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Rslover
Member
11-19-2002
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 8:22 am
The Hollywood Reporter reports that ABC has greenlighted production of six episodes of the British show Wife Swap, to be aired during summer 2004. However, perhaps in response to our prior comments about the name, the show will be renamed Trading Moms for U.S. broadcast. The new name is more in keeping with the description of the show, which features two wives and mothers trading places for 10 days. During the first five days, the swapped wives must live by the rules of the family that they've joined; halfway through, they are allowed to set new rules for the family. The focus of the show is how both families react during and after the experience. As we noted before, one of the episodes apparently swaps an American mom for a British mom. We find ourselves fascinated by the possible differences in family customs. However, we'll miss the ability to make cheap jokes and snarky headlines that was inherent in the name Wife Swap but is missing from the name Trading Moms.
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 8:51 am
Trading Moms or Trading Spaces for the Dads ;)
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 6:10 pm
When you're already mired in last place, why not throw caution to the winds? ABC, the Disney-owned broadcast-TV network that ranks a fading fourth among the four major U.S. networks, has announced major changes in its plans for the U.S. version of the hit British series Wife Swap, which will make the show a major player in ABC's dreams of resurrection in 2004-05. First, the name will NOT be changed to Trading Moms, even though that name is more in keeping with the show's concept than Wife Swap, which has connotations of extramarital canoodling. Instead, the show focuses on the wives' roles as mothers and homemakers in new households (in the pilot, for example, a California vegetarian switches places with a New Jersey "neat freak," leading to "Odd Couple"-style jokes). Second, the number of episodes planned has been expanded, from 6 to 20. Supposedly, the U.S. episodes also will not feature the "D-minus list" celebrities who have been an integral part of the U.K. series. Apparently ABC management feels that the 2003 BAFTA Award (the U.K. equivalent of the Emmy) "Best Feature" award that Wife Swap won makes it unlikely that the show will end up embarrassing the network, as its Are You Hot? reality series did in 2003. And most importantly, Wife Swap has been moved from the summer 2004 schedule to the fall 2004 schedule, where it will hold down the important Wednesday 10 PM ET/PT slot immediately following The Bachelor. Thus, on one night, ABC will air two shows presenting images of women straight from the 1950s: first, a show in which women fight amongst themselves to marry a successful and good-looking guy (although the 0-for-5 marriage statistic for The Bachelor indicates that the show falls short of its promise), and then, women manage the housework and the children while the menfolk work. We hope the National Organization for Women isn't paying attention. http://www.joeschmo.com/index/index.php
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