"TV MAN: THE SEARCH FOR THE LAST INDEPENDENT DEALER" Documentary

by Steve Kosareff
(Santa Monica, California, USA)

Ever try and return your new television set with two bullet holes in it and expect the warranty to cover the damage?

That’s exactly what a couple did at Poma TV in Ukiah, California. Whether it was due to a night of heavy partying or a domestic dispute—or both—the couple claimed the damage was due not to a gun discharging but the set falling over. "Twice?" co-owner Dave Poma asked the couple who indignantly stuck to their story. Sounds like a no-brainer: the damage to the set was the couple’s fault, but the Bureau of Electronic Repairs thought otherwise and found for the couple. The result: Poma TV had to make an $800 picture tube repair.

The above story is recounted by Poma TV co-owner, Dave Poma, in the demo reel available at http://www.TVMan.tv for the documentary film, "TV MAN: THE SEARCH FOR THE LAST INDEPENDENT DEALER". Independent television set dealers were once the backbone of television retailing, but the advent of big box stores undercutting their prices the past few decades, have shuttered many. How are the remaining indie dealers staying in business? More importantly, why is it important they do? TV MAN seeks to answer these questions through interviews with former and current dealers, distributors and manufacturers, and archival photographs and films, some which are featured in the demo reel.

The film’s director, Steve Kosareff, is a television archivist and author of "Window to the Future: the Golden Age of Advertising and Marketing Television," Chronicle Books, 2005.