We're all Nimrods now

Have you heard about the new TV show based on characters in a TV commercial?

It's a trick question. There are actually two such shows this fall -- but you probably haven't heard of "Nimrod Nation" until now because it's airing on a cable channel and doesn't feature racially offensive Cro-Magnon-like characters. That's not to say some ethnic groups will be entirely happy with "Nimrod Nation" … but before we get to that, a little background.

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Four years ago, ESPN began airing a series of ads filmed at high school basketball games in Watersmeet, Mich., a U.P. powerhouse whose team name is the Nimrods. Brett Morgen directed the commercials, which featured various locals declaring their allegiance to the Nimrods, alumni who had once been Nimrods, and so on. The ads, made for ESPN's “Without Sports” campaign (tag: “Without sports, who would cheer for the Nimrods?”), proved irresistible. The school sold thousands of dollars in merchandise to outsiders who'd seen the commercials on TV.

It sparked the imagination of the ad's director as well.

“For 20 years, I've wanted to do a portrait of small town America,” said Morgen. “When the commercial exploded, I knew I could sell a show called 'Nimrod Nation' or something like that, and that would be the hook to enable me to do the show that I've really wanted to do.”

This 8-part series, airing two-a-nights each Monday in December on Sundance Channel, follows the boys' Nimrod team through the 2005-06 season. (If you're wondering why Nimrod, look him up in Genesis 10. Here's a hint: He'd be right at home in Watersmeet, especially in hunting season.) The cameras spend a lot of time with the natives in their native habitat: snowmobiling, hunting, ice fishing and discussing the latest game at the corner diner.

Previewing the show this summer for TV critics, Morgen said the goal of the show was the same as the commercial.

“The goal, for us, was to try to produce ads that can be funny, without being condescending, that sort of have a lot of heart built into them,” he said. “We really had the same goal, going into the series, which was let's do this show, 'Nimrod Nation,' without being patronizing or condescending and really meet our subjects at their level and present the world through their eyes.”

For the most part, Morgen achieves his goal with “Nimrod Nation.” Each episode is a mini-tour of life on the frozen tundra: there's a scene filmed outside, another scene with the old timers at the chat-n-chew, and a chapter from the Nimrods' season.

That's not to say the everyday dramas of life are left out. In the second episode Brian Aimsback (left), a Native American player on the Nimrods, scores his 1,000th point and doesn't get a special ceremony in his honor -- unlike his teammate, George Peterson IV, who is honored by the coach when he scores his 1,000th point.

In another episode, a motivational speaker addresses the high school on the perils of premarital sex. The point is hammered home when Nimrod boosters George and Suzanne Zelinski agree to take in their niece, who is teenaged, unmarried and pregnant.

My main criticism of “Nimrod Nation,” and perhaps it was a result of watching four episodes in a row, is that there were times when it felt the director was enjoying the foibles of the “Youppers” just a little too much. I'm not sure that everyone who lives near a Great Lake will be delighted to see a bunch of Marge Gunderson soundalikes on camera talking about ice fishing and the joys of being a Nimrod. That said, “Nimrod Nation” doesn't repeat the mistake ABC made with its much-maligned “Cavemen” in trying to stretch a 30-minute second joke for 22 minutes. There's more to this series than that.

The scenes at the diner also bugged me. They seemed contrived, and turns out they were. Morgen said, when I asked, that a producer would “suggest conversational subjects” for the old-timers to talk about while the cameras rolled. I know this happens on so-called reality TV all the time, but it was a little unsettling to see the technique being used here in a documentary.

I doubt that most of the Watersmeeters featured on camera in “Nimrod Nation” needed much prodding. People like Jeff Zelinski, who agreed to do one interview while standing outside in the bitter subfreezing cold of a Michigan winter. Looking around, he declares he will never leave this neck of the woods. “This is heaven,” he says, and you know he means it.

Comments

[Ryan]

Great review, Aaron. As someone who lived a little further north for four years, I'm interested in seeing the series. I'd only point out that the traditional spelling for a resident of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is "Yooper."

[John in Canada, eh?]

Whoops - I hope Aaron made a typo here:

"That said, “Nimrod Nation” doesn't repeat the mistake ABC made with its much-maligned “Cavemen” in trying to stretch a 30-minute joke for 22 minutes."

I'm willing to bet my next paycheck that Aaron meant 'Cavemen' was a "30-second joke," not 30 minutes. (And even 30 seconds was stretching it.)

[Mark Jeffries]

Watched the first episode this morning and noted in the credits that the Weiden & Kennedy ad agency is one of the producers of the show (along with, strangely enough, FremantleMedia, the folks who bring you "Idol" and "The Price is Right")--was W+K ESPN's agency when the Nimrod ads were done?

[Keep The Bond]

The fight to SAVE BOND (and five other Upper Peninsula Michigan Flowages) is far from over. Please help us save the flowages by visiting www.uppac.com and sign the petition mentioned in Episode 2. We are merely asking for an Environemental Impact Study to determine the effects the sale/development of 7300 acres will have on the pristine waters and to minimize the damage.

[Aaron]

Mark, but of course W+K was the agency for that 30 second (not minute) ad ... and I think pretty much all other promos that appear on ESPN, including the famed "SportsCenter" campaign.