“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.