A Mangled Hand, A 'Heroes' Suit, And NBC

CNNMoney ^ | 10/17/06 | Paul R. La Monica

[steve-b]

NBC is getting sued by a garbage disposal maker that claims the network's new hit show "Heroes" casts its product in a negative light. You can't make this stuff up.

Apparently, the first episode of "Heroes" shows one of the characters, a cheerleader who is blessed with the power of indestructibility (must come in handy when being at the top of those human pyramids), sticking her hand into a garbage disposal and getting it all mangled. A few seconds later her hand heals.

What's the big deal? The brand name of the machine in question is visible in the scene. It's called the InSinkErator. (Sounds like a bad Schwarzenegger movie. "Hasta la vista, gah-bage. Foooood. I'll be back...to chop you.")

Anyway, Emerson Electric (Charts), the company that makes the InSinkErator, isn't too happy to have its product shown bloodying the hand of a pretty, young cheerleader. So Emerson filed a suit in a U.S. district court in St. Louis against NBC Universal on October 2.

In the lawsuit, Emerson claims that NBC used Emerson's trademark without the company's consent and that the show "implies an incorrect and dangerous design for a food waste disposer."

The company added in its complaint that NBC's depiction of the InSinkErator "casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product."

Emerson is asking the court to order NBC to remove Emerson trademarks from future broadcasts of the show and also reward Emerson damages suffered as a result of NBC's acts of "unfair competition, trademark infringement, and trademark dilution."...

[MadeInAmerica]

Man oh man. FR is the best! Where else can you get the dope on politics and kitchen appliances?!
_____________________________________________________

and the worst goes to Slick Willy who gave us the non-inhaled dope on politics and cigars ;)

[discostu]

It was your stereotypical (and largely fictional) disposal accident, she dropped some jewelry it went down the drain she went groping after it then got distracted by something else and flipped the switch. Though it could have been partly deliberate on her part, as well as being indestructible she's also really depressed and suicidal (which apparently is how she found out she can't be killed). Really it's a cool show, but NBC shouldn't have shown a logo without permission (actually you should never show a logo without a check, forget permission, showing logos is advertising and you should always charge for that).

[aft_lizard]

Kitchen-Aid, GE and Whirlpool along with Insinkerator oh Yeah Kenmore too, which is probably made by any of the above since they don't make squat they just put there brand on the stuff.

[tophat9000]

There's a Saudi Arabia joke in there, but I won't do it.

What a day first NBC imply I'm not a "Hero"...

Now you accuse me of being an Islamic slot machine?!......

That it!... I'm suing!.... I'm suing everybody! ;>

[ROTB]

>>NBC is getting sued by a garbage disposal maker

>There's an allegorical connection here that just can't be
>ignored.

LOL indeed!

[Excellence]

Reminds me of a scene in the book Firestarter.

[Phsstpok]

I wonder how much NBC is paying them to file this suit? Maybe they're just that lucky, but I'll almost guarantee you that NBC is the one that is alerting the media to this story.

I've been told you have to freeze frame the scene, it's only on for a few seconds, and to really see it you apparently have to zoom in.

Heroes is a fun show so far. This weeks fourth episode wasn't as good as the first three as they are trying to transition from the initial discovery of these people's powers into more actual stuff happening, and those sorts of transitions are somewhat awkward. It ended on a great note, however, and I loved the cheerleader waking up on the autopsy and her reaction to finding herself there AFTER the primary cuts of the autopsy.

[af_vet_rr]

To me, it sounds like the disposal worked properly.

Having watched all of the shows in the Heroes series so far, yes, it worked, exactly how it was designed. An item came into contact with it while it was powered on, it managled said item.

I never once thought that disposals from Brand X and disposals from Brand Y would work any different. They chop/rend things up, exactly as they are supposed to.

Like somebody said, NBC was dumb to be showing brands without taking some kind of product placement fee, but regardless, the scene was just extraneous, other than to setup a certain scene on the TV in the background, that another character later paints (or painted earlier, however you want to look at it). Maybe they figured we didn't get it, that after the sixth time of the girl throwing herself off of the tower/walkway and getting up and walking away, that maybe she was invulnerable.

[HitmanLV]

People watch this stuff?

[af_vet_rr]

It ended on a great note, however, and I loved the cheerleader waking up on the autopsy and her reaction to finding herself there AFTER the primary cuts of the autopsy.

That was a bit disturbing, but humorous in a way - I'd say she got her revenge.

What got me was the preview - just two words - "Hiro" and "Katana"

[TChris]

The clear message for every thinking conservative to take away from this article is this:

There are way too many lawyers with extra time on their hands.

[Phsstpok]

That was a bit disturbing, but humorous in a way - I'd say she got her revenge.

I found it interesting that the cheerleader went through a litany about other girls he'd raped and got him to confirm that he was going to keep doing it and "what could she do about it?"  "Well, I can do this."  Crunch!

What got me was the preview - just two words - "Hiro" and "Katana"

Does that mean you haven't seen this weeks episode, number 4?  When you see it and the moment comes you'll be surprised.  It took me several moments, even though I knew it must be coming, to realize who I was looking at and listening to. 

This episode is not quite as much "fun" as it's covering some necessary plot transitions and those sometimes are difficult.  But they still haven't driven off of a cliff.  Into a wall?  Oh, yeah!

[Hawkeye's Girl]

I didn't really like this week's episode. Hiro was too over the top at the end, Mohinder pulled a John Kerry, Claire really should have thought about what would happen after the car crash, and Peter and Simone were awful-"I don't want to be the rebound guy," yuck.

The more I think about it, I hate everyone on the show except Nathan because while he's not the nicest guy, at least he knows what he wants and goes after it. I'll watch for him as long as they don't screw him up.

[Phsstpok]

Similar impressions, though I liked the stuff at the end with Hiro (it was probably the radical difference in his character that made me accepting). Again, for me this is a transition episode. I won't say that they've driven off of the cliff until after watching at least next weeks episode, maybe two weeks. They have purchased my forbearance with better than expected writing and some really good casting/performances (without much of a demand on the actors to my mind, except for the cheerleader and the Professor's son).

Did you notice that they changed the picture of the professor on the back of his book? They added a Sikh turban. I have confirmed it is the same actor, Erick Avari, who played Daniel Jackson's father in law from Stargate. Interestingly, I just checked IMDB and they list two more episodes for his character than were on the same list last week.

The plot thickens! Better yet, the game is afoot!