Idea for new parenting advice TV show based on Mumsnet Talk - your thoughts/input needed

roadshows v en vogue at the moment with commissioning eds i believe. i loathe them, personally.

make it real. with real concerns and worries, that we often feel too silly to ask.

i love the roadshow idea.

Now you could call us the 'bad language club' because of what we now think of you

they want to call us bad mums club?

erm. won't Bad Mothers' Club have a little something to say about that? (I bet loads of you have already pointed that out )

I don't think there's anything good or funny or 'edgy' about making out people are 'bad mums'. oh yeah, here's a group of really crap folks giving advice.

Bad mums club

such as the fucking awful title, for starters?

i'd be really interested to know if anything you have seen here has altered your plans for the programme in any meaningful way.

Sorry I haven't been able to get back here until now - it's been one of those days. Thank God it's the weekend!

I wish we did always know exactly what programmes will get commissioned and what will get viewing figures, Katisha - unfortunately, as illustrated in the examples that a couple of people here have chosen to represent SL, that isn't always the case! Though I would like to point out that we have made some very successful programmes too. Every company has hits and misses, we're constantly looking for new ways to approach things and we do change the format, style and content of our shows constantly as we develop them.

No need to apologise for your question BecauseImWorthIt - I wasn't offended by it at all and I thought your feedback was very helpful so thank you. I totally agree that if I'm not lucky enough to have children I will never be able to fully understand what motherhood is like, and I think your suggestion that we should be thinking about covering more than just the obvious topics was a really important and very useful one. But if you were also suggesting that my childlessness means I am not capable of overseeing a programme about parenting I will have to respectfully disagree. Journalists report every day on topics that they have no background in and the team working on this series will involve lots of different people - including mums and dads.

Good luck with your book swallowedAfly - it sounds really interesting and something that i would read too.

Yes. But. First SL have to cast it. Any takers?

I suspect though, that SL will not be hugely changing their planned format, style and content for this show, although comments on here may result in the odd tweak. They know what will get commissioned. They know what will get viewing figures. And such shows tend to follow trends (ho-ho, naughty mums swigging the chardonnay as per countless media columnists of the last few years) rather than set the agenda.

Those of us wanting something entirely different shouldn't expect to see a probing series on womanhood/motherhood - that would be a different commission, if there was actually any tv call for it at all.

it's more the principle, tbh. it shouldn't happen. if they want ideas, they should pay for them.

SL did Seven Days, which absolutely TANKED. the one thing they did quite well on, apparently, was online activity. so you may well be right.

Most of the product placement threads that Mn carries seem to ask for 'feedback' on products that are already finalised and on the shelves. I guess the idea is just to get people talking about the product -- rather than to actually crowdsource elements of its design. So I thought that might be what is going on here (to some extent at least). Not crowdsourced product design, but crowdsourced publicity (plus the feelgood generation of a completely false sense of empowerment). So I feel sceptical that the crowdsourcing on this thread undermines anyone's chance of a paid commission? (Though I am speaking entirely as an ignorant, flap-yer-jaws outsider to the industry)

as to your other point... well...

well, so-called crowd-sourcing is v popular at the moment, but i would still call it 'ripping off other people's ideas', whether they are professional or not.

But surely this thread isn't about trying to get professional-standard advice for free (and so undercut even further the chances of professionals getting the paid work they need). It's just about creating an interactive (or faux-interactive) buzz around the show, as part of the generation of publicity for it? They want to market the program as 'by mums for mums' so they haul MNers into the programme-formation stage as much as into the actual content?

And it won't matter just how crashingly awful the show is because if everyone piles online to call it rubbish that is just more publicity for the show and more hits/members for MN?

i think you'd get a lot of help, saf. it sounds really interesting. a sort of 'rough guide to womanhood'. (without actually being a rough guide, bien sur, for that too is terribly 90s).

I'd read it, swallowed. And help.

Absolutely, Aitch.

The Bad Mums' Club, eh?

Hmm. At least the apostrophe's right.

Adds vote to new idea as over Squeaver's last post.

Bored with :
a. How to be a perfect Mum advice
b. Pendulum swing to ho-ho I'm a bad Mum (but really trying to be perfect)