Yes, it is true ABC has announced that Caveman, a sitcom based on the well-liked caveman characters from the GEICO insurance tv adverts, will be on their fall schedule Although spinning off a tv commercial into a sitcom might appear to be a violation of FCC rules by some, there has been precedent

The most recent example is Child Bob, a rather short-lived 2002 sitcom starring a speaking man-toddler character that had starred in a collection of adverts for FreeInternet.com Despite the fact that the high-profile organization died immediately after the infamous dotcom crash, the speaking infant emerged unscathed with his very own CBS sitcom, Toddler Bob When the network cancelled the display right after only nine episodes, Bob emerged 1 far more time to star in a string of Television commercials for Quiznos Subs In 2007, he was even as well creepy for Quiznos and his character was pulled from all further advertisements But, don’t feel as well sorry for Bob He nevertheless has his very own web page on the Quiznos web-site.From a critic’s standpoint, Little one Bob serves as extra proof that what has worked in the 30-second ad format has been challenging to sustain in a a lot longer sitcom or motion picture format Of course, there are exceptions to each rule Jim Varney’s brilliant Hey Vern character, Ernest P Worrell, not only translated well into a children’s tv display, but also became a victorious sequence on the major display In 1980, a Nashville-based advertising agency, Carden & Cherry, cast struggling comic actor Jim Varney as Ernest P Worrell in a set of Southern regional Television advertisements for a range of products His Ernest character was a talkative nosy neighbor whose catchphrase was know whut I mean The adverts caught on and the Ernest P Worrell character then started appearing in many commercials across the country In 1988, CBS brought Hey, Vern It’s Ernest to their Saturday children’s tv line-up Though the sequence lasted only a yr, the Ernest P Worrell character next produced a effective transition to the significant display, starring in a collection of profitable low-budget film comedies such as Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, and six others The California Raisins also transitioned to children’s tv, in their case, a cell-animated collection They created their debut as a claymation-animated Motown-style singing group in a 1987 commercial for the California Raisin Advisory Board Like Ernest, their Television set only lasted a yr On the other hand, their ancillary merchandise nonetheless continues to sell The Max Headroom character took the opposite route from the prior mentioned characters He started as a cyberpunk protagonist in a 1984 British tv film In 1987, Max Headroom came to the States as an ABC tv sequence Despite a strong cult following, it only lasted fourteen episodes Immediately after the exhibit was cancelled, Max appeared in a sequence of extremely triumphant commercials for Coca-Cola SOURCES:Gauging viewer tastes, Stuart Elliot, New York Times, URL: (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/enterprise/media/16adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)Who Owns Your Enormous Thought?, Noreen O’Leary, Adweek, URL: (http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/write-up_display.jsp?vnu_written content_id=1003556825)Why advertising’s cavemen are going completely Hollyrock?, Brooks Barnes and Suzanne Vranica, Wall Street Journal, URL: (http://on line.wsj.com/public/post/SB117305670677226518-GDYgRU6JmWO40cfjfFMEDLLE_DM_20070311.html)Caveman Chic, Ramin Setoodeh, Newsweek, URL: (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17887559/internet site/newsweek/)http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2006/06/quiznos_finally.htmlLook who’s hawking, Seth Stevenson, Slate, URL: (http://www.slate.com/id/2112786/)Advergaming, David Radd, Company Week, URL: (http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/written content/oct2006/id20061011_567417.htm?chan=innovation_game room_top stories)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_P._Worrellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_RaisinMax Headroom, Henry Jenkins, Museum of Broadcasting Communications, URL: (http://www.museum.television/archives/etv/M/htmlM/maxheadroom/maxheadroom.htm) .