Extreme Makeover = Extreme Exploitation

buttmunch · March 28th, 2006, 05:31 AM

Quote:

MARCH 27--Not content with humdrum stories of poverty, heartache, and distress, the producers of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" have compiled a creepy wish list of woe for the next season of the hit ABC television series, The Smoking Gun has learned. In an e-mail forwarded earlier this month by an ABC executive to network affiliates, the program's casting agent details the exact kind of tragedies and rare illnesses being sought by the Top 20 show. Families featured on the program have their often ramshackle homes renovated for free by a platoon headed by handyman/heartthrob Ty Pennington. The show is maudlin, tug-on-your-heartstrings television, "Queen for a Day" with finish carpentry. Based on the ABC e-mail, it appears that victims of hate crimes and violent home invasions and families coping with the loss of a child killed by a drunk driver make for good television. And the show would also absolutely love to feature those battling skin cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, and muscular dystrophy. Oh, and families with multiple children with Down Syndrome would be ideal, whether the kids are "either adopted or biological," the e-mail notes. And, shooting the moon, the program's "family casting director," Charisse Simonian, would love to locate a kid suffering from Progeria, the rare condition that causes rapid aging in a child (for those unaware of Progeria, the ABC e-mail helpfully describes it as "aka 'little old man disease.'") As if that terrible affliction weren't enough, Simonian is also on the hunt for a child with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. "This is where kids cannot feel any physical pain," she notes. But the hunt for a young victim--who will likely die before 30--will not be easy. "There are 17 known cases in US," she writes, before chirpily adding, "let me know if one is in your town!" Such spirit in the face of tragedy. The March 10 correspondence was written by Phinel Petit-Frere, a network executive based in New York, who passed along the makeover show's wish list to network affiliates in the Southeast. The affiliates were requested to help in locating prospective families for the series, which finished eighth in last week's Nielsen ratings. When contacted by TSG, Petit-Frere said he only forwarded the memo on Simonian's behalf and directed other questions her way. (1 page)

full memo, etc. here:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...2extreme1.html

deckchick · March 28th, 2006, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buttmunch

full memo, etc. here:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...2extreme1.html

Well duh! It's TV folks! There has been stories about this kind of stuff for months. And if being "exploited" with a brand-new house, brand new furniture and appliances, a weeks vacation etc is bad, I will volunteer!

buttmunch · March 28th, 2006, 09:21 AM

I guess you have a point but to see it so blatantly spelled out is a bit gross. I suppose it makes good television for someone although for me, those shows are so blatantly working from a script that I generally want to see the house fall down around thier ears.

buttmunch · March 28th, 2006, 09:35 AM

Ah, chirpy angels of schmalz...you gotta love 'em.

AliceInWonderland · March 30th, 2006, 11:51 AM

omg these people are sick and should be shot w/ a sensitivity serum!

angelais · March 30th, 2006, 02:13 PM

That show irritates the crap out of me. I do feel for the families, but so much of what they show is staged and so cheesy, I can't even watch it anymore.

A*O · March 30th, 2006, 02:32 PM

TV producers will stoop as low as it takes to bring in the ratings. I posted this elsewhere but one of the most appalling spectacle I ever saw was a Maury Povitch show, one of his famous (and usually hilarious in an appalling way) Who's The Babydaddy when sluts come on national TV with a string of bums and losers for DNA testing to see which one is responsible for making the gene pool even murkier. This one particular show was the same format, but the kids in question had some kind of disability. Maury was parading these kids like circus freaks 'pretending' to be all compassion and sympathy, but you could see in his cold, reptillian eyes that he was doing it purely for ratings.

fahQ · March 30th, 2006, 08:26 PM

This show actually did a makeover about 5 miles away from where I live. It was for a widower and his three small girls. The mother died at 27 of a brain aneurysm, I think. I checked the house out a few weeks ago. It's really nice.

Witchywoman · April 2nd, 2006, 07:44 PM

^^^^^^^I remember that show....it made me not want to go to bed for a few nights. We also had a makeover a few blocks away from me. It's a beautiful house, but it really doesn't go with the neighborhood. What I can't stand is all the tears on q from the crew. Sniff sniff..... and they certainly don't get any of that cool stuff from a Sears that I have ever shopped in!!

zorbeet · April 2nd, 2006, 07:59 PM

I went through that house. It was really amazing how well built it looked. Would be curious to see it again after a winter of settling.

It's amazing that everything from the house to the lawn was donated by the people in the area. ABC just kind of shows up and shovels sears down everyone's throats.

Paul was very nice and talked to my son at length. The rest I don't think would be able to change a light bulb with out help.

Palermo · April 2nd, 2006, 08:36 PM

they redid a house in my town too for a young girl who has some hideous disease; the house sticks out like a sore thumb, cause her neighborhood is in a part of town where all the other houses look like they are about to fall down, plus they kept saying it was in Oakland, CA which it isn't.

I was a sort of fan of the show until the one where it was after Katrina and the designer guy was so busy holding hands with the "victim widow", looking like he was about to drag her off to screw her, and these starving dogs came up looking for water, and this BASTARD actually used his foot to shove them away. All that money they spend and they couldn't put out a bowl of fucking water for these poor dogs. I never watched it after that. All that pity and sympathy rang so fake to me after that.

pacific breeze · April 2nd, 2006, 10:27 PM

^^ Stuff like that shows someone's utter lack of character. I never watch that show, and now I know why. Anyone who is cruel to animals is an asshole to people, too.

Fonzarelli23 · April 3rd, 2006, 03:53 AM

I saw a girl on there that I went to high school with. The only thing is (and not saying this in a snobby way, but it's pertinent to the story), my high school was an exclusive college prep school. And they had a lot of kids! I know when I was there they put 3 kids through that school and they had more coming. It was just surprising b/c it's not a cheap school. My high school cost more than the average college. But somehow, on the show, these people were "poor", "struggling", "needy" etc.

SVZ · April 3rd, 2006, 03:57 AM

some people will sacrifice a lot to put their children through school.

moomies · April 3rd, 2006, 05:21 AM

Some schools would give you a discount if you have many siblings or on a very tight budget and qualify for financial assistance etc. My hubby went to private catholic schools all his life and he has 4 other sisters. I think it was like for every other sibling, you get 50% off in tuition or something like that... He also told me that some parents could volunteer for school events and activities and get further more discount.