In prepping a children’s program where I’d be recording all the Duggars from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, I read a lot about this family on the Internet.

Boy was that unhelpful.

I wanted to make sure I got their characters right while scripting the dialogue for an episode of Life at the Pond. And even though well over a million people watch this show weekly, the Internet was fraught with misinformation. I’ll spare you the gory details, a quick Google of “Duggars” will provide a couple hundred thousand results and you can get a bowl of popcorn and make a day of it.

But there was one common theme, sometimes from quasi reputable sites, that permeated the Internet: The Duggar children are captives in their own home.

Before traveling to Arkansas to record, I’d only spoken on the phone with Jim Bob Duggar, the father of all 19. I watched the TLC program, and that was my only exposure to the children. They seemed pretty well behaved, which explains why I wanted to use them in this episode in the first place.

Jim Bob was kind enough to invite my entire family into his home. We ended up spending parts of three days there, and I can tell you first hand, this is no ordinary family.

You won’t find a television in their giant living room. The Internet is greatly restricted. The girls’ room (9 of 10 sleep in one room – the only exception is temporary, newborn Josie) didn’t have Hanna Montana or boy band or vampire posters or anything like it.

Lady Gaga did not make the cut. (more…)

A USA Today story informs us “Viewers are about to see full-frontal male nudity, heterosexual, homosexual and group sex, and graphic scenes rarely — if ever — seen on mainstream TV.”

A few years back, I got a real taste for how silly Hollywood’s obsession with force feeding America a steady diet of filth had become.  I sat across from a Fox Family exec, pitching programs for kids.  I’d been in this chair many times and the result was always the same:  “Thanks.  Love ‘em.  Won’t work.  Let’s have you back soon.” 

Why’d the guy keep calling me back in?  And why did I keep returning?  I’m not sure which of us was most guilty of wasting time. 

Finally, one day, I blurted out what should have been asked long before:  “What do you want from me?” 

“Something like Action” I was told. 

Action was a Fox sitcom created by Chris Thompson originally intended for HBO.  In it, Jay Mohr played a troubled character patterned after producer Joel Silver.  Thompson insisted they leave the foul language in the program, and just bleep it out for prime time.  (more…)