FIRST PBS special

[Freddy Schurr]

Does anyone know a special that follow 3 FRC teams and how they partake in the competition. I remember it was on PBS and it was like 3-5 years ago.

Info about the show!

1. 3 FRC teams follow
2. Kickoff to the Championship in Disney
3. It involve a game where it was a 4 team alliance. I believe it was Diabolic Dynamics.

If anyone would have any information regarding this special, please post in the forum.

[Joe Matt]

I THINK I might have a copy of that. It was called "The Competition" or something like that, it had Terry Bradshaw as the host. It had teams 388, 116, and maybe another team (I forgot) in there, and it went to the VCU regional. I'll have to dig through my tapes, but if I find something I'll send it your way.

[Freddy Schurr]

It was called "Wit, Grit & Robot Games", a one hour documentary marking the tenth anniversary of the founding of the FIRST Robotics Competition.

[Kevin Sevcik]

You can purchase a VHS from Houston PBS if you click here and scroll to the bottom. Why Houston PBS you ask? Team 57 worked with them to develop the concept of the video as well as provide a good amount of footage. If you look close you'll see a much younger version of myself in the 57 parts. I was commuting from college and helping on weekends in those days.

EDIT: If you're looking for some sort of "The making of:" post, lemme know and I'll write up whatever I can dredge from my admittedly addled memory.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

I THINK I might have a copy of that. It was called "The Competition" or something like that, it had Terry Bradshaw as the host. It had teams 388, 116, and maybe another team (I forgot) in there, and it went to the VCU regional. I'll have to dig through my tapes, but if I find something I'll send it your way.

We have a copy of that. It's from A&E. It was from VCU in 2001.

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

I THINK I might have a copy of that. It was called "The Competition" or something like that, it had Terry Bradshaw as the host. It had teams 388, 116, and maybe another team (I forgot) in there, and it went to the VCU regional. I'll have to dig through my tapes, but if I find something I'll send it your way.

The Competition was a series that was made for A&E, and they did one episode featuring both FIRST and Turkey Calling (yeah, good combination). It followed, IIRC, 116 and a rookie team in the 2001 season. I have the VHS copy somewhere, or you can buy the DVD from http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74274

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by ahecht

The Competition was a series that was made for A&E, and they did one episode featuring both FIRST and Turkey Calling (yeah, good combination). It followed, IIRC, 116 and a rookie team in the 2001 season. I have the VHS copy somewhere, or you can buy the DVD from http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74274

It was a good video. It gave you a real good idea about how the 2002 video was and the energy level that was there (watching the Gila Monsters dance was kinda neat. Now that was team spirit!).

[Ellery]

If anyone wants to check out my Archive of FIRST Videos you can take a look at http://team191.servehttp.com

I have alot of the videos listed but I'd be willing to take any that I don't have. Just PM me and if you can upload it to me I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

Ellery

[Koko Ed]

Yup. The Competition is up on the page in three parts with other numerous newstories over the years.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by ahecht

The Competition was a series that was made for A&E, and they did one episode featuring both FIRST and Turkey Calling (yeah, good combination). It followed, IIRC, 116 and a rookie team in the 2001 season. I have the VHS copy somewhere, or you can buy the DVD from http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74274

The 2nd year team was, as Joe mentioned, team 388, from Grundy, Virginia. I can speak from being around the filming, that everyone involved had a total blast. We were lucky we did so well in 2001 (4th seed VCU, although the awesome power of #1 seed 64 would eliminate us in the SFs), and the video really painted us as a top notch team .

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The rookie team was, as Joe mentioned, team 388, from Grundy, Virginia. I can speak from being around the filming, that everyone involved had a total blast. We were lucky we did so well in 2001 (4th seed VCU, although the awesome power of #1 seed 64 would eliminate us in the SFs), and the video really painted us as a top notch team .

Yeah, I remember seeing you *ahem* pop-up a couple times...

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The rookie team was, as Joe mentioned, team 388, from Grundy, Virginia. I can speak from being around the filming, that everyone involved had a total blast. We were lucky we did so well in 2001 (4th seed VCU, although the awesome power of #1 seed 64 would eliminate us in the SFs), and the video really painted us as a top notch team .

It was the second year for Grundy that year, same as us.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by ahecht

Yeah, I remember seeing you *ahem* pop-up a couple times...

I don't beleive I was in that video...

[ABlackburn]

that same special was just on again the other day, i got it on my TiVo!
good job teams 57, 590, and 659!
that was a pretty cool show!

how about some teams get together and try to get one done each year? in partner with some tv broadcast company, there could be different teams on each year even! possibly it could get on another public channel, rather than NASA, simply because NASA is not a public channel.

what does anyone think of that idea?

Andrew Blackburn
Go Team 75!

First team to EVER win two Regional Engineering Inspiration Awards

2006 New Jersey Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
2006 Boston Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
2006 Boston Regional Autodesk Visualization Award
2005 New Jersey Regional Autodesk Visualization Award

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by ABlackburn

that same special was just on again the other day, i got it on my TiVo!
good job teams 57, 590, and 659!
that was a pretty cool show!

how about some teams get together and try to get one done each year? in partner with some tv broadcast company, there could be different teams on each year even! possibly it could get on another public channel, rather than NASA, simply because NASA is not a public channel.

what does anyone think of that idea?

Andrew Blackburn
Go Team 75!

First team to EVER win two Regional Engineering Inspiration Awards

2006 New Jersey Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
2006 Boston Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
2006 Boston Regional Autodesk Visualization Award
2005 New Jersey Regional Autodesk Visualization Award

It's a good idea, but I feel I must apprise you of what went into that video. First and foremost, PBS bought 3 very nice Sony handcams and gave one to each team to get footage of the build season. Then they sent out their own film crews occasionally to get more build footage and to get footage of regionals. Then they gathered everything together and spent all sorts of time editing and narrating and all. Thankfully we had input in much of the process so we were able to help them express the message of FIRST. The point of all this is that it was a rather expensive undertaking. I'd love to do it again, but getting that much sponsorship together is no easy task.