Posted on 11/27/2004 4:20:38 PM PST by Pyro7480
'Regency House Party' plays the 1800s dating game
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- What kind of reality dating show is right for PBS? One with impeccable manners, of course, and a British accent.
Make it a period piece, and it's a perfect match.
"Regency House Party" lacks hot tubs, a glitzy Malibu mansion a la "The Bachelor" or contemporary canoodling. But it offers an elegant country estate, bare-knuckle boxing and a secret nighttime rendezvous....
The brief but influential Regency period, 1811-1820, gave root to personal trainers, the tabloid press, fashionistas and celebrity clout, according to the series....
The new program gathers 10 single men and women in an English country manor and asks them to squeeze their 21st-century psyches and behavior into an alien society for two months.
They act as characters of the time, some in roles closer to their real lives than others: A dot-com entrepreneur becomes a naval captain, a hairdresser plays an army officer, a countess is a countess. The houseguests are to seek the best match possible -- which is to say the most financially and socially advantageous one....
As each guest arrives at Kentchurch Court, they're given booklets containing rules of behavior for gentlemen and ladies. These are not suggestions....
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I watched the first episode, it was okay. I like the genre of putting 21st century people in earlier times. Pioneer House was my favorite.
Regency House reminded me of Big Brother (which I watched almost all the way thru once) the people chosen were acting for the camera and did not want to fully emerge themselves into their 18th century characters.
Did you catch any of the other series?
I think I caught the "Colonial House" once, but none of the others. I only saw the last two episodes of "Regency" early this week. They seemed to be "in character" then, so I guess the whole etiquette in everything took some getting used to. I found out that in the original BBC Channel 4 production, they divided the footage into 8 episodes, probably going for an hour each (with some commercial possibly), instead of 4 90-minutes episodes as they did on PBS. They might have not showed the entire thing here in the U.S., which is unfortunate if true.
All right, that's it. Yeah, maybe it's an interesting program, but why the hell are taxpayers paying for this? PBS is so over. It's long past time to cut that network loose.
U.S. taxpayers are only paying for the airing of it, not the whole production, since it was originally produced in England. It's likely that if PBS wasn't around, A&E, BBC America, or some other channel would have showed it.
I watched 2 programs. The idea had possibilities.
My own impression, the persons they chose to play the parts lacked interest. The men and women did not seem to get along at all. I kept waiting for SOMETHING to happen. It never did.
I don't recommend it.
Haven't seen Regency House, would like to though. Loved Pioneer House. Really showed how tough it was back then.
My favorite was Manor House, showed the very rigid class distinctions (Victorian era) which were pretty hard for them to swallow. They put them into their historical positions based on what their jobs/families were in today. It was like a living Gosford Park.
Yeah, I think so too. So, I can't see why we need a socialized outlet to compete with these others.
That said, the show does sound interesting. I'll have to check it out.
I really liked Manor House as well (Gosford Park is one of my favorite movies). These series seem to work best when the participants accept the historical parameters. Pioneer House, Manor House both worked because the people "bought" into their roles. The show with the family from the 30's in England fell flat as well as the pilgrim series. That one was especially exasperating because a couple of the women participants would not accept the role of women in 17th century--it was so frustrating to hear them complain about their role in society and how they were not going to go along with the premise...duh, you signed on to be a pilgrim, what did you think you were getting into?
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