More reality, less celebrity
Published 2:22 pm Monday, December 20, 2010
As 2009 comes to a close, and Jon and Kate Gosselin’s divorce finalized, let’s declare the death of so-called “reality” TV. Please.
Because as any Balloon Boy Family or White House party crasher can tell you, it’s not the “reality,” it’s the “celebrity.”
If it was reality, it would be a “documentary.” While modern “memoirs” are fictionalized to make childhoods sound more harrowing or heroic than they really were, the reality TV shows do the opposite: Edit everything to make it seem better.
While the Gosselin marriage faced some risk of divorce merely by existing, the odds went up dramatically once they went on TV. With the show “Jon &Kate Plus 8” the couple transmogrified from struggling parents to “stars” of a popular show to “celebrities” in their own right.
Before the show and the celebrity, the couple couldn’t afford to get divorced. Before the free tummy tucks, hair transplants and all-around beautifying that accompanies celebrityhood, the partners didn’t have time or opportunity for temptations.
The couple’s faith figured strongly in the early shows.
Someone tuning in for the first time a few years later would witness Kate slapping Jon, hard, and no references to religion, except for the importance of dressing the kids perfectly to go to church on a holiday.
None of this would matter, of course, except for those eight kids. How about their reality? “We grew up making a TV show that celebrated us as a family but Mom and Dad got famous and then divorced and they canceled the show.” But they can watch the good times over and over, on DVD. And of course mom is trying to get her own new show.
Speaking of reality TV children, Michelle Duggar, of the TLC show “18 Kids and Counting,” had her 19th earlier this month, nearly four months premature, after an emergency C-section. The baby weighed 1 pound and 6 ounces. Mom and daughter are reportedly doing well, although information is hard to come by.
News on the family’s Web site is still about the birth of the Duggar’s first grandchild.
While the Duggars, thankfully, are not tabloid-fodder-type celebrities, they are celebrities nonetheless. They appear on other TV shows, magazines and Web sites.
They’ve written a book called “20 and Counting! Raising One of America’s Largest Families — How They Do It.” (The 20 refers to 18 kids and the parents.)
They also hawk a religious “Financial Freedom Seminar” DVD by Jim Sammons. Which is all well and good. That’s their celebrity right. But unless they want to rename the genre “Insanity TV,” the Duggars need to stop “counting.”
