They'd Just Turn The Meetings Into A Reality Show

Do TV network producers have to do an 8D to make sure shows like “How To Be A Gentleman” never happen again?

Is that some sort of emoticon?  8D?  Also, that show sucked.  

True story, when developing the concept for today's Sametime Status, I was going to use the show "Whitney" as the punchline, but apparently, that show isn't cancelled yet.  

Anyway, more germane to the point is that 8D is a structured problem solving method used by managers who need to have a spreadsheet or presentation to look at in order to complete their day.  It involves analyzing remote extremities of a system in order to figure out why something else went wrong.  It's also a remarkably effective way to kill time while ignoring other things that are going wrong and the fact that you still haven't fixed the original problem because you've been writing a presentation about it instead of fixing it.  

Strictly speaking, 8D stands for "8 Disciplines" because sadly, try as they might, they couldn't figure out how to get each step's name to start with D.  The steps are, in order:  Create a plan, Create a Team, Define the problem, Develop a Containment Plan, Determine Root Cause, Choose corrective actions, Implement and Validate corrective actions, Take Preventive Measures, and Congratulate the team.  Since "Congratulating the team" would often involve spending money on pizza or a handsome framed certificate, it is skipped 83% of the time.  

All that said, television entertainment should be in a near-constant state of improvement as people learn what other people look for in entertainment.  There really is no question that the bulk of TV shows now are of better quality than those of even 20 years ago, leave alone the 1950's.  Not just in terms of production value, but in editing, effects, acting, sound, and picture quality.  As great a TV show as "The A-Team" was back in the 80s, it's positively cheesy by today's standards, and Mr.T's acting chops are nothing short of disgraceful.  Sure, all of the old shows have great nostalgia factor, but as productions and works of the art of entertainment, they simply don't hold a candle to what can be done today.  

Then, along comes some unbelievably bad show such as "How To Be A Gentleman," "Pan Am," "The Playboy Club," or "Work It," and you're left wondering where the process broke down.  Somebody somewhere along the line between pitching the idea for the show, developing the initial script, rewrites, network reviews, producing the pilot, and test screenings should have been able to say, "Wait a second here, folks.  This show is atrocious.  Let's just stop and do something better."  

That didn't happen here, and this show (We'll stick with "How To be A Gentleman") was allowed to pollute the airwaves for a full hour and a half before the show was mercifully yanked from the universe after 3 episodes.  Nobody misses it.  Nobody liked it.  Yet, somebody (A whole lineup of people, actually) thought it was a good idea.  If these people lived in the engineering world, a structured problem solving method such as 8D, 8-Step, A3, FMEA, DMAIC, DILAWRI, Taguchi, Ishikawa, Seven-Step, NEVDGP, BSI (No, I'm not making ANY of those up) would have been used to identify why that program was allowed to air, why it went so appallingly wrong, and how to change the process so that an atrocity like that never makes its way to television again.  If that were the case, after a number of iterations, we would arrive at an asymptotic space where we've basically come up with the greatest TV show possible.  Clearly, we're not there yet, so I'm pretty sure the network execs haven't used this method.  For a comparatively small consulting fee, I'd be willing to train them.