Donald and Martha's Apprentices

I've been sort of there and not there for these shoes, but when the dogs really start biting, I get interested.

For example, even though NBC didn't reschedule Matha Stewart's "Apprentice," at least so far I think she's done a much better job of deciding who stays and to whom she says "good-bye." Plus, the people who want the Martha job are much more nuts than the Trump ones.

"OMG! Martha Stewart actually wanted a piece of the sticky bun I was eating! I'm just so excited I can hardly talk." For real.

Martha and Donald's hit men are basically the same, too. Both have an old cigar chomping guy. The women differ only in looks. The Donald's #1 woman, Carolyn, is a tall smart, willowy blonde. Martha's daughter is her hit girl. Her daught got her father's looks and apparently, some of his temperament. Much more laid back that Martha.

So this week the pick THE Apprenctice on both shows. One of the two that made it to the final on Trump's show broke her ankle during a "reward": Play hockey with the NY Islanders. Yeah, that's what I'd want for a job well done, lol. But that girl was smart. The minute she got a cast and crutches, she said, "I have to be project manager on the next project no matter what it is and we have to win even if I have to do it all myself." She said she knew that if she didn't prove herself right at that moment, she was gone. Now she's going for a job there's not enough money in the world for me to do, lol. But for the broken ankle girl! I'm betting on her.

I don't know how the Matha two survivors are. There are three. Two are trying to out manipulate each other and I think the one who's not part of that will probably win...and let them eat cake.

Rgirl

Great post, Rgirl. Like you, I am reallin impressed with both these shows this season. I am hoping NBC is smart enough to order MS app as a mid-season replacement.

As for the Donald, this show has really peeked my interest this season. I thought after Amarosa I wouldn't really care for the show because of the (let's cast one (rhymes with witch) gal and one @hole guy) let them duke it out mentality ...achieving bedlam among the contestants, then lopping them off when the finalist got down to the nitty gritty.

I think this season has done a MUCH better job at showing just how a business team works and how someone else's incompetence can fry your boston butt.

This may be the only reality show worth watching.

I love the Martha show but haven't had the chance to watch Donald's. Someone said here at work that Martha's letters are so cheesy but I like them. Anyhow on Martha's I hope Jim doesn't win it.

Dee

I'll tell you what, I don't like Martha, and I don't hate Martha. But I swear on every sheet, towel and cookbook in every K-mart that I will NEVER buy another Martha brand product if Jim wins. He's got to be the most obnoxious man I've ever seen.

As for the Donald, I'm rooting for Randall. He's one of those people who just seems destined for stardom. Not only that, his wife seemed like a really nice lady. Go Randall!

Does anyone know exactly what Martha's daughter does in Martha's organization? She doesn't strike me as very savvy or articulate about business.
I've the impression that she's just on the payroll because she's the boss's daughter not because of any business acumen.

I'm curious to see this week. Something bad happened to both Rebecca and Randall. Should be good! Randall needs to pay more attention to the charity. I hope he gets the position. I like Rebecca but after she brought Toral back, I think she's a little crazy for that move. She on top of her game. This will be tough unless someone really messes up. I'm not sure who's going to pull it off for the Martha show. The candidates seem so quarky. I guess I'll just have to wait and see! :agree:

Do you think that both Randall and Rebecca are being set up in a way? It seems that Joe Piscopo should've known that he wouldn't be able to do the benefit. And it looks like Randall's game is going to be rained out. It seems that would've been forecast a little in advance as well. Just a thought....

Do any of you think that the final two on Martha's Apprentice are just way out of their element? I like both Dawna and Betheny, and I guess it could go either way. But Betheny is a chef for crying out loud. I don't exactly remember what Dawna's racket is, but I don't think either one has a clue as to how to plan events like these. Hey, neither would I, and last night I felt so bad for both of them!

I was wondering about Alexis, too. She doesn't seem all that bright to me either, but I can see why Martha would want to hire someone in the family. I would, and I'm sure anyone else would do the same.

I made a note at the beginning of Martha's App. & it says that Dawna is a magazine publisher.

The Donald's LIVE final show is just starting and I want to respond to a couple of comments but since time is of the essence...

About The Donald's Apprentice: I actually think Randall has been overrated. I never saw him be PM on a winning task that wasn't completely suited to his strengths, which I think are limited, as well as be supported by excellent other possible apprentices (apprentici?)

OTOH, I think Rebecca's strengths haven't been seen. Working in physical pain, which is not just in the ankle, but anybody whose been on crutches knows what those things can do to your armpits, makes it very difficult to concentrate, much less watch your back at the same time.

I know Piscopo dropped out of Rebecca's deal and Randall got rain, but they're just starting the show, so I don't know how they handled those things. I don't think Trump had to set his final two up. Things are going to go wrong 99 times out of 100 in these kinds of tasks. If someone with the 1% chance of nothing going wrong gets it, then people will hold them to a higher standard.

However, I think Trump would get a great employee with either of these two, but I'm rooting for Rebecca--and not because she's another broad. I mean, Randall needs four people at the party story and while ONE person (Mark, I think) is setting up the entire field, Randall and the other two are standing up in the suite saying, "Wow, isn't he great setting up that whole field by himself?!"

Trump hasn't hired an African-American applicant yet, so on that note--and to erase the memory of Omarosa--it would be nice to see Randall get hired, and he does have terrific integrity, so if he nails his event in the face of a rainstorm, more power to him.

This season was the first time I felt the final two really were the best of the lot. Although, compared to Martha, I felt Donald was kind of crummy at deciding whom to fire and whom to keep. I thought Martha was great at that, and though I thought her final two were great, each seems determed to shoot herself in both feet.

I think about 2/3 of the way through, Trump said this was the first group of maybe-apprentices of which he chose every single one personally. Maybe that had something to do with the quality of the group, ie, no Omarosas. OTOH, Trump waited until the show was 2/3s over before he announced that he'd chosen each finalist personally, LOL. But that's why he and his hidious buildings spell New Yawk.

OTOH, these were the best 12 out of one million applicants?

Loved the little "Dad to son" talk he gave to Adam about how great sex is And how about the alimony and child support there, Donald?

Best real world reality show. If you're in college and going into the job market, ANY kind of job--arts to Wall Street--it's all the same dynamic, IMHO.

Rgirl

I tried watching Martha's, but it seemed as though the "employees" were acting. It didn't seem like real dialogue around the table, to me, as if it were rehearsed.

To take up where Anya left off, Martha's candidates are nowhere near as smart as the ones on The Donald's show.

But color me happy, because my man Randall won! Actually, I know it could've gone either way-both Randall and Rebecca are as smart as a whip.

I was surprised Randal didn't take the bait when Donald obviously wanted to hire Rebecca as well.

This was the 1st season of the Apprentice where I thought both candidates deserved the job and would have been happy with either winning the job. I picked Randall to win just because of his record as PM and that he had the respect of all of the other contestants, whereas Rebecca didn't have the respect of many of the women and none of the men particularly called her as a star. One of the guys on her final task thought she was great, but he wasn't on the show very long and really only worked with her.

I was surprised that Randall didn't approve of Rebecca being hired, too. I mean, I kinda understand not wanting to share the spotlight and he did say that 'If it were any other night'... I probably would have said to hire her since she is a very strong candidate, too.

With the exception of the 1st season, I felt that this season's candidate probably were brought on the show for the qualifications in a legitimate manner. Season 2 had too many pretty people. Season 3 was book smarts vs street smarts and I felt like the partially picked the candidates based on how their appearance fit their category - no way would someone like Danny be considered a good fit for a high level corporate position. He was innovative and creative, but didnt' have the professional and political skills to thrive in a mega corporation.

Although I was rooting for Rebecca, she truly did blow it by missing the biggest thing in her task: To raise money. She never got it straight that Yahoo was not her boss, the charity was. Yahoo was just the sponsor. This is where the age and experience difference really showed between Rebecca and Randall.

I still think Rebecca is as smart as two whips going in both directions, especially at the tender age of 23. She's also very cool and confident, although perhaps these two qualities led her to miss how important the fund-raising aspect of her task was.

As for Randall not agreeing to a co-hiring with Rebecca, I was not surprised at all. Randall's not stupid. He worked his butt off under the stress of his grandmother's death to win this and the only thing hiring Rebecca would do would amount to direct competition with him. Rebecca would be trying every chance she got to show Trump that she was better than Randall, setting up a rivalry that would only add more stress to Randall's already stressful apprenticeship.

Also, I think if Randall would have said yes, Trump would have felt Randall was naive, and so would I. Big business is kill or be killed and Randall's decision shows that he knows that. I had more respect for Randall for him saying no to Trump's question than I did before. To me it showed he knew some fundamental things about business. Also, IMO it clearly was a trick question since if Trump had wanted to hire Rebecca, he's the man, he could have. I think had Randall said yes, Trump would have been all over him with comments like, "So you think Rebecca did as good a job as you even though she only won one task and didn't raise any money on her final task? Is this how you evaluate talent, Randall? I don't know, maybe I made a mistake." Things like that.

Also, lest we forget, Rebecca was the PM who said Randall was less creative than (I forget the guy's name)--the one who nobody could work with--when they lost the pick a star/write a song task. Randall was clearly POd when Rebecca said that. Randall's a great guy, but he's got an ego as well he should. He's not giving any of his thunder away to a 23-year-old with no real business experience nor should he, IMO.

I think Rebecca will get offers from this--maybe even from Trump for a lower position--but I think she'll do very well from this. But Randall got the gist of the final task and Rebecca didn't. That's where Randall's business experience showed and Rebecca's lack of it showed as well. Though I still think four people at the party story was just silly.

However, if you've seen the DVD of "The Aviator" there's a great line by director Martin Scorsese concerning the scene in which Howard Hughes has locked himself in his screening room for about a month, totally naked, sadly mad due to his OCD and who knows what else, and his business nemisis at the time, Juan Trippe, arrives for a meeting. Hughes, of course, can't let Trippe see him like that and Trippe, of course, knows the state in which Hughes is in behind the door.

Scorsese's comment on the DVD is "That's how all big business seems to me. You've got two guys trying to work out a deal with millions and millions of dollars and one of them is running around behind a locked door, completely naked and totally out of his mind." From my experience with even medium business, truer words were never spoken.

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Martha's apprentice: No contest. Dawna had all the skills right for Martha, she had the personality, and she carried off her final task well with the respect of her team. Bethany scores very low on "plays well with others" and although her task came off great, she took all the credit for it, never adequately thanked her team, and in the end, they did not support her. I've worked with someone like that, except she was quite stupid in terms of skills but quite smart in knowing which higher-ups to snuggle up to and more. Plus she did some horrible personal things to people, not that I'm saying Bethany would have. But I think it said a lot that Bethany had no friends after 12 weeks in the loft.

As for Jim, I have no problem with the strategy he chose. His only mistake was verbalizing it to the MSLOM executives. I'd much rather work with a clear, up front game player than a Bethany, who was doing the same thing, IMO, but just not owning up to it. Plus, Jim was the only one with a clear set of morals. When the one Latina woman lost and her team was going to tear her apart, Jim was the one who went in to (a) ask her if she knew what was going down and (b) give her a pep talk. IMO, he was right to do so because her team had done nothing except form an alliance to get rid of her.

Maybe I'm alone on this, but I think Jim would make a great executive in the right company. Sure, he's need some mentoring, but there are plenty of cutting edge companies out there who WANT a guy who can both bounce off the walls as well as use his business skills. Plus, he recognized his tendencies. He didn't want to do the TV sales thing because as he said, "I'm afraid of what might come out of my mouth." Yet Howie just couldn't or wouldn't do it, so Jim jumped in and did a great job. The only problem was that Howie couldn't direct. I think Jim just needs to find an offbeat company to fit his offbeat personality.

Too bad Martha's "Apprentice" wasn't picked up for a second season, although it seemed pretty silly compared to Trump's. However, I did like seeing a contrast to Trump's style. Also, as much as I admire how Trump has picked himself and Atlantic City up from nothing, meaning after Trump was virtually bankrupt, I REALLY REALLY HATE Trump's buildings and his ideas for what NYC should be: steel and glass, rich and famous bauhaus no personality, no recognition of how the former balance of classes in NY is what makes it great. He wants NY to be one big Upper East Side and he's getting it, the jerk. Sorry, just had to vent.

Rgirl