Focus Group

The gang gets feedback from a focus group, and it makes them miserable.

Murphy Brown

Appearances

• Murphy Brown: Season 3, episode 1, "The 390th Broadcast" (1990). Miles brings in a focus group to help grow the show's audience. The group hates Jim and Murphy, loves Corky, and doesn't remember Frank even being there.
• The Larry Sanders Show: Season 1, episode 11, "The Warmth Episode" (1992). When Artie lets it slip that the network hired a focus group to determine if Larry is likeable, Larry becomes self-conscious and demands that Artie get a focus group for the show. Unfortunately, Larry's so nervous about it that he bombs, and the focus group members only like Hank.
• Bob: Season 1, episode 4, "Penny for Your Thoughts" (1992). Mr. Terhorst arranges a focus group to give their opinions on Mad Dog. They like the comic, but they can't stand Penny, Mad Dog's girlfriend, who's based on Kaye.
• Frasier: Season 3, episode 23, "The Focus Group" (1996). A focus group listens to Frasier's show, and every one of them loves it except for one guy, leading Frasier to become obsessed with changing his mind.
• Spin City: Season 1, episode 6, "A Star is Born" (1996). In attempt to boos the mayor's approval rating, Mike organizes a focus group, and they don't like his hair, his gestures, or even his height, and they want him to start calling himself "Randy."
• Spin City: Season 1, episode 9, "Meet Tommy Dugan" (1996). In response to a focus group that said the mayor is too tall and his gestures are threatening, Paul teaches the mayor some less-threatening hand gestures (the "shrunken thumb" and the "soft chop") and has the podium in the press room raised to "create the illusion" that the mayor's "not quite so tall."
• Silicon Valley: Season 2, episode 6, "Homicide" (2015). Gavin Belson holds a focus group to test the new Nucleus-powered phone, and they all tell him that it's "stupid" and "pisses" them "off."
• Silicon valley: Season 3, episode 9, "Daily Active Users" (2016). Monica organizes a focus group to figure why Pied Piper doesn't have very many active users, and they all hate it because the UI is too difficult to figure out.
• The Grinder: Episode 19, "A System on Trial" (2016). In a flashback, the producers of "The Grinder" hold a focus group to see how people react to the show. Only one woman doesn't like it, and the others convince her she's wrong.
• The Grinder: Episode 19, "A System on Trial" (2016). Stewart is nervous about his father taking the stand in his malpractice suit, so Dean suggests they have him testify in front of a focus group. While Stewart questions him, Dean Sr. blow ups and storms out of the room, and it doesn't test well.
• Silicon valley: Season 4, episode 2, "Terms of Service" (2017). Gavin Belson executes a hostile takeover of "Piper Chat" only to find that most of its users are minors who never agreed to any terms of service, and he could be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Meanwhile, he's organized a focus group with some of the users about switching to a Hooli login, and they all end being minors who hate the idea.