The Return of the Dread Duggars (AKA TLC Wants the Mon-ay)

Few of my closest acquaintances would accuse me of being an optimist. They'd laugh at the idea. And yet, there I was hoping that TLC would have stuck to the decision they so reluctantly came to to remove the Duggar clan from the air.

Instead, the broadcaster has announced it will air "specials" in the coming months focused on Jill and Jessa Duggar (not coincidentally two of the sisters Josh Duggar is on record as having abused). This is clearly part of the long game in which TLC has been engaged - first waiting a full 3 months to make sure we wouldn't just forget about the whole Josh issue, then rolling out the least desirable special of all time (to prove, you know, that they care), and finally, now welcoming a family that facilitates molestation back to the air.

And have no doubt, these new specials will also feature the horror show known as the Duggar parents (who failed to report their son's behavior after it had been pointed out to them more than once). No doubt the family as a whole will benefit financially (on the upside - less begging for money from their followers). No doubt those specials will evolve into a series.

Any right-thinking person would have to concede that these two women should not be victimized (again) for the sins of their paedophile brother; they are the least tarnished by this scandal, which is why the Duggar comeback is being packaged around them. Additionally, time heals all social media wounds. A cursory examination of articles announcing the return of the family (sans Josh) as well as the 15,000 Kids and Counting FB page, indicates that most of those outraged by the original story have since moved on to other inflammatory subjects.

Left behind is the original audience for the show: middle class white folks based in the middle of the country who tend towards evangelical Christianity i.e. not us crazy Queers on the coasts some of whom happen to produce the programming said Christians watch (unless Mamma Michelle gets us fired, that is). Those folks are thrilled to invite the Duggars back into their homes (They never understood why the liberal media elite were so hung up on the small matter of molestation - and the covering up thereof - in the first place.)

This is the audience responsible for the 19 million dollars in ad sale revenue TLC was raking in. Anyone who has ever worked for TLC knows that white middle-class folks in the middle of the country is their target demographic, and that they program accordingly.  (Fun game: watch a night of TLC programming and count the number of Black and Latino people featured versus the Whites.)  And let's not kid ourselves - all networks make these kinds of choices to a greater or lesser degree depending upon their audience.

That being said, programming the Duggars is pretty fucking cynical, given how damaging their way of life has proven to be.

For instance, I can't help but feel that Josh Duggar's issues (and he evidently has more than one) arise out of the environment he grew up in. How can a child come to terms with his sexuality when, on the one hand, his parents are fucking like bunnies but on the other he's getting his wrists tied together when he's caught masturbating?

Then there's whole repopulating the world with white Christians that the Quiverfull folks are largely endorsing; and let's not fool ourselves that this isn't about race - take a good look at this search on Quiverfull adherents.  Notice anything?

Finally, there's that asshole Bill Gothard, the spiritual leader of the Duggars, who's a committed paedophile himself.

And this isn't just about TLC (or Discovery). Why is there such a commitment across broadcasters to, say, celebrate the wives of criminals, encourage women to get into physical fights, and implicitly provoke cops to "perform for camera" with deadly consequences?

Is it really too much to ask that broadcasters (and production companies) behave as responsible citizens in their programming choices? Are there really so few topics for programming, that we can't have programming free of right wing nutjobs and thugs? Can we really not create shows more like Little People, Big World, and cast aside the shit likes Mob Wives?

Based on what I'm seeing on the inside, this problematic shit is developed more out of laziness than a lack of viable alternatives. Both production companies and especially broadcasters would far rather copy another successful show, than develop one themselves.

Look, like most (all?) cynics I am actually plagued by idealism. I'm disgruntled with the world not because I believe it is depraved per se, but because I have a vision of how much better it could be. And reality programming, for one, could be a whole lot better if we just tried.

Reality's Josh Duggar Problem

Well, the Ashley Madison leak happened and in short order Josh Duggar was exposed as having two accounts on the site as well as an OK Cupid profile.  Needless to say, this is delightful to those of us who dislike everything famille Duggar stands for, especially given earlier revelations about Josh, the incestuous paedophile. (ineptly covered up by Mom and Pop Duggar).  But I'm a reality producer, so I'm far more preoccupied by what the story means in terms of what I do for a living than in passing judgement on someone who clearly has issues.  (Oddly enough, I find the Ashley Madison revelation somewhat comforting, as it indicates that at least his present appetites - that we are aware of - involve adults.)

When the molestation story broke, however, I was enraged.  Not at Duggar or his strangely childlike parents--as I have zero expectations where those freaks are concerned--but at TLC.  Based on my (admittedly) obsessive research regarding the abuse, the Springdale cops started investigating the matter in 2006.  This would be after TLC specials about the Duggars had aired, but before they got more specials and, ultimately, a series.  And the matter only came to the attention of the authorities because, as a result of those specials, the family was scheduled to appear on Oprah, and an anonymous individual e-mailed Oprah's producers with information about Duggar's molesting ways.  Those producers, to their infinite credit, canceled the Duggar's appearance and forwarded the info to the Dept. of Health & Human Services hotline (1.800.422.4453), which triggered a Springdale police investigation.

I'm sure that there are those who might question how reporting criminal behavior to authorities is something one should receive infinite credit for.  After all, wouldn't anyone?  Well, um, apparently not the folks at TLC.  Because it frankly beggars belief that TLC and the production company shooting the series were somehow oblivious to these charges. The anonymous e-mailer who contacted Oprah clearly had an axe to grind (let's take a moment to thank baby Jeebus for that grinder and their axe, amen), and would surely not hesitate to contact TLC with the same allegations. Additionally, the accusations against Josh were available in online forums from 2007 onwards.  Thus, unless we assume that in the year of 2007 Discovery Communications had not yet succumbed to the fiendish temptations of the interwebs (and were thus unable to receive e-mail or research their Talent online), we have no choice but to assume that someone(s) knew about it, and chose to ignore it.  

Which is why I was so pissed at TLC in particular, and the industry in general.  Because none of this surprises me.   People who work in reality television are subject to precisely zero rules of personal and professional conduct.  I have only once been given anything resembling ethical instruction on a show and that was: 

don't fuck the Talent 

That's it.  There are no rules about how far we can push the reality (like the degree to which we can fake or just plain make shit up about people); how crews should be treated (PAs on reality in particular are abused to the point where their lack of sleep actually endangers the crew members and cast they drive around); or how far we can let physical fights to develop between characters before stepping in.  The lines are beyond blurred.

Added to that, we work in a genre that celebrates freakish behavior of all kinds (freaks be good TV) and yet we have no regulations in place to address when the purely freaky becomes, you know, fucking criminal. Obviously people should always contact the cops about criminal behavior, but many won't.  We don't wanna lose our jobs or we figure someone else will deal with it or whatever.   Nor is there any incentive to do the right thing.  While Oprah's producers were empowered by their bosses (or boss lady?) to immediately put the kibosh on enablers of child abuse, TLC inspires no similar sense of empowerment.

Just take a look at their dismal response to the Duggar allegations becoming public: a half-assed statement, followed by months of hoping the whole thing would just go away, followed be a begrudging cancellation, followed by sniveling about their loss of revenue.  Oh, but on the upside, they are gifting us with this documentary special on molestation starring the parents who hid their son's abuse and starring some of his victims.  (The last time I was so mortified by a gift was December 1990 when my girlfriend's mother gave me a sailor suit for Christmas.)   I suppose it's too much to expect that a broadcaster with such a history of problematic shows would be capable of more.

Which is why we need a free-standing set of ethical guidelines.

We need a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts to illuminate the otherwise murky endeavor of producing Reality TV.  Because things get so relative it is sometimes difficult to know when you've crossed a line.  Such guidelines could be produced by people working at all levels of the industry, and signed onto at will.  And while most likely not legally binding, signing on would indicate a will to do the right thing.  An oath can be a powerful thing: those of us who have taken the Pledge for Sarah can attest to how it's changed us.  It made this hardened reality producer almost weep.

And we need to do this sooner rather than later.  Because Josh Duggar isn't the only problematic character out there.  He is just the very public tip (yeah, I said it) of an enormous iceberg.

Also, Josh Duggar's brother-in-law is my new favorite dude.

#TCA16

Human Resouces

Pivot's Human Resources has just debuted it's second season. To date the show has received largely (deserved) glowing reviews.  However, the degree to which HR is scripted seems to be the major, and frankly unimportant, issue for the reviewers.  USA Today writes:

Though rooted in reality, it's obvious that parts of Human Resources are scripted and planned, but the show doesn't attempt to hide that. 

Meanwhile, Really Late Review is less certain that the show is scripted, saying:

The fact that I couldn’t tell whether the show was real or not was clever in my opinion. Many shows are too obvious in what style they are (sitcoms feature same, staple humor and situations, while reality shows put people in extreme situations for attention seeking purposes), so I appreciated how the show had me guessing from the beginning.

And the Grey Lady herself concludes its positive review with yet another reflection on how "real" the show is:

Human Resources shows what happens when you put people on screen who have grown up with video cameras. Everyone’s comfortable, no one seems to be performing for the camera. 

Basically these reviewers would have it that a show rises or falls either on how real it is, or how craftily it addresses the fact that it isn't.  While this simplistic obsession may have been excusable back in, I don't know, 1995/6 when The Real World first broke, after over twenty-five years the time has come for a modicum more insight into the Reality genre.  And we may as well start by discussing the primary (and most flawed) assumption: that Reality is some kind of homogenous category.  It is not.  Rather it is a variety of genres (Docu-Soap, Competition, Follow Doc) that share only the fact that the participants in the show are real people playing themselves.  

Thus a review will contain comparisons between shows as diverse as Survivor (which is a Competition Reality) and Real Housewives of Atlanta (a Docu Soap) as though such comparisons were viable or even fruitful. In fact, there are as many different genres of Reality as there are of narrative, and no self-respecting reviewer of the latter would compare Film Noire to a Romantic Comedy (or even compare a Romantic Comedy, like 13 Going on 30, to a Western spoof like Blazing Saddles).  I'm trying to bring a more nuanced--read: NUANCED--insider's approach to Reality; starting with this review.

Set in a start-up recycling business, TerraCycle, and following owner Tom Szaky and his band of quirky scientists, designers and sales agents, HR has its antecedents in shows like Small Town Security (AMC - and also produced by many of the same people at Left/Right), Duck Dynasty (A&E), even The Osbournes (MTV): half hour shows that promote humor over drama.  Called Reality Sitcoms within the industry, these shows can be extremely scripted, like Duck Dynasty in which "real" people are thrown into absurd situations, or borderline Follow Docs like Small Town Security or The Osbournes.  

Now, I don't work on the show and while (full disclosure) I know and respect many of the main players behind the scenes I have no idea how scripted the show actually is.  Given my experience in Reality, however, I would say: somewhat. We have limited shooting schedules so chances are some scenes need to be scheduled and don't just fortuitously happen.  But whether the show is knowingly scripted (as USA suggests) or benefits from a great cast (as The Times asserts) is not of great interest to me. 

What makes Human Resources sui generis (and a pleasure to watch) is that it steers clear of either produced or happenstance conflict (sometimes we do actually luck into screaming fights between cast members).  Instead, it illustrates the small adjustments that are far more common in everyday life. Like, for example, the difficulty a quirky new Canadian employee Tony, encounters while adjusting to the zany environment of TerraCycle (the B Story for this episode); or how Dan and Randi manage to land (with the assistance of the team) a mid-level contract (an A Story that steers clear of the usual over-the-top Reality stakes e.g. "If we don't land this contract, the whole business is gonna go down the shitter," or what you will).  Along the way the viewer also gets some take-away about the recycling business, from TerraCycle's sometimes hilarious science team, that feels fun rather than forced.  

These are the smaller conflicts those of us who live in the everyday world can relate to, and the kind of conflict that is under-explored in Reality for exactly that reason. Those of us in the industry have long complained about the usually broadcaster-mandated fake drama/stakes that we are forced to implement in most of our shows.  This commitment to over-the-top "stakes" ultimately becomes a parody of itself in shows like the now-canceled Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, where every single task undertaken by Ms. Simmons' long-suffering team is a matter of life or death.   


In addition to having a pretty unique show in HR, Pivot has a pretty clever and unusual ad campaign.  Basically, it wants to appeal to viewers who either don't watch Reality or, more likely, watch Reality and feel humiliated for doing so. Hence, the tagline for Human Resources is  "Takes the trash out of TV one day at a time" (which, I assume, references trashy TV like Housewives and Love and Hip Hop in addition to the recycling business TerraCycle engages in.  And if you missed that obvious diss of all Reality, Belisa Balaban EVP of Original Programming for Pivot makes it even clearer, "Human Resources is an unexpected blend of classic workplace comedy within the structure of a process-driven Science show.  It is distinctive and delightful, and it's a reality show you can feel good about watching*."  

*And also, I strongly suspect, about producing. 

You just can't say that for most shows.  We really could use a lot more Human Resources out there.  

Human Resources screens on Pivot on Fridays at 10 pm ET/PT

UnREAL: Episode 10

"You're a manipulating slut!"  Castmember Grace to Rachel.

Yes, Rachel is a manipulating slut, and we wouldn't have it any other way.  I much prefer the manipulative slut to the whiner.  Finally, Rachel's embracing her Don Draper.  I also love the fact that they have allowed the Quinn-Rachel relationship to flourish.

The show deserves all the good press it's been getting including this and this. 

In celebration of the finale of UnREAL, some background on the show it is satirizing, The Bachelor. I have never worked on the show myself, so what follows is hearsay from people who have.  

According to my sources, the similarities between the fake show Everlasting and the actual show i are startling.  While that sounds like a "No, duh!" I was actually surprised to realize the degree to which this is the case.

The first and most startling gossip I have heard is that many of the characters on UnREAL are identical to individuals that worked on The Bachelor, and many of the stories are based on real life as well.

Moving on to some issues that are of interest maybe more to those of us in the industry:

1.  Producers drinking with cast members: I was honestly skeptical about the producers drinking with cast, largely I wouldn't want to be drunk on set and generally drunk people don't make for good workers.  That being said I have worked in environments where the cast is encouraged to drink, because messy.

However, I am told that producers on The Bachelor do in fact drink with cast members (as an incentive to get the cast to drink).  Generally producers have a drink or two and then start faking that they're drinking (as the cast member continues to imbibe).  Thus, the producer may order/pour a couple of Vodka tonics, and then start just drinking tonic.

2.  The competition between producers: I found the cattiness between producers to be a bit over the top and attributed it to the soapiness of the show.  However, I am told UnREAL is pretty accurate in this regard.  Although there are no cash incentives (a creation of the show that I find particularly annoying), the producers are apparently more bitchy and competitive than I have experienced.  They just happen to compete to advance in their field and pay rent, not for a thousand bucks or some shit.

3.  Producers cannot complete an exit interview (that's the interview conducted when a cast member is eliminated) until the girl has cried.  That's apparently where all the "So I hear tell you were abused by your babysitter" shit producers role out during interviews comes in.  Obviously we pretty much always want them to cry, I guess you would have incentive to be extra evil if you couldn't leave until you did.

4.  The house layout on Everlasting is almost identical to The Bachelor set, even down to where the Control Room is in relation to the the rest of the house.

5.  This has been reported elsewhere (possibly even in relation  to coverage of the show) but the cast are often kept outside to make them cold so that they might be more inclined to cry in interview (and likely scenes).

6.  While people don't actually live on set (as Rachel does) given the hours people work on Reality in general, and competition in particular, they do spend so much time on set that they often do laundry and even do sleep on the location.  That's part of the reason the crew feels like family.

Finally, although they only ever seem to call direction to A camera (and very rarely B camera) on Everlasting, there are definitely more cameras on The Bachelor set than on Everlasting (or any set for that matter)!

So that's it for UnREAL this season.  We'll be checking in with our girls Quinn and Rachel when the show returns.  Rachel loves Quinn and we love them both!

In the meantime I'll keep posting on Reality shows and the industry in general.  So please stay tuned.

UnREAL: Episode 6

On episode six of UnREAL, Rachel invites the abusive ex of cast member Mary to spice up the date she and her child are having with bachelor Adam.  Things go (predictably) south when the ex becomes violent, tries to attack Adam, and, ultimately, has to be held down by Rachel's ex, Jeremy the DP, and a random sound dude (I think).  Sadly this kind of violence is all too common on Reality sets and, while I have never actually encouraged cast members to go at it, cast are well-aware that this makes for good TV so they tend to go there themselves (particularly if they're wasted, which we generally ensure they are).  The only thing that leaps out about the situation on UnREAL is the lack of Security.  These days, we tend to have Security on hand for any brawls that might occur.  

That being said, I strongly disapprove of these kinds of set skirmishes.  Take this fer instance: I once worked on a show where a male cast member (drunk) was getting into it with a female cast member (drunker), and ultimately ended up grabbing her by the wrists and shaking her.  This guy was built like a brick shithouse and had this woman by the arms and Security did not step in.  Nor did they step in when the female cast member started saying (clearly to production) "He's really hurting me, he's really hurting me!" When the Producer on the ground tried to step in she was stopped by Security, who were hired by the broadcaster, because—they informed her—they are "trained" to know when to intervene.  When I later relayed this little training factoid to the Producers around me we had to shoehorn our eyes out of the backs of our heads.  

WTF is the kind of Security training doesn't require that you help a cast member when she's saying that she's being hurt?  Even setting that egregious error aside, what training provides you with the skill to know exactly when some drunken mess is going to pop off? How do you learn to read the intent to become violent?  And even if you read that intent, how do you know where it's going to go?  Will it be aimed at the other cast members?  Will it randomly involve someone not even connected to the show?  Will it be focused on a crew member, as it was on Rachel when Mary's ex went batshit?

Even if such "training" is plausible and you have well-trained Security on set, there is no way to assure that cast and crew are 100% safe (or even 90% safe).  Drunken brawls are not controlled situations.  How do you protect a cast member from getting struck with a stray fist that makes it between the muscled arm and bulky torso of Security?  How is it possible for a camera operator to be safe, when the footage shows someone slamming into his lens?  How do you protect a camera operator with Security, if that Security isn't in front of his lens to stop someone from slamming up against it, when you can't have security in front of the camera operators lens because, you know, footage.  At least the sound guy doesn't have a huge piece of metal jammed up against an eye socket.  And yet a sound guy is usually lumbering around with shit-tons of equipment, making it hard to maneuver in the best of circumstances, let alone a fight.  

The fact is that no one is particularly safe in these situations including members of the public who, while they may have tacitly agreed to appear on camera, did not tacitly agree to physical assault.  These shows are accidents waiting to happen, and the fact that a major accident hasn't occurred yet doesn't make it permissible for so-called "adults" to continue to play the odds.  Because that's what they'll do.  And anyone who argues against them will be called a troublemaker. 

Don't get me wrong.  I get it.  These brawls make for amazing television.  Sometimes, when you're producing a fight in Post that doesn't culminate in physical violence, there's a sense of letdown.  In the case I mentioned above, for example, we couldn't include the male-on-female violence because it violated the broadcaster's policies (although apparently letting it happen doesn't violate their Security's policy) and, as a result, the scene didn't climax in a satisfying manner.  An argument culminating in violence provides a release, it appeals to the part of us that would like to see a particular character smacked in the head.  It appeals to our sense of Justice: we think they had it coming.  But we really need to leave that shit to narrative TV.  Because the Marys and Adams we work with, not to mention the Rachels, Jeremys, and Sound Dudes, are real people who can get hurt, and no great climax to some shitty scene is worth it.

#UnREALLifetime #BachelorABC #RealityTV #BadGirlsClub #SafetyForSarah