Today’s wave of reality docu-series seems to be finding plenty of compelling stories in occupations that you’ll probably never see in a TV drama. Most of these careers don’t require an expensive college education, but they may ask you to risk a lot more than a few brain cells at a kegger.

If you’re wondering what to do for a living, or know someone who is, they might find inspiration in some of the shows below, which represent just a slice of the ways Americans pay the bills.

“Gold Rush” – Season two of this Discovery Channel show premieres Oct. 28 (it was called “Gold Rush: Alaska” in season one), again following the Oregon father-and-son team of Jack and Todd Hoffman as they take a second swing at gold mining in Alaska. They reassemble in season two, adding to their team of down-on-their-luck and/or adventurous miners for a return to remote Porcupine Creek. Once there, they’ll see if they can realize their American dream of pulling wealth out of the ground with muscle, determination and a lot of heavy equipment. I’ve seen a couple of episodes, and it’s not an easy ride for the Hoffmans, but to strike big, one has to take big risks, and they do.

“American Guns” – The Wyatts of Colorado are the focus of this Discovery series which premiered Oct. 10. Rich Wyatt and wife Rene own Gunsmoke, a family-run firearms facility just outside of Denver, where they buy, sell and trade all manner of guns. And if they don’t carry just what you want, their gunsmiths can make it for you. They also test-fire everything that goes out their doors. (more…)

It makes sense that showrunners of scripted television would loath reality television, but there are a number of terrific reality shows out there that, in my opinion, are saving civilization from scripted television. You watch shows like “Deadliest Catch,” “Dirty Jobs, “Swamp Loggers” “Ice Road Truckers,” and “Pawn Stars,” and you’re seeing something scripted television ridicules, demeans or ignores altogether: masculine men running small businesses and those everyday folks around them who love their country, believe in Jesus, and do the hard work that keeps this world of ours turning.

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These are amazing people, many of whom live and work in those states too many scripted showrunners merely fly over.  And the stories these brilliant reality producers create around the day-in/day-out drama of being a working stiff are usually much more compelling than any episode of “Law and Order: Liberal Sucker Punch.” I love seeing working people celebrated, especially those who cut down trees, kill small animals, fly the flag, carry guns, rail against government bureaucrats who make their jobs unnecessarily difficult, and come together whenever there’s a crisis.

Scripted television wouldn’t give working people their due; all these Hollywood snobs saw was fodder for cheap punchlines, so reality television filled the market.

That’s the way America is supposed to work.

Hollywood Reporter:

PBS – the network with no commercials – delves into the creative process of creating commercial television in the four-part documentary America in Primetime, bowing in October. The documentary special includes interviews with numerous actors and showrunners. And appearing at the Television Critics Association press tour here were Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal, Nurse Jackie co-creators Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem and Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman, who appears in the “independent woman” hour of the documentary.

Wallem called the film, “a beautiful valentine to television.” But what came through during the panel discussion was just how capricious the business is.

Though you have to respect the political intelligence of both George Will and Karl Rove, their recent criticism regarding former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s decision to participate in a reality show and how such a thing  automatically diminishes her as a potential presidential candidate is, at best, only half correct because it ignores the reality of her present circumstance.  Assuming Palin does intend to run for the presidency in 2012 — and I think there’s a slightly better chance than not that she does — you have to ask yourself what the best path to that goal is for her. Considering the unique obstacles Palin faces, at the very least she deserves credit for recognizing the political power of popular entertainment culture as a way around them.

Right now we live in an America governed by a President who entered office with a less than distinguished record as a state senator and only a two year record as a United States senator where he accomplished little more than to run for president. And yet it’s Sarah Palin, a two-term mayor, former governor and chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission who’s had the narrative built up and fortified around her that she doesn’t have the experience to be the president of the United States. And who built that narrative? The media.

How exactly is someone supposed to rehabilitate their political image through the same media that willfully and dishonestly destroyed it? The fact that the media is more hostile towards Palin than anyone in our lifetime is not even in dispute anymore — meaning,  the traditional avenues available to most politicos for a rehabilitation tour aren’t available to her. After a near-fatal bimbo eruption nearly cost him the Democratic nomination in 1992, Bill Clinton could turn to “60 Minutes” for a second chance. Barack Obama  will forever be able to go most anywhere he pleases to get his message out. Earlier this month, even George W. Bush could count on respectful treatment  from the likes of Matt Lauer and Oprah Winfrey. Palin, however, is boxed in by what she knows is an entertainment and MSM establishment gunning for her, who see every opportunity to embarrass her as another set of cocktail party bragging rights.   

If you remember the corrupt political coverage of 2008, rather than talk about the record of a self-made governor with a compelling personal story who worked her way up the political ladder by fighting corruption in her own party, I can’t count the number of times the likes of CNN used valuable broadcast time to run that previous Saturday night’s clip of Tina Fey mercilessly mocking the Republican Vice Presidential candidate.  Rather than doing their job and, for good or bad, allowing Palin’s own personal story and record to define her, the media instead chose to allow a mean-spirited comedian to do that on their behalf. And don’t think for a second this wasn’t intentional.

So the question I would ask Rove and Will is exactly what is it they would suggest Palin do to present who she really is to as much of the American public as possible given the reality that any attempt to once again chance the MSM gauntlet would most certainly be a suicide run. (more…)

The Blair Witch Project marks a touchstone in film horror, one best remembered for shattering the mold of what to expect from the genre.

No blood.  No monsters.  Just our own imagination tweaked by the single cam format, a sub-genre leveraged years later by Quarantine, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity.

Those films wouldn‘t exist unless Blair Witch proved the format could draw audiences in.

Made on the uber-cheap by a pair of unknown filmmakers, Blair Witch was nothing less than a sensation when it hit theaters 11 years ago. It was the ultimate word of mouth hit without recognizable stars, just a savvy Internet campaign that hinted that what you were about to see actually happened. Everything coalesced into a bracingly original experience, something impossible to recapture today.

That makes the just-released Blu-ray release a chance to appreciate a groundbreaking film, but not a moment to jump out of our seats all over again. The scares simply aren’t the same as they once were. That leaves a curious film, one that still commands our attention but cannot help but disappoint when compared to timeless shockers like The Omen and The Exorcist. (more…)

Excellent article in Macleans last week:

Like many other teenage girls, Olivia regards the fight for female equality as over. “In the Western world, we’re pretty equal,” she says. 

She has every reason to think so. Going to university is a given. So is having a career—perhaps in business or maybe medicine. She’s surrounded by smart, independent women, including her mother, who holds a Ph.D. in education and is the director of LINCWell, a student enrichment support centre at St. Clement’s girls’ school in Toronto.

Yet Leanne Foster, whose position puts her in the daily orbit of the age-old divide between teenage girls and their mothers, is not as sanguine as her daughter about female equality. She sees a unique generation gap emerging: on one side, mothers who came of age during the women’s movement of the 1970s fighting for equal opportunities, “empowerment” through financial independence and rejecting female “objectification”; on the other, their daughters, raised in a hyper-sexualized culture replete with Bratz dolls, porn-inspired American Apparel ads, and the message telegraphed by Kim Kardashian and her tabloid-cover cohorts that a leaked sex tape is the quickest route to female success.

For these girls, Snoop Dogg’s misogynist Bitches Ain’t S–t is not an affront but a ring tone, and “slut” and “bitch” are not put-downs but affectionate greetings between female friends. Snooki, the 22-year-old star of the reality show Jersey Shore, whose ambitions consist of getting drunk, vomiting on camera, and spending days in a tanning salon, is the star of the hour. “I love Snooki,” says one 20-year-old. Olivia agrees. “It’s so ridiculous, it’s funny,” she says of the show. “I don’t relate that to my life at all. I wonder, ‘Why would you do that?’ But it’s enjoyable to watch.” (more…)

OK, I walk into the TV room the other night expecting to watch some vintage Eastwood and what do I wind up watching instead? The Real Housewives of New Jersey — aka nouveau riche, high maintenance, goombah psycho bitches — are squaring off.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey

Their verbal barbs are mean and drawing blood and I can’t change the channel. Not since the meow days of Falcon Crest and Dynasty have I so wanted to see to see manicured claws maul Maybelline. But this feeling seems different somehow, and research on the way reality shows affect viewers appears to confirm that it is.

Are viewers more likely to emulate behavior when the characters on the screen are real people? The answer appears to be ‘yes.’ (more…)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming of Project Runway and Jersey Shore to bring you a new reality show. Here’s the concept: A bunch of patriotic young people decide to risk their lives to defend the United States as well as the liberty and freedom of all Americans. They do it for love of country, education and a chance to be successful in life. They’re braver than the average person and their selflessness is remarkable. The name of the show is “The National Guard.”

The show won’t fit the anti-military narrative of Hollywood productions like The Green Zone or Avatar, but that’s OK. Like I said, this show is based on reality.

Luckily, we have videos for the first episode of our new show. A group of new National Guard recruits recently sat down with pollster Frank Luntz to talk about why they joined the service. The footage is inspiring and flies in the face of Hollywood’s relentless anti-military stereotypes. In fact, these videos present a very diverse picture of America’s finest men and women. (more…)

Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who are well past their 15 minutes, appeared before the House Committee on Homeland Security yesterday and took the 5th, which protects against self-incrimination.  The world will have to wait to hear exactly what they crashed and when they crashed it. Though we already know most of the details — the Salahi’s told us months ago on their Facebook page.

Reality TV has given us real housewives, wife swaps and biggest losers. Finally, the whole genre may have jumped the shark right here in DC.  The Salahis hadn’t even finished auditioning for Bethesda-based Half Yard Productions when they pulled off the ultimate reality-show stunt.  By gate-crashing a White House State Dinner, one can just hear the director behind the camera: “You got the part, baby!” Now comes news of a third crasher… Salahi friend Carlos Allen, a D.C. “party promoter!” With all these shenanigans at that first State Dinner, it’s a wonder Indian Prime Minister Singh didn’t run screaming — “I’m a Dignitary — Get Me Outta Here!” (more…)

Every once in a while, I’ll get sent a clip of a Saturday Night Live segment that someone finds amusing but it’s been years since I’ve watched the show because it’s simply not that funny anymore. Most of the humor now is snide and while some conservatives like the anti-Obama pieces, I find them more daring than genuinely funny.

The latest clip sent to me was “Gossip Girl-Staten Island” and was a send up of the smallest NYC borough depicting the residents as “guidos” and loudmouth big-haired, spikes wearing women. There is also a reality show called “Jersey Shore” which has these prototypes being as obnoxious as possible for the small screen.

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I was born in Manhattan and knew little of the outer boroughs and was perfectly content with the daily newspapers ignoring them as well. The only  television reference about the “forgotten” borough was usually on a comedy cop show like “Barney Miller” when a police officer was threatened with being stationed in the boondocks of S.I. (more…)

It’s clear: Jon and Kate shouldn’t procreate. The “grocery-aisle-reading” public know Jon and Kate Gosselin from the tabloid tsunami over the reality TV couple’s impending divorce and apparent infidelity. For the rest of the fortuitous one percent who don’t know who I’m talking about — “Jon and Kate Plus 8” is a program in its fifth season on cable channel TLC.  he show was originally intended to chronicle two stressed-out, but steadfast, parents who attempt to raise a pair adorable twins and a set of sextuplets in the ‘burbs. ”It might be a crazy life,” mommy Kate says in the opening credits, “but it’s our life” adds daddy Jon. But lately, ‘crazy’ means Kate discovering Jon sleeping with babysitters, tabloid reporters and a bevy of bar room broads. Meantime, Jon calls the cops on Kate to throw her off the property during daddy’s visiting hours. Yep — it’s just good ol’ American family fun on TLC — “The Learning Channel.”

Thankfully, these gory details aren’t directly addressed on the program – at least, not yet. Instead, the show attempts to behave as if viewers are still interested in mommy’s camping trip, or her recipe for Moose Munch, or dad’s go-kart race. Hard to believe just a year ago, Jon and Kate were featured giving marital tips, writing a book about touching family moments — even renewing wedding vows in Hawaii. This was actually when everyone might have become suspicious — since when did renewing vows half way around the world become so important to a family of eight kids? Since Mom caught Dad bedding the chick from the biker bar down the street.  (more…)

This is an amazing story. Not because Kourtney Kardashian, a reality television star, chose not to abort her child, but rather her willingness to candidly discuss the evolution of her thinking as she mulled her “choice.” I’ve emphasized the most powerful parts of her statement; the parts that must sound like nails on a chalkboard to an abortion industry not used to this kind of thing from young, female celebrities:

“I definitely thought about it long and hard, about if I wanted to keep the baby or not, and I wasn’t thinking about adoption,” … “I do think every woman should have the right to do what they want, but I don’t think it’s talked through enough. I can’t even tell you how many people just say, ‘Oh, get an abortion.’ Like it’s not a big deal.” …

I looked online, and I was sitting on bed hysterically crying, reading these stories of people who felt so guilty from having an abortion,” she recalls. “I was reading these things of how many people are traumatized by it afterwards.”

(more…)

The ugly truth about the health care debate can be summed up by the nightmare created by reality television: non-union actors (who we call “scabs” during strikes) are threatening the long standing system by jumping into the pool without regard for those who have worked hard to achieve their status and benefits.

Listening to Obama talk about covering the 47 million uninsured sounds great.  It’s the equivalent of saying EVERYONE should be able to participate, to try out for parts, and get treated as well as the top 1% of actors.

Except therein lies the difference.  If the non-union or “uninsured” jump into the pool, everyone on the union job is going to receive less pay, or the insured will receive less health care. (more…)

Is your TiVo programmed to record such timeless TV classics as: The Hills, America’s Next Top Model, For the Love of Ray-J, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, Rock of Love, Charm School, Daisy of Love, Bad Girls Club, The Tyra Banks Show, I Love Money 2,  The Real World, Dancing With the Stars, The Celebrity Apprentice, From G’s to Gents, The Girls of Hedsor Hall, Judge Judy, or the fourth hour of the Today Show? 

Neither is mine.

Fortunately Joel McHale & Co. monitor all of these fine programs-and countless others-on my behalf, identify their most absurd moments, then mock them mercilessly in an easy-to-swallow half hour of weekly television fun.  Welcome to The Soup, which airs Friday nights at 10pm ET on E! 

The show, which has existed in various iterations for years, has reached new comedic heights on McHale’s watch.  In a nutshell, it features 22 minutes of distilled television trash; the very worst of what American culture has to offer.  Degenerate attention-seekers looking for “true love?”  Check.  Startlingly self-absorbed celebrities padding their inflated egos?  Indeed.  Washed-up/cashed-strapped stars demeaning themselves for a paycheck?  Oh yes.  The Soup peddles in the lowest- common-denominator programming that’s beamed to cable boxes and satellite dishes from coast to coast every day.  (more…)

Good news for anyone connected to President Obama: Hollywood may soon be calling.

That’s right, not just the rich, famous or politically connected; but your average, everyday working person with some sort of connection to the newly installed First Family could very well be on their way to big-time celebrity.

Because according to The Hollywood Reporter, a company called, ‘44 Blue Productions’ is pitching a reality show to cable networks, starring one Johnny Wright — who has been Michelle Obama’s hairstylist for the past year. I figure this is good news for lots of folks. (more…)