Posted on 07/28/2012 6:26:47 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
All TV Reality shows are staged to one extent or another. However, what TV Reality show do you think is the most STAGED.
My nominee would be "Barter Kings." To watch that show you have to put your brains in deep freeze to accept the premise that someone will trade something valuable for a near worthless piece of junk. Plus Steve was supposed to have been a car salesman so he can use his sales skills but his sales pitches sound really unconvincing. His voice doesn't really express much confidence when he asserts that his junky item will earn the other guy money.
Another time a woman told Antonio she would trade her horse for a horse trailer but it better NOT have rust. So what does Antonio do? He shows up with an incredibly rusty horse trailer and she still does the deal.
Here is the basic premise of the show: "I want to trade this dried buzzard turd that I found in the Mojave desert for your brand new car stereo system." And guess what? The lopsided barter deal goes down almost every time.
So why do folks accept such lousy deals. Because they are on TV. Yeah, if they don't accept the deal they don't appear on the tube and probably don't get paid for their appearance on "Barter Kings."
I've done bartering and in real life you just don't get such lopsided deals. You can trade up but you can't start out in the morning with an Elvis plaque and end up in the afternoon with a motorboat just in time for your family's boating excursion.
So does that mean I won't watch TV Reality shows because they are staged? No. I love watching "Storage Wars" even though I know it is staged (note how the featured characters almost always win the storage bins even though hundreds of people might show up at an auction). One reason is that I do like to look at the antique and collectible stuff they find (I really hope they haven't been planted in the bins). Another reason is that I used to go to storage bin auctions years ago in Los Angeles. Not in a big way but one time I bought a small storage bin for just $10. One item was a Director's chair which I took down the street to where a crew was filming a TV show and sold it for the $10 I paid for the bin. Also in the bin was a few hundred bucks of Black Hills gold jewelry. So that worked out great.
I also like "Hardcore Pawn" in order to take a look at the grim urban realities without having to be there.
Other TV Reality Shows I am currently watching or have watched in the past:
"Deadliest Catch" ---I once thought I could do that but after watching I know I couldn't last a day due to extreme cold and seasickness.
"Swamp People" ---A shoutout to Troy!
"Ice Road Truckers" ---A great first season but I can't get into it any longer.
"American Pickers" ---I enjoy seeing the antiques and collectibles they pick up.
I was told last night by an antique dealer that Storage Wars, American Pickers, and Pawn Stars were rigged.
Big Time Wrestling
Obama’s press conferences?
Please don't tell me that the antiques and collectibles were planted in the storage bins.
World’s Worst Tenants might have true stories but it’s all acted out with fake folks. I’d consider it to be the worst of the worst.
After that, comes Goldrush, with the fake gold diggers.
Then I’d put Kardishians in...with mostly all fake stories and problems. I’d personally like to take all of the gals on the show...dump them off in Homer, Alaska...with $100 and tell them to survive for thirty days.
Can’t help you on this one. I don’t watch any of them. Period.
Obama’s press conferences?
Well, they are led by a carney.
“Sheiks of Sunset” was pretty bad. I watched one episode and wanted to pull an Elvis on my TV set. I think it has been cancelled. Unwatchable.
These shows are a direct result of how wonderful our economy is. The sad part is, there isn't anything else on TV worth a crap to watch.
I've been to Homer. Not many women there. I suspect they'd get along just fine.
I see "reality TV" which asserts itself to be "reality" even when it is all blatantly staged and see an attempt by social manipulators at the highest level to convince people that truth does not matter. If there is no truth beyond, "Hey, I told you this was the truth", then it becomes really easy to tell people that the economy is in recovery, GM has paid back all its loans, and we have always been at war with EastAsia.
I asked him what he thought of the shows - he made a motion with his hand.
The man told me that it is extremely rare for people to find valuables in storage bins, extremely rare.
Doesn’t Freddie (Mr. Sarah Michelle Gellar) Prinze Jr. write some of those stories?
The House Hunter shows are staged because the places are already bought and moved in.
Storage wars. Utter BS, to the point that it is insulting.
It has to be Lizard Lick Towing. Lots of shouting and shoving but that’s about it.
I like the little waiting room that’s always full of junk for someone to throw around.
What’s a reality show?
All the repo shows are staged.
Police auctions used to have some good stuff but nowadays they mostly sell their unclaimed property online.
Trailer Park Boys is more convincing than some of those stupid reality shows and it’s a parody of them.
I love storage wars.... But the reason why it is so popular is the characters in it
You have the making of a great storyline: a protagonist antagonist characters, Conflict, Setting, Theme.
A hot babe, goofy oddball lovable guy, A guy you love to hate, an average dude who wears wife beaters as formal wear...
The Texas version sucks because the characters suck... Two fat guys with zero personality, a stupid middle aged white trash women, a guy who looks and acts like he dropped in from NYC instead of the southwest...
Obama’s campaign stops!
But now it has degenerated into a family shouting match. The pawn transactions seem almost secondary.
And I'll tell you something else. The Golds are Jewish. I know of no Jewish family where the son publicly belittles his father or uses profanity when talking to his father.
So either the show has become completely scripted, or the Golds are one messed-up family. Either way, it has become unwatchable for me.
huh ? Wrestling is rigged ????
The worst are the repo shows. Good comedy at times, but that’s it.
The one I like is the new one out there. Great Lake Warriors. Anyone who’s been on those lakes in a storm knows that it’s no joke, nor has anyone who has been to Whitefish Point. Lake Superior doesn’t give up her dead.
COPS - who ever read about a nice cop? If the camera wasn’t on them ... Fulerton, CA comes to mind real quick.
I have to agree with you about Storage Wars. They found some great people to feature on this show. When we stumble upon it, we usually end up watching it, unless there is a really great movie on TCM. My husband also likes the fact that he is the same age as the old guy but looks much better!;-)
While some of the interpersonal stuff on Gator Boys is scripted it’s kinda hard to get those gators to follow along with the script.
They’re cheaper to make?
Dave (YUUUP!) Hester was missing for a few shows and in his place was another character but the “Storage Wars” fans couldn’t stand him and now he is gone. I hated the guy too but not sure why.
I watch the house hunter shows regularly. Of course they’re staged... Otherwise how would they get it down to just 3 houses to begin with? I don’t understand what the big revelation is about that. I accepted it from day one.
I really enjoy the international shows.
liberal MSM news programs
(note how the featured characters almost always win the storage bins
Very true but I also noted a show where they said there were 25 units and after three they were at the “last unit of the day” I suspect they edit out the other bid winners.
I do not know about seeding the units,,,they may to make for better tv...but I always am suspicious of the cavalier way they assign “values” and I wonder about the “experts” pricing of items.
Still I watch ‘em because Brandi is hot, Dave is a dick and Barry drives the absolutely coolest vehicles.
All of it.
“Sons of Guns” got REAL staged, REAL quick. It practically became a parody of a reality show in record time.
The first year of "Orange County Chopper" was very interesting. A slice of urban life, as you said. But now it has degenerated into a family shouting match. The motorcycle creation seems almost secondary.
(gee, I wonder if they have the same director/producer ?)
Any show with obvious repeat incompetence by the staff of whatever business being depicted, way too much arguing, or people that speak to each other in that monotone “I’m reciting rehearsed dialog that the producer thought would sound better” dialog is most certainly a staged program.
anything to do with towing and storage units.....
Yeah, just because Darrell says, "There's a hundred dollar bill right there," doesn't make it so. You have to actually SELL the stuff and what you say they are worth and what they sell for are two different things.
This is one of many reasons why the last TV I watched was Sara Palin’s acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican Convention.
Storage Wars HAS to be rigged. How can the same four buyers keep getting the storage rooms? Only good thing is that people watching might discover they have items of value at home.
American gun .... The Colorado gunsmoke store. Fake prices, breasts an shabby snake oil owner.
I don't think these two shows are staged. Keep in mind, there is a difference between "staged" and "edited."
One time a guy had a BetaMax that wasn't working but he wanted $30 for it so I refused. To sweeten the deal he tossed in about a dozen porno tapes. I took the deal, fixed the BetaMax right away, and then took it for a barter deal. I wanted to trade for an IBM Selectric 3. The guy was interested in the BetaMax but didn't want to do the trade because the Selectric 3 was used by his wife and she was at work. So I popped a porno tape into the BetaMax and the guy was amazed. Keep in mind this was the early 80s when many people still hadn't watched much video as was apparent in this guy's reaction. After a few minutes, I popped out the porno tape to the other guy's obvious disappointment. I told him I would toss the tape in with the deal and he began wavering so then I told him I had a bunch more tapes just like it in the car and would toss those in. The guy thought for a moment and finally agreed. As I was hauling the Selectric 3 out, the guy began worrying if his wife would become angry because he traded away her Selectric 3 so I said, "Don't worry. She'll love the VCR," and just continued straight out the door. I was so nervous the guy would come running out to change his mind that it took me 3 tries to turn my engine over. Finally, it turned over and I got out of there FAST.
A week later, after my ad for the Selectric 3 appeared in the Recycler newspaper, I got a call from a company near LAX. I brought it over and the office secretary asked if I would accept a company check for my $780 asking price. Normally I don't accept checks but I figured I knew where the company office was and could come right back if there were problems with the check. I took the check to their bank right away and cashed out for a profit of $750. I actually got what I asked for which surprised me. I was willing to shave a couple of hundred bucks off my asking price but they didn't ask.
The funniest thing is that IBM Selectric 3 machines were already obsolete due to word processors then coming out on the market so I was lucky to sell it for the price I did.
On "Cake Boss," they were commissioned to make a cake for an identity theft company, which was also a sponsor. Another cake was for an "Ice Age" movie, which I'm guessing was a similar deal.
And on "American Pickers," on one episode the boys stopped in Subway for lunch, and that looked like an in-show commercial.
I’ve had my doubts about “Undercover Boss.” In any company, there are bound to be employees with sad stories, and setting up a scholarship fund or training program for one employee is bound to cause misgivings among the rest of the workforce.
Ahhhh, shout out to my Boys! Nice to see another fan on here. Had the extreme pleasure of meeting them last fall. What a good, hardworking bunch - and so kind.
I totally agree with you about the stupid reality shows.
No way. The two Awipes on horseback chasing two other Awipes. Does anyone get it that there is a complete camera crew following these nitwits. Hell, a blind man could track those Joffs!
Are you seriously saying I’m not nice?! :O
I was a cop before I came to Japan... and, I was nice :)
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