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.
That brought back a funny memory. We were driving in the red rock country of either Utah or Nevada, heading down a dirt road to a state park. Over the hill came about 20 men on horses dressed in authentic western cowboy attire. Right behind them came several wagons pulled by teams of horses.
We were shocked out of our minds, thinking we had either gone back in time or were witnessing some kind of ghostly re run.
Behind the wagons came the film crew in their jeeps with frilly canvas tops wearing Bermuda shorts and tank tops with their sunglasses on.
We had come into view of the following cameras and had completely ruined that shot! They were p+ssed.
Barter kings for sure. The wife and I enjoy various reality show, and understand they are heavily edited and somewhat scripted,but barter kings is just too much. We won’t be watching anymore.
***Please don’t tell me that the antiques and collectibles were planted in the storage bins. ***
You don’t just walk off and leave your valuables in a storage bin and forget to pay. Too many high dollar antique guns found in them by the “bidders”.
I was told that the guns were placed in the bins to make the show interesting.
My daughter was on Nashville Star (barely, she was only marginally on the season opener) and after having gotten through auditions with everyone else, they bring in a pretty boy who didn't have to audition at all. I can't remember his name, but Billy Ray Cyrus was the host and the ringer was Mylie's boyfriend at the time. None of the participants can spill the beans during the show because of the contracts they sign.
National Geographic’s Hutterite series.
They are all staged to some extent. I think these you mention are some of the LEAST staged or at least portray what really happens.
From personal experience...Yeah, people do leave valuables behind. At one auction I went to a fellow was in Iraq and his girl friend quit paying for their locker.
Divorce, people get tossed into jail, payments are supposed to be made for the owner but aren’t, old folks get negligent, lots of reasons valuables are left for the price of the rental.
Black Gold...I met a derrick hand that had appeared on a few shows. Told me he got paid $10,000 and they met before every shot and were given their lines. Everybody in the oil patch hates that show with a passion.
Storage Wars, I watch for Brandi and Barry.
Would you watch Storage Wars or Pawn Stars if they showed you ALL the junk in all the lockers and all the junk people try to pawn?
It's like Sci Fi. You have to accept that aliens and space travel don't really happen and yes there is no such thing as a teleporter (yet). There is no warp drive, Vampires, or Ghost Whisperers (I do love her figure). You just accept those things and enjoy her breasts, I mean the show.
Even spell check didn't know what a teleporter was. When we all do.
“Sister Wives”. This bunch of polygamists from Utah pretended the police were on the verge of arresting them and taking their kids, so they ran to Nevada. Now the Utah authorities have dropped the investigation. These people have no real jobs and no credit, and they’re acting as if they have a shot at buying FOUR huge houses, when the obvious solution is to move back into the house they abandoned in Utah. It’s all trumped-up drama.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I like american pickers, pawn stars and Hutterites. Wesley is my new favorite over Chumley.
Parts of the Hutts are interesting, the communal living, the eating/cooking of meals
Detroit pawn is interesting for a episode or two, then the old man and his kids turn your stomach. That daughter is disguisting. The most used line is I aint leavin till you gives me my money, then they get pushed out. Way too faked. The fight would be on and someone would go to jail.
The new nat geo show where they look for old stuff is very very very bad. The two “stars” are anything but.
Me. 5 years ago we were looking to buy a home. We looked at one townhouse which was okay but I didn't like the high wall in back. Then we looked at another townhouse in the same community which had a MILLION DOLLAR view of a lake out back chock full of ducks and surrounded by plush tropical shrubbery. Then we took a look at a third townhouse that same day which was okay but it had very little shade and a lousy view. So I told my wife we could keep on looking but we could never find another townhouse with such an incredible view as the second one so the next day we offered to buy it...and that is where I am living now. It still makes me feel good just to look out back at our MILLION DOLLAR VIEW.
The Bachelor/Bachelorette. Completely scripted - to the point that the show’s characters fill the same roles and repeat the same lines almost word-for-word from previous shows. Twenty million people watch it anyway...
Maybe they will have an episode of “Storage Wars” where Barry buys a bin which contains a film reel with the missing 80 minutes of “The Magnificent Ambersons.”
Hoarders... I think they take all that junk and just move it house to house.
America Got Talent...whole lot fraudulent ‘sleepers’ goin’ on there.
American Idol...loaded with ‘sleepers’ and bawling contestants and their abject miserable life stories. And don’t ya’ love it when they choose who’s moving on to the next stage?
“And the winner is...
(crickets)
(crickets)
(crickets)
“ALL TEN OF YOU, YOU’RE ALL MOVING ON”
Yeah, I know they are called talent shows but they just as insulting to the intellect as ‘reality’ TV. They are all crap.
They're starting to do in-show commercials in regular tv shows. Last week, Rizzoli and Isles had a Dr. Scholls' shoe insert and something else. Then that 6 minute skin treatment commerical with Valeri Bertinelli and Cindy Crawford is the worst. Really, come on, as if there aren't already too many commercials and then we have to wait through the regular ones plus an infomercial as well? And as if that's not enough, TVLand extends 30 minute shows to an hour so they can give you 40 minutes of commercials. There may be a reason so many people are turning off the idiot box.
My family laughs that I’m an IRT fan. I think it’s the scenery, all that snow so far from civilization. Anyone know why Lisa isn’t on this season? My fav is Alex.
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