Celebrity Apprentice: Zappos.com Comic Character!

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Celebrity Apprentice: Zappos.com Comic Character!

March 8, 2009 07:58:50 by Candace Young

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This week on a two-hour NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, Joan Rivers explains that her charity, ‘God Loves We Deliver’, helps bring food to critically ill individuals. Joan travels to present the charity representative with the money her team, Athena, won on last week’s cupcake selling task, which saw the men’s team, KOTU, have to face the boardroom and Donald Trump, and resulted in the firing of comedian Andrew Dice Clay!

Donald Trump arrives to meet the two teams on the morning of their next Celebrity Apprentice task. He explains that they will be working with Zappos.com, which sells shoes and accessories online. They are going to create a costume and character to sell things on the website - the cartoon may even go on to be used on the Zappos site! The teams are asked to name their project managers for the task. Athena chooses Khloe Khardashian, and KOTU selects Scott Hamilton. Donald reminds them that the losing team will visit the boardroom and someone will be fired.

Athena sits down with Tony, the CEO of Zappos first to find out what he’s looking for - he says they’re not upscale, they’re about excellent customer service. The ladies try to ask what type of physical appearance Tony would prefer for the cartoon character, but he says it’s up to them - they have to decide what the audience would like. KOTU meets with Tony next. They decide that the character probably shouldn’t be funny.

As Athena struggles to make progress on the Celebrity Apprentice task they’ve been assigned, poker champion, Annie Duke, says that Athena choose Khloe as project manager because she owns retail stores, but Annie’s not so sure that will help them. Claudia, looking at Annie, notes that Athena has ‘alpha-females’, and that Khloe doesn’t seem comfortable telling anyone what to do. She thinks that some of them need to just shut up! Tionne and Melissa note that they are having a lot of trouble moving forward - they’re going in circles. Annie says they should have a design group and a script group - she volunteers herself and Claudia to write the script. Khloe agrees with it, but Joan Rivers thinks it’s really stupid considering all of the scripts she has written!

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KOTU leader, Scott Hamilton, says he plans to draw on the talents of the individuals on his team. Dennis is enamored of the idea of making the comic character a transvestite, but Scott feels that Zappos is a family brand and it wouldn’t work.

Athena’s leader, Khloe, has gotten more comfortable in her role as project leader on Celebrity Apprentice, and is reigning Annie in, and asking that they decide on a character, costume, and storyline. An editor and artist arrive to help them both teams, but KOTU is scrambling to decide on something as they have a focus group coming. Tom complains that Clint in constantly talking over other people, and that Scott let Dennis and Clint argue while the artist was waiting.

Team Athena is coming up with a character that has lightening bolts to signify fast customer service, and Joan offers up the name ‘Miz Z’, and the slogan is “It’s not just a dream, it’s Zappos”. Don Jr. comes in and asks who had the ideas for the name and slogan. Claudia feels she should have gotten credit for the slogan, but someone else piped up and took credit. She does, however, get to present the idea for the focus group. The comic book fans are more interested in discussing that fact that Brande is a playboy model than the character.

KOTU is next on Celebrity Apprentice to present their idea to the focus group. Tom Green asks what they think of a Zorro-type character. Scott isn’t taking control, so Tom continues talking. The reps of the focus group say that KOTU didn’t seem ready for them, and they all had different agendas - especially Tom, who was performing! After the focus group leaves, Scott feels that the group is in trouble. Tensions rise as they continue to brainstorm ideas, and frustrations boil over as Scott still doesn’t take charge and make a final decision.

Team Athena has decided that Natalie, the golfer, will be the model for the character. She and Joan head off to meet a costume designer to get the outfit going. Team KOTU has finally struck on storyline - a tired working woman gets sucked into her computer, to Zappos, and comes out looking and feeling great! Erin Burnett, who worked with Donald Trump on CNBC’s most successful show ever, is filling in for Ivanka, and visits the team, only to find them very disorganized. The bickering continues as the men’s Celebrity Apprentice team tries to settle on a name for the character. Scott decides on ‘EEE’, which captures the character’s essence; ‘Everything, Everywhere, Everytime’. Some of the men aren’t keen on the name.

When Joan and Natalie arrive to see Scott the costume designer on Celebrity Apprentice, they are thrilled that their faxed ahead description has resulted in Scott having an outfit and boots all ready for Natalie to put on! For KOTU, Jesse James is designing a super hero costume, noting that that’s what he is good at. He has a “Z” on the drawing, but Scott phones and says the name has been changed to “EEE”. Back at Team Athena, Claudia has become sick. Brande is worried since they need her the next day for the presentation. As she leaves, Annie snarks about Claudia leaving to go home, saying she never would have done it in a million years!

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As the KOTU team works, Tom Green pace the room, complaining that they aren’t letting him do anything. He starts to complain about the name “EEE” again, and Scott asks him to just sit down and relax, as he feels Tom is constantly derailing them. Tom starts to freak out a little on Celebrity Apprentice. Tom starts to freak out a little. As the men regroup in the war room to prepare for the presentation, Scott asks if they could just sit down and hammer it out, again telling Tom to just relax. Bickering ensues between Clint Black, Dennis Rodman and Jesse James.

Brande is running down the streets of New York in bare feet with Annie in order to complete all of Athena’s preparations in time for their presentation on Celebrity Apprentice. She insists this proves that the women are working harder - Dennis Rodman would never do this! KOTU prepares to make their presentation. Things change again, and Tom Green is asked to do the presentation at the last minute. He agrees, but Herschel Walker is not impressed - Tom didn’t do any of the work! They exchange tense words.

Donald Trump explains that Tony, the Zappos CEO, must be blown away! The women arrive as Donald and Tony take their seats to watch the presentations on Celebrity Apprentice.

Team Athena goes first, with Claudia as the spokeswoman. She introduces them to “Mizz Z” the champion of customer service! She rolls out the slogan, and Donald asks Natalie if she would wear the costume - she replies that she wouldn’t wear it in the hallway. Claudia, who is still sick, grades herself a ‘C’ on her presentation. KOTU takes the stage, introducing their working woman, who turns into “EEE”. Tony tells Donald that he like that the men focused on customer service, but he doesn’t understand not using the letter Z in their name as a means of branding Zappos. He says the women used the letter Z, but they seemed to stumble at times. Tony tells Donald who the winner of the contest is.

The two teams file into the Celebrity Apprentice boardroom, where Donald Trump tells Khloe he is surprised - he heard she did a very good job! She asks why he was surprised?! He says he doesn’t know, really. Donald turns to Scott and questions him about the tension with Tom. Erin speaks up and says there really were too many chiefs - the team leader should have knocked them into line. Donald then asks Joan what she thought of Khloe as team leader. She says she grew comfortable with the role, and probably would have sooner, had it not been for Annie - they have too many chiefs too! Donald realizes that Annie didn’t show respect for Joan’s experience. Donald asks Natalie if she thought it was insulting to Tony for her to say she didn’t like the costume - she agrees it was bad timing.

Donald next has each team look at one another’s comics - they are stunned that they are so much alike, but Donald says there are a couple of big differences! He points out that the choice of the name “EEE” rather than “Z” was questionable. He declares that the women won, and get $20,000 for their charity. He dismisses the women, telling them to go back to their war room and watch what happens next!

As KOTU faces the firing squad, Donald asks Scott what went wrong. Scott immediately brings up the issues with Tom - saying he sensed that some people were playing a game, and some wanted to work. Dennis and Tom explain that they both disagreed with the choice of name. Donald asks Herschel who he would fire - he says Tom - he was fighting. Tom says Herschel misunderstood what was going on. Dennis says he would fire Scott - he was too soft as a leader. Jesse says he would fire Clint, and Donald is surprised. Tom agrees that Clint was argumentative, and Jesse explains that Clint was difficult. Back in the women’s war room, Joan and Claudia say they have a feeling that Clint is a snake. Donald asks Scott to pick two people to bring back in the boardroom. He says only one person deserves to be sitting beside him - Tom - but he’ll bring Herschel as a helper! Donald instructs the women to turn off their television.

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Donald asks Don Jr and Erin their thoughts. Erin says there is a fault line between Tom and Scott - it is difficult to imagine continuing Celebrity Apprentice with them both! Donald calls the three men back in. Scott tries to explain that Tom was performing. Tom says they constantly shot down his ideas. Herschel says Tom would just sit there and when a decision was made, he would start stirring up trouble. Donald says Herschel doesn’t need to be there and sends him out. Herschel goes outside and tells the women he thinks that Scott may be getting fired! Inside, Tom tells Donald that Scott couldn’t control the team - and he would have controlled the team. Scott says that Tom disrupted all day. Donald suggests that Scott should have brought Clint into the boardroom. Scott says that Clint did everything he asked him to. Donald says that Scott’s friendship with Clint may have clouded his judgment!

Tom and Scott continue to argue, but come together for a moment as it is revealed that they are both competing for cancer charities, because they are both survivors of testicular cancer. Ultimately, Donald tells Scott that he was responsible for the poor choice of name, which was a big mistake. “You’re fired.” Outside the boardroom, Scott and Tom shake hands.

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Photos Courtesy: NBC

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