Necessity wasn't the mother of Sheldon Levinson's invention. Nobody really needs a machine that makes bubbles.
K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
Invention: Aquadelik bubble machine
On the drawing board: bike alarms, videotape labels, pool-urine prevention
Quote: "I keep a pen by my bed because I never know when an idea is going to happen."
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Inventor: Michael Diep, 39
Invention: Emery Cat scratching post
On the drawing board: Kitchen trash bags, toothpaste tube, fruit drinks
Quote: "Inventing is what I want to do with the rest of my life." Charlie Newman / Union-Tribune
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But that doesn't mean it wasn't worth doing, or that the machine isn't fun to play with, or that the process of turning Levinson's idea into an actual product won't make for good TV.
Levinson, who lives in San Carlos, is one of 12 inventors – and one of two local residents – featured on the second season of the reality series “Everyday Edisons.”
The 30-minute program premieres today on KPBS. It will air at noon Sundays for 13 weeks.
The series is a celebration of American ingenuity. Not the ingenuity of corporate R&D departments, but the ingenuity of the garage tinkerer who decides one day that there has to be a better way – a better alarm clock, a better bandage, a better skateboard, a better dog leash.
All those inventions are part of the new season, along with Levinson's bubbles. So, too, is a scratching post that doubles as a nail file for cats, created by Michael Diep of Carlsbad.
“This show is about the American spirit, about having a dream and seeing that dream come true,” said Louis Foreman, the executive producer.
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“Everyday Edisons”
Reality series on inventors and their ideas
When: Sundays at noon
Where: KPBS/Channel 15
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Some have been dreaming a long time. Levinson, 60, remembers being amazed as a child by foam he saw on a beach in New Jersey. The water had been whipped into froth by a hurricane.
“That image stayed with me for years,” he said.
As an adult, he saw bubbles in a fountain, and that mesmerized him, too. His father had been in the toy business, so he understood the value of play. He thought bubbles would be a great thing to play with.
Not just any bubbles, though. A mountainous blob of bubbles, never-ending. Bubbles that could be manipulated into shapes. Bubbles that could be broken up, tossed on the wind, put back together.
He dabbled for about a decade in the garage, in between stints selling RVs for a dealer in La Mesa. More than a few times, his wife, Joan, suggested he move on to something else. He did, inventing bike alarms and erasable videotape labels, but he always seemed to come back to bubbles.
It was never his plan to do anything with the machine. “I just shared it with friends,” he said. “That's all I've ever done.”
But early last year, a couple of those friends told him about a casting call for “Everyday Edisons” at San Diego State, one of five held around the country. (The others were in Indianapolis, Houston, Chicago and Washington D.C.) Levinson went, along with about 400 other people.
He said the product-development process is daunting to most inventors. “Oh my gosh, there is so much involved – patents, distribution, liability. For the average individual, it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And even then you might fail.”
The show assumes the risk, spending more than $500,000 in man-hours and materials on each invention, according to Foreman. Each inventor pays nothing and is guaranteed royalties for 20 years.
“We take the spark, add fuel to it, and it becomes a roaring flame,” Foreman said.
Each idea goes from crude prototype to polished product. (The inventors of a chicken-wing tray on season one brought a papier-mache model to the audition.) There are sessions with patent lawyers, designers, engineers and branding experts.
In Levinson's case, the bubble machine became almost an art piece, a fun twist on the Lava Lamp. Its name: Aquadelik. He said his wife saw the finished model and said, “I get it now. It's pretty. I'd put one on my desk.”
Michael Diep, who makes his living as a salesman and an entrepreneur, welcomed the chance to work with the program after seeing what happened with the products from the first season. They're being sold in stories, through mail order or on the Internet.
“There are lots of promotion companies out there, companies that say they can take your invention and make it successful,” Diep said. “They promise you the world, but they never deliver.”
Diep was born in 1969 in Saigon. He escaped with his family by boat in 1980, their third try. They went to Indonesia first, then to Hawaii, to Santa Ana, to Seattle. He moved to Carlsbad about two years ago.
Talking to him in his condo is exhausting. He has a hard time sitting still. Every couple of minutes he's off to some other room, back in a flash with another prototype: a toothpaste tube, a kitchen trash bag, a fruit drink. He said he has 22 inventions ready to go.
“The ideas never stop coming,” he said. “I have to get them out somehow.”
The scratching post came to him after he helped his brother take a cat to the vet for a nail trim. The cat didn't want to go, which meant a chase, a wrestling match, scratches, flying fur.
“What a nightmare,” Diep remembers thinking. “I've got to do something.” He designed a post that has a built-in strip of sandpaper, an emery board for cats. Hence the final product's name: “Emery Cat.”
Foreman said Diep is “what the show is all about. His life story is the American dream. He is committed to the idea that if you work hard you can be successful.”
Diep has become something of an ambassador for the TV program, traveling around the country to casting calls for next year's season. He liked sharing his story, he said, but he also admitted he was hoping he could get another invention on the air.
“Everyday Edisons” sprang from Enventys, a product-development and marketing company Foreman runs in North Carolina. It works mostly with large companies, occasionally helping mom-and-pop dreamers, pro bono.
Foreman said he thought a television show would be a good way to educate people about what it takes to bring something to fruition – about 485,000 patent applications were filed in the U.S. last year – and a good way to inspire more innovation.
“To stay competitive in the United States, we need to keep coming up with great ideas,” he said. “But people also have to understand that having an idea is not enough. An idea without execution is just an idea.”
He said his wife is a fan of reality TV shows like “Survivor,” and he watched them with her, but he was struck by the “cookie-cutter” nature of the programs: auditions, humiliation, occasional glory, rejection, someone wins.
“I wanted to do something different,” he said. “We never throw anyone off our island. It's more educational and inspirational.”
Each inventor's story concludes with a “happy ending,” a segment that reveals where the product is ultimately headed – JCPenney, Home Depot, Staples, Pet Smart, QVC
“That's when you know that your dream is coming true,” Levinson said. “That's when you can call yourself an inventor.”
