big show where FRC is HEAVILY featured will air this Monday on FreeForm at 8pm EST / 5pm PST!

Spread the news!

#TSIMFD #makeitLOUD

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by FIRSTonTV

FIRST Robotics Community-

Here is a sneak peak of the next and last episode. Most of the extras were actual team members and volunteers of FRC in Southern California! See who you can spot! You might even recognize the MC's voice as a familiar sound at competitions and championship!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_dc4fJO5tA

Make sure to watch, this episode will feature a lot of familiar story lines that your teams might have faced during competition!

The big show where FRC is HEAVILY featured will air this Monday on FreeForm at 8pm EST / 5pm PST!

Spread the news!

#TSIMFD #makeitLOUD

Wow. Just wow. Never did I think the mentor built robot debate would make it on to a tv show.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by FIRSTonTV

FIRST Robotics Community-

Here is a sneak peak of the next and last episode. Most of the extras were actual team members and volunteers of FRC in Southern California! See who you can spot! You might even recognize the MC's voice as a familiar sound at competitions and championship!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_dc4fJO5tA

Make sure to watch, this episode will feature a lot of familiar story lines that your teams might have faced during competition!

The big show where FRC is HEAVILY featured will air this Monday on FreeForm at 8pm EST / 5pm PST!

Spread the news!

#TSIMFD #makeitLOUD

Were FIRST teams involved at all in the writing and storyline? The storyline pushed in this teaser is pretty embarrassing for FIRST.

[FRANKlybored]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Were FIRST teams involved at all in the writing and storyline? The storyline pushed in this teaser is pretty embarrassing for FIRST.

What makes it so embarrassing, Adam?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by FRANKlybored

What makes it so embarrassing, Adam?

Disparaging teams for having engineering mentors... which is one of the core concepts of the program.

[FRANKlybored]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Disparaging teams for having engineering mentors... which is one of the core concepts of the program.

So I take it that you've seen this episode in it's entirety and have identified this plot point as "The storyline"?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by FRANKlybored

So I take it that you've seen this episode in it's entirety and have identified this plot point as "The storyline"?

Were FIRST teams involved at all in the writing and storyline? The storyline pushed in this teaser is pretty embarrassing for FIRST.

I'm commenting on the storyline from the trailer/teaser... All I can go on. And that trailer pretty clearly criticizes teams for engineering mentors.

[FRANKlybored]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I'm commenting on the storyline from the trailer/teaser... All I can go one. And that trailer pretty clearly criticizes teams for engineering mentors.

I happen to think that having FIRST featured, not as "engineering programming" but as a casual plot point in a modern teen drama is, by definition, culture changing and not "embarrassing to FIRST" in any regard.

Teasers are meant to be controversial plot points to grab the attention of audiences, condemning the programming on three lines of script seems harsh and counter-productive - calling the programming and all of the effort that went into it "an embarrassment to FIRST" is perhaps more of just an embarrassment to yourself.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by FRANKlybored

I happen to think that having FIRST featured, not as "engineering programming" but as a casual plot point in a modern teen drama is, by definition, culture changing and not "embarrassing to FIRST" in any regard.

Teasers are meant to be controversial plot points to grab the attention of audiences, condemning the programming on three lines of script seems harsh and counter-productive - calling the programming and all of the effort that went into it "an embarrassment to FIRST" is perhaps more of just an embarrassment to yourself.

I'm not condemning the entire episode, I'm saying the storyline pushed in the teaser is embarrassing to FIRST. This is obviously just my opinion.

Embarrassing myself is nothing new, business as usual if that's how it turns out here.

[Ali Ahmed]

This thread is getting as dramatic as the show.

I would like everyone to keep in mind that this is a television show. To be more specific, it's a teenage drama. Dramatic licenses were taken and the producers end up having the final say, no matter if FIRST signs off or not.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Ali Ahmed

Dramatic licenses were taken and the producers end up having the final say, no matter if FIRST signs off or not.

That's not true at all. They would not have been allowed to say "FIRST Robotics" or use their logo, or the field, or anything else that is intellectual property of FIRST without FIRST giving them approval.

[Ali Ahmed]

Originally Posted by Cory

That's not true at all. They would not have been allowed to say "FIRST Robotics" or use their logo, or the field, or anything else that is intellectual property of FIRST without FIRST giving them approval.

You're right. I worded that wrong. I should've been a little more clear. The producers do have final say and if FIRST didn't give their approval they could have come up with a fake robotics competition instead.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Alyssa

There is also an episode where a student takes drugs because she's tired from build...not totally the right message in my opinion....

I'm honestly surprised FIRST signed off on this.

FIRST has made it clear in their messaging that the show is TV-14 (shoot, even WWE is PG...) and not everything in the program reflects their values. I have no inside baseball here, but knowing the requirements FIRST lays down to get one of their fields in a high school gymnasium for a weekend (let alone using their IP on a for-profit TV production), surely they got a chance to review the storyline and were okay with the direction.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I'm not condemning the entire episode, I'm saying the storyline pushed in the teaser is embarrassing to FIRST. This is obviously just my opinion.

Embarrassing myself is nothing new, business as usual if that's how it turns out here.

I didn't hear anything factually wrong in the teaser, and I did hear things I hear at events (and usually muttered in the same tones). It does create a storyline digested easily by people outside the tent, so I'll spot them some leeway here. And watch closely on Monday.

Originally Posted by ctt956

Are the episodes available to watch online somewhere? I haven't been around to watch them live and I don't think I'll be able to catch the next one.

Freeform has an app, though you'll have to sign in with your TV provider login to watch.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by FRANKlybored

Teasers are meant to be controversial plot points to grab the attention of audiences, condemning the programming on three lines of script seems harsh and counter-productive...

While this is certainly true and no doubt what they're doing, it's important to remember that TV-aired teasers reach a far, far large audience than episodes themselves. Assuming ABC Family (EDIT) Freeform is airing this or similar ads during any number of other shows, a teaser 'storyline' can easily get an order of magnitude more viewer eyeballs than the actual storyline. (Albeit with markedly less internalization.) I don't at all blame/condemn the producers for their choice there, but from a FIRST perspective it's absolutely legitimate to examine the picture that a teaser alone paints of us. Recruitment efforts could well benefit from the knowledge that there are many, many potential high school roboteers out there who're encountering just teaser perspective without whatever elaboration comes in the episode.

[tjf]

Though I don't find FIRST to be represented as purely as some of know it here, the saying "no press is bad press" comes to mind. As pointed out earlier, the character in question had previously existing habitual problems and her friends and classmates were helping with them.

Onto the representation of Mentor vs Student built, I think it's an important point, as petty as it may seem, to mention it in the show. The accusations of "Mentor Built" have been flying since before I was born, and it's as much a insult as it is an in-joke of the community.

Finally, the idea that FIRST has finally hit the mainstream media is very important. Honda also had FRC bots in one of their recent commercials (linked below) exhibiting their car. The Fosters characters, though begrudgingly, talk about Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition, treating them like buzzwords. Hopefully, in time, viewers of the TV show, as well as members of our own community, realize that GP & coopertition aren't buzzwords as much as they are a philosophy.

Besides, how else can we compete with VEX in the prime-time television slot? (I kid, but still. Messages must be spread.)
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