‘Invention USA,’ a chance to dream

Although most reality-competition shows talk about fulfilling dreams, the vast majority of the dreamers who appear on the shows go home disappointed. To keep all this disappointment from becoming too depressing, it’s important that a show have a light touch.
 
History’s new series Invention USA, in which two experts judge the commercial prospects of various tinkerers’ creations, never lets us take the stakes too seriously. Though the experts could be more charismatic and witty, the action is engaging and fun.
 
Premiering this Friday, Dec. 9, at 10 p.m., the series stars two men described as maverick innovators: Reichart Von Wolfsheild is a successful inventor, and Garrett Lisi is a theoretical physicist who took Einstein’s theory of relativity to a new level. They spend the half hour either traveling to inventors’ homes or taking pitches at their L.A. workshop and lab, which they call the Barn.
 
Besides starring together in Invention USA, it’s unclear if the two experts have any actual business or personal relationship. It also remains vague what will happen if they approve of a new pitched product. It is said that they have ties to investors. A graphic states the amount of development money that each inventor is seeking, but we don’t hear in so many words that the successful applicants will get that money.
 
The first application is played for comedy, so much so that the whole segment feels a little false. A tough-talking man named Jim Lebus, who says that he’s worked as a drag racer, a stripper and a professional gambler, has invented a nonlethal incendiary weapon using paintballs that is intended to scare away large animals. We read that he has spent $74 developing the invention and is looking for an investment of $100,000.
 
When Reichart says that he likes to hear how the inventions were inspired, Jim says that he got the idea after being attacked by a mysterious eight-foot-tall creature in the woods. They proceed to test the device by shooting the paintballs at a target designed to look like a sasquatch.
 
Jim questions Reichart and Garrett’s opinion, saying he doubts that they know the dangerous things one could encounter in the wild, like a bear or Jim’s ex-wife. By now, most viewers will suspect that Jim’s chief motivation to apply to the show was to appear on TV.
 
Back at the Barn, Reichart and Garrett meet with a series of applicants, whose products include a no-bounce sports bra and the Gotta Go personal-care device, designed to help people who don’t have time to take bathroom breaks.
 
A man named Lou Martinez, who they say is a friend of theirs, shows up with a glove that’s also a cellphone. Although Reichart and Garrett treat Lou skeptically, when they test the product on a street corner in Hollywood, the response is surprisingly good.
 
In order to avoid what Garrett calls response bias ” the possibility that the test group is just saying what they think the testers want to hear ” Reichart tells them that he and Garrett have a bet on whether the product is any good.
 
In this segment, both the invention and the testing seem reality-based and are consequently more involving. Rather touchingly, Lou says that he would like to be known for creating something that his kids could be proud of.
 
The second episode provided for review, which will air on Friday at 10:30, focuses on two more serious inventors. One, a postal worker named Chris Badynee, has created a cheap upright bass with a cardboard box for a body. The second, a retired Bostonian named Herb Loeffler, has invented a harness that will allow people to rappel out of burning buildings.
 
Both men talk about how they’re driven by more than the desire for riches, with Leoffler saying that he began working on his harness after 9/11. When Reichart and Garrett turn one of them down, it’s a little sad.
 
One reason we root for the applicants is that Reichart and Garrett are comparatively bland. Their personalities fail to pop onscreen. Even though they had plenty of time to prepare puns based on whatever invention they’re considering, their jokes generally fall flat.
 
But they seem to understand what drives the dreamers who come to them, and their sympathetic treatment is a welcome break from the usual mean-spiritedness of reality TV. Making intelligent and reasonable comments, they let the applicants down easy.
 
The opening narration says that the hosts’ approval could change an inventor’s life and just might change the world. The show actually seems unlikely to change much of anything, but it could make a Friday night pass more pleasantly.