Dare to Invent

Meatball Baker Transcript

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
Jean Rindfuss is a mother and grandmother, who loves to cook meatballs for her family. Even though her meatballs are delicious, they were always really greasy.

(Inventor: Jean)
My husband Donald … He loves meatballs! Yes, of course, we all do. We all love them. And, I was getting more frustrated with the way that they were turning out, because they are greasy all of the time. I almost threw the pan in the sink, because I was so mad at [the meatballs]. Then, I had a bad [medical] report about my husband. He has bad cholesterol. I would like to try to make a better meatball for him.

(George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
Jean wants to find a new way to make healthy meatballs. She loves her husband and she wants to be able to satisfy [his] meatball cravings…

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
Well, the way that we have been cooking meatballs hasn’t changed in years. As a result, more and more people are having health problems related to fat-filled diets. The challenge: Create a whole new healthy approach to cooking meatballs.

(Joey, Creationeer)
First thing, it was a food project, sweet. What a great thing to do. I don’t want to do anything that’s under a car or on top of an animal. I would rather work on something that has to do with food.

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
We picked Joey as the lead creationeer for Jean’s idea. He had to create an inexpensive product that would make it easy and affordable for anyone to cook healthy, taste-tempting meatballs.

(Joey, Creationeer)
You know, staring at the oven, actually looking at an oven to see what are we going to do for this. There’s an oven rack in there, and that oven rack, if we can actually sculpt those pieces, so that it’s actually part of the pan, we’ve got a rack to bake on.

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
Joey came up with a two-part baking pan. The top part would hold the meatballs and the bottom pan, would then catch all of that grease. It now cooked many other foods, in a leaner, healthier low-fat way.

(Inventor: Jean)
I was amazed at how they took my idea and turned it into something that was more versatile than what I had sent.

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
With the new design complete, we decided to put Jean’s invention to the test.

(Clay)
So here we are, we are cooking meatballs. We’ve got meatballs cooked in their own fat, and we have meatballs baked in the meatball baker. Here, take a look at that (shows the grease that is at the bottom of the Meatball Baker pan) …. That is what normally would be saturated in these meatballs. Blahhh. Oh yeah, yummy (sarcastically, as he pours the large amount of grease into a cup). We should test them, so…. (puts fork and meatball up to his mouth)

(Joey, Creationeer)
No, we’re not going to taste test them, we’re going to grease test them!

(Clay)
Yeah, but the taste is what’s important. So, I think we need to do a taste test.

(Joey, Creationeer)
We’ll do both.

(Clay)
Ha Ha. I want to see how we are going to do both.

(Joey, Creationeer)
Alright.

(Clay)
You know, this really isn’t what I had in mind when I said to test this (Joey lifts large circus-like hammer with large bullseye that has a meatball in the middle). Tastes greasy! That meatball was definitely at the heart attack hit man line (points to bulls-eye to show how the grease has splattered all over the bullseye mat).

(Joey, Creationeer)
Well, there’s my grease test, how’s the taste test?

(Clay)
I think that we are going to have to test more meatballs.

(Joey, Creationeer)
Alright.

(Joey continues to crush meatballs with a hammer to show how the grease splatters)

(Joey, Creationeer)
Alright. Here’s the healthy [meatballs] from the Meatball Baker.

(Clay)
I’m ready for one that’s not quite so greasy.

(Joey hits a Meatball Baker meatball with a hammer to show less grease)

(Joey, Creationeer)
Look, there’s no grease. Check that out.

(Clay)
Look, we’re not even out of chest pain circle here. (points to bullseye to show less grease splatter.)

(Joey, Creationeer)
That’s the way to go! No more skillet. We are baking all of our meatballs. It’s way better.

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
We invested a lot of time and hard work into that redesign and it ended up paying off. Jean’s idea was licensed by Xtraordinary Home Products (XHP) and it went into production.

(Inventor, Jean)
I was at somebody’s house and I was just so excited after I [got] the phone call. I said, oh my gosh, you won’t believe what happened to me.

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
The Meatball Baker was a sizzling success. Every time that they put it on QVC, it sold out.

(QVC Host)
We are very, very busy on the phone lines.

(Narrator: George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
We invited Jean and her husband Donald to Inventionland and celebrated her success by serving an Italian style dinner with a special course.

(George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
Luigi.

(Luigi, the Waiter)
You like? (lifts the tray to show Jean her royalty check)

(Inventor, Jean)
Oh my….. Oh my gosh.

(George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
That’s your very first royalty check and it sold out every time that they put it on QVC.

(Inventor, Jean)
This is amazing.

(George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
I couldn’t be happier for Jean. I mean, I know the feelings that she is going through. At one time, I was just like her…. A guy with an idea. When you get to have that moment of seeing it and now the product [is] on the shelf, it’s just something that you can’t really put into words.

(Jean (with daughter) in store seeing the Meatball Baker)
Oh my gosh.

(Inventor Jean)
I, for two and a half years, did not make a meatball. I was very happy with the fact that I had a pan that I could actually make them in.

(George M. Davison (aka Mr. D), CEO and Founder of Davison)
I’m sure Don is really happy too. He’s able to eat his meatballs. They are healthy. His wife is happy. I mean, we all know the rule, right? Happy wife, happy life!

(Inventor Jean)
Yeah, Jean, Jean the meatball queen. I like that! I like that. But otherwise, I’m called the meatball lady everywhere else.

(Jean’s daughter in store seeing the Meatball Baker)
You’re on an end cap, holy crap. Look at this! My mom invented this!

(Inventor Jean)
I’m a grandmother and I’m an inventor. I think that is something to be proud of.

(Jean’s daughter in store seeing the Meatball Baker)
High five mom!

 

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