Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Worst-Case Scenario series

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. Sandstein 06:35, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Worst-Case Scenario series

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Fails WP:NBOOK and has been tagged as advertising for five years. If it can't be improved, then it is inherently promotional for the book series and should be deleted. Bri (talk) 15:14, 8 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Literature-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 18:08, 8 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Well-known book series, but this article needs a desperate WP:RESCUE. Yeah, it inspired some cable shows, but this basically gives us a product guide, a definition for what the concept was and nothing more. No improvement in ten years (and even after the 2010 series) so it might be time for those interested in this article to get it sourced or see it deleted. Nate • (chatter) 22:00, 8 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: I don't think that the article is as bad as all that. It's not really promotional per se, just more of a bare bones list of the content that has been released so far in the series. I suppose someone could argue that this is a bit of a catalog in that regards, but there are no links to the product page and it's expected on Wikipedia that we would have a list of content released in a specific series. I would argue that the best case scenario here (pun intended) is to merge the content from the TV series into this article (which I'll do shortly) and keep this article as a whole. Sure, it needs more TLC but the article isn't so bad that it needs to be TNT'd and it does seem to meet notability guidelines as a whole, since there was a TV series based on the book series. It only ran for one season apparently, but it does look like the book series is notable. I just think that deleting this outright just isn't really the best option here. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡) 05:38, 10 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. The series as a whole is notable, given the two tv series and the plethora of reviews and articles that are out there. I've added a few here, but you can find still more by looking at Highbeam. The page isn't inherently promotional and I've added enough sourcing to justify the series passing notability guidelines. I've also merged the content from the two TV series since there's really not much to justify them having individual pages, given the limited information at either entry. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡) 06:12, 10 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, J 947 00:22, 16 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 00:22, 17 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.
1. apRoberts, Alison (2001-11-20). "How bad can it be? - A changed world has made worst-case scenarios more than a game". The Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" and its spinoff books and products provide a case in point. They have capitalized on our appetite for imagined peril with a winning mix of humor and real information for readers who like action movies and what-ifs. (Bigger kids especially love them.)
  ...
  "The books that we published to entertain and amuse didn't seem quite so entertaining and amusing to us anymore," says Dave Borgenicht, who writes the worst-case books with Joshua Piven.
  Still, sales continue to move briskly for the books, and those in the worst-case-scenario business are banking on our appetite for more. A board game and greeting cards and more worst-case books are heading our way. TBS reportedly is planning a television series based on the idea.
  In the 40 scenarios covered by the first handbook, published in late 1999, the entry on "How To Land a Plane" suddenly seems more like required airport reading than a diversion. In "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel," several excerpts are eerily apt: "How To Survive an Airplane Crash," "How To Survive a Hostage Situation" and "How To Navigate a Minefield."
2. Precker, Michael (2003-09-17). "'Worst-Case Scenario' series comes to the rescue of office disasters". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  You may be curious about how to fend off a shark, survive an avalanche or leap from a motorcycle into a moving car.
  But odds are you'll never need to apply those lessons, which made the first "Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" a fun but unnecessary read.
  ...
  Piven and David Borgenicht, who live in Philadelphia, have turned their pessimistic perspective into a franchise. Beginning with the original Worst-Case Scenario volume four years ago, the authors have sold about 5 million books by dreaming up awful dilemmas and figuring out how to solve them.
  The formula was simple: think up the worst "what-ifs" you can - from malfunctioning parachutes to marauding alligators to quicksand - and find an expert to offer advice.
3. Clark, Jayne (2001-04-27). "'Worst-Case' writers' newest scenario: Runaway train to fame". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  Travel is fraught with figurative land mines, but if you ever find yourself navigating an actual minefield, better hope you've packed a copy of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel (Chronicle Books, $14.95). Just out, the slim, danger-red volume reads like a Joy of Cooking for raging paranoiacs. Included are step-by-step directions for grappling with highly unlikely situations, from dodging land mines (1. Keep your eyes on your feet. 2. Freeze -- Do not move any farther) to passing out bribes (Be friendly, but aloof).
  In this sequel to their best-selling The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht have once again produced a very funny guide with a deadpan tone aimed at armchair Walter Mittys, as well as wannabe Indiana Joneses. Borgenicht briefs USA TODAY's Jayne Clark about surviving the danger that surely awaits even the most prudent traveler.
4. Hanrahan, Jennifer (2002-02-02). "It's a jungle out there - Dating, sex latest topics of survival book series". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  That's where "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex" (Chronicle Books: $14.95) comes in. The book is chock full of advice on coping with such dating dilemmas as how to carry a date who is passed out, how to deal with a bad kisser and what to do if your shirt gets caught in your zipper.
  "There are plenty of books out there that provide guidance on how to find Mr. or Ms. Right," say the authors in the introduction. "This is the only book that tells you how to escape from Mr. or Ms. Wrong. Identify an ax murderer, slip away from a bad date, survive when your credit card is declined . . . "
  The dating and sex manual is the third installment in the survival handbook series written by Philadelphia authors Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. Their previous best sellers, "The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook" and "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel," offered tips on escaping from quicksand, fending off an alligator and surviving adrift at sea.
5. Ross, Michele (2001-08-26). "A vacationer's guide to coping with land mines and espionage". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  When I read the title of this new book, "The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook: Travel," I grabbed it. Who could need more help with worst-case travel scenarios than a woman traveling with a husband and children?
  Harumph. The authors took the easy way out.
  The chapter on "How to Navigate a Minefield" should contain advice for what to say when your husband asks, during a five-hour car trip, "What do you think of my mother?" Instead we get tips like "Look for spikes, detonator, wires." Big whoop.
  ...
  However, the authors do offer translations for a brilliant and eminently useful phrase, perhaps to be used by a woman who has finally announced to her family that she will be on vacation, by herself, at an undisclosed location:
  "You will never make me talk."
6. Stoffman, Judy (2000-07-31). "Escapist reading takes on new meaning - Hot seller helps people elude bears, bees and boredom". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  The sleeper publishing hit of the summer is turning out to be The Worst Case Scenario Survivor Handbook, a slim advice manual by two young men from Philadelphia, now in its fourth week on the New York Times bestseller list.
  Published late last year, the book built a following through word of mouth. A TV show and several sequels are in the works.
  ...
  Though the disasters of real life are more likely to be unpaid credit-card bills, lost keys, plugged toilets and teenage children from hell, what a lot of people seem to want to know is how to get out of quicksand, break down a door, land a plane when the pilot has had a heart attack, escape from bears, bees or mountain lions, deliver a baby in a taxi, escape from a sinking car and survive adrift at sea.
  Worst Case Scenario seems to have tapped into a deep vein of unnecessary apprehension, from Sydney, Australia to Sydney, N.S. The book is in its 11th printing, with a total of one million copies in print for the English-speaking market.
  In Canada it has sold 15,000 copies at $23 each. Raincoast Books of Vancouver, which also has the Canadian rights to the blockbuster Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, has run out of copies and is waiting for a reshipment from publisher Chronicle Books.
7. Joseph, Patrick (2003-03-23). "Trouble? Whip out 'Worst-Case Scenario' - Two books tell how everyone can become a super-hero". Ventura County Star. Universal Press Syndicate. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  I recalled this episode recently while flipping through "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel." A follow-up to the best-selling original volume the sequel is devoted to tight spots that can arise on the road.
  I read with interest short segments on such dire situations as how to escape from a car teetering on a cliff jump from a moving train and survive a high-rise hotel fire. There were even a few items that might have helped in our trip across the desert like how to control a runaway camel treat a scorpion sting and survive a sandstorm.
  The premise of the book might rightly be judged preposterous and to be sure the authors' tongues are often in cheek. The caution on the back cover for example warns that the "book may not be used as a flotation device." And then there's the entry on how to foil a UFO abduction.
  David Borgenicht co-author of the handbook with Joshua Piven said that while they intended the book to be humorous and entertaining they also took the research seriously. A list of their sources contains doctors along with a stuntman a horse trainer and an "elite French mountain commando."
8. DeWolf, Rose (2001-04-23). "Happily Surviving". Philadelphia Daily News. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  Certainly, what has happened to these two Philadelphians - happily, neither quicksand nor a 'gator - came as a total surprise to them. Borgenicht calls it "a beautiful fluke."
  In the last 18 months, the book of advice they compiled has sold 1.5 million copies. And it's still selling. A sequel, "The Worst Case Scenario Travel Handbook," hits stores this month, along with an audiotape version of the first book, narrated by Burt Reynolds.
  There are "Worst Case Scenario" calendars, a board game is in the works, and, in January, there will be a "Worst Case Scenario" TV show on TBS cable - produced by Craig Piligian, co-executive producer of CBS' "Survivor."
  Borgenicht, 32, and Piven, 29, are busy giving interviews (in May, they're scheduled to be on the "Today" show) and, presumably, keeping track of all the money they are making.
9. McKissack, Fred (2003-04-27). "Now What? - 'Worst-Case Scenario' Authors Have Advice For Most Any Situation From Flying Leaps to Eternal Meetings". Wisconsin State Journal. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  Well, welcome to the world of Joshua Piven.
  At 32, Piven and partner David Borgenicht are the co-authors of the ultra-successful "Worst-Case Scenario" series of cheeky, but well-detailed guides from Chronicle Books that began with the 1999 publishing of "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook," which made both the New York Times' and Publishers Weekly's best-sellers lists.
  Since then they've moved from the ludicrously unlikely to shedding the light on those wholly realistic moments such as wishing you knew how to bail from some dreadful meeting with "Worst-Case Scenario: Work."
  Piven and Borgenicht's latest is set for release next month and has already received good press. This new edition does keep with providing entertaining and useful survival techniques as its predecessors, which include the original, plus books on enduring the worst possible hypothetical scenarios in travel, dating and sex, golf and holidays.
10. Hageman, William (2013-07-14). "Adventures in Dating". Daily Press. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  Luckily, we have David Borgenicht.
  He has written "The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating & Sex" (Chronicle Books). With co-authors Joshua Piven and Ben H. Winters, Borgenicht presents some 400 pages of potential disasters -- that bout of excessive gas on a date, for example -- and suggests ways to overcome the problem. Or at least minimize the damage.
  ...
  The book is the latest in the "Worst-Case Scenario" series, now numbering more than a dozen. Other topics include travel, parenting, weddings, college, paranormal, golf and survival.
11. Davis, Phil (2000-04-23). "Yikes! Now What? When That Shark Bites With Its Teeth, Dear, Here's How to Survive". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  The article notes:
  
  "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" (Chronicle Books; $14.95), is a funny and, yes, possibly even a helpful book. All the advice in it was compiled in detailed interviews with experts in specific dire straits, from emergency childbirth to jumping from a five-story building into a dumpster. Maybe it will help you walk on top of a train, jump from a moving motorcycle to a car or win a swordfight. Maybe not. "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" comes with no guarantees, only a warning ("DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNDERTAKE ANY OF THE ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK") and a disclaimer ("THE PUBLISHER, AUTHORS AND EXPERTS DISCLAIM ANY LIABILITY").
  ...
  Both Borgenicht, 31, and Piven, 28, are mild-mannered writers from Philadelphia whose most risky excursions are driving or sharpening a pencil.
  The book was conceived in a mix of paranoia, fear and popular culture.
  ...
  They tracked down experts from Mountain Mel, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who told them how to make a fire without matches, to Chris Caso, a former UCLA gymnast-turned-stuntman whose high-fall credits include "Batman Forever'"and "The Lost World."
There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Worst-Case Scenario series to pass Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject".
Cunard (talk) 04:54, 24 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, J 947 06:21, 24 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.