Steve Davidson

Saratoga, CA (USA)
Role(s):
Other

Stanion Studios

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Location: Saratoga
Industry: Media
Year Founded: 2008
Number Employees: 1-10 people
Description: BAIT & SWITCH TV: Investigative Satire is a Monty Python/60 Minutes hybrid TV series produced in the San Francisco Bay Area specifically by Stanion Studios, LLC. Bait & Switch TV examines controversies and complex issues using comedy, music, satire, animation, irony, impressions, and plenty of “oh-no-you-didn’t” sight gags. Unlike other comedy news shows, however, each B&S TV episode examines one controversial topic in tremendous detail, much like having Monty Python produce CBS’s 60-Minutes. The Bait & Switch TV seriesis extremely timely, fairly outrageous, often provocative, and always informative. Every episode is a powerful, colorful underscoring of the question: HOW DO ANY OF US KNOW WHAT'S TRUE ANYMORE? Created for a general audience, B&S TV delivers in-depth, charming, thoughtful, very funny, and deeply revealing investigations of news and provocative issues. We use humor relative to very serious issues in order to surprise, entertain, and engage our audience. The difference between B&S TV and other comedy news programs is that we investigate one tremendously controversial and serious topic per episode, in great depth, with expert POV interviews and celebrity guests, but from a thoroughly comedic point of view. The show is unique, socially-relevant, and very, very funny. This is a time of change in the world and BSTV demonstrates that audiences are now willing to examine, discuss, and even challenge, “sacred-cow” subjects. Here’s some background information about this new series: Each episode begins in the virtual newsroom with our comedian hosts and their celebrity guest intros, then it vamps into the pro/con expert interviews, and ends with a newsdesk summary. The entire progression is continuously punctuated with comedy and satire, as is the virtual news environment itself. Shot in HD, there is a fast and colorful hybrid of animation and video as the issues, jokes, and interviews unfold. B&S TV laughingly unravels the perceptions, misperceptions, facts, opinions, and spin about a specific deep-dive topic, per episode. Both Pro vs Con sides of an argument (or multiple POVs) are always investigated, and the complexity of a given controversy or subject is tackled head-on. Every POV is also a target of satire—and in the end, the viewers gain a very good understanding of the facets of a given issue while laughing their butts off. Bait & Switch TV episodic topics focus on issues or controversies in these general categories (see specific show titles on the attached OneSheet): •Economic issues and US institutions •The American Dream and sociopolitical issues •Cultural philosophies, perspectives, issues, myths & trends •Innovations, technologies, and trends •Policies, political processes, and political figures •Medicine, health, beauty, and the environment •Laws and lawmakers (historical and current) •Generic products and industries (ranging from dating services, war profiteering, celebrities, unions, and nanotechnology, to autos, diseases, banks, genes, mainstream media, illegal immigration, education, recreational drugs, GE babies, addiction, the DMZ, sensitivity training, cross-species communication, papal infallibility, our “new” deadly sins, racism, and cheeseburgers) B&S TV is not fake news ---our news is real and we are known to dissect and research controversies and cultural landscapes with “the comedic force of a backhoe, digging much deeper into the trenches than generic mainstream news.” But Bait & Switch TV is also entertainment pure and simple, delivered under the distinct auspices of comedy and targeted to all age groups. In addition to having a complete pilot available, we have also completed research for the first 3 years+ succession of episodes, three of which are already in the production pipeline. Moreover, B&S TV's JOIN US online push engenders significant internet reach and integration.