Reality Bites

Reality junkies like me live to see how low the networks will sink next. I just watched the first episode of Joe Millionaire, which most of the TV watching world knows is a series about an average Joe construction worker, earning $19,000 a year, pretending to have inherited $50 million dollars as twenty women compete for his affections. In the last episode, he'll reveal that he's truly just a regular guy, barely making ends meet to see if the woman is really a gold digger or if she likes him for himself. I won't even go into the blatantly obvious flaws with the whole premise of this show, but I will be watching all the way through, if for no other reason than it's fun to watch the women cry when they don't get picked (does that seem cruel? Well, what did they expect going on a show to compete for their dream millionaire husband). All these women talked about how excited they are to get to be with a rich guy and how they all want to be provided for. I'm sure many women and men would love to be provided for, but they don't blabber about it on national TV, getting starry eyed as they excitedly talk about money. No fewer than eight women made comments involving the words "fairy tale" or "princess," as in "I'm a princess and this is the life I deserved" (an almost exact quote).

But Joe Millionaire wasn't the point of this. The point was the furor being raised over The Real Beverly Hillbillies, a series CBS would like to produce in which they take a true family from the Appalachians and plop them in Beverly Hills a la the old sit com. (Hey, does this sound like Frontier House in reverse to anyone else?) As the biggest opponent says, "The joke is that this family won’t know how to live with money, servants, modern appliances, prepared food, and other conveniences of 21st century life... CBS’s show will ridicule and mock people based on stereotypes and economic status." Valid points. I actually think this does cross a line because it takes advantage of those who may not know what they're getting into. (I'm judging this on the book that we're actually discussing in book group tonight, Rick Bragg's All Over but the Shoutin', which I wouldn't necessarily recommend, but apparently I'm the only one who wouldn't.) Anyone in this day and age who chooses to go on The Bachelor or, starting next week, The Bachelorette or The Real World or whatever knows exactly what they're getting into. If they get the family they really want, odds are they're not spending luxurious evenings sitting around a television, getting their fill of Survivor and Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire. This is out and out mockery. But should we expect more from the same networks that are bringing us The Will (families fighting for the family fortune)? (By the way, check out ABC's casting page to find all the reality shows they're looking to fill: want plastic surgery? to try on a new family? prove you're the All American Girl? This is the place.)

Of course, you know this all just makes me one big fat hypocrite. Because if they do get this show on the air, you know I'm going to be the first one to set up the Replay to make sure I get every episode.