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The TVClubHouse: Survivor VIII - Vanuatu: Survivor VIII - Vanuatu: The Contestants: Travis "Bubba" Sampson : General Discussion users admin

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Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 5:25 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Interesting...

Hillbilly humor

By TASNEEM GRACE TEWOGBOLA
Staff Writer

So sick of reality television that you'd rather stay hooked on the fake stuff such as Friends, Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond?

Suckas.

On Monday, ABC Family premieres a reality show about real families and their real issues that promises to be ''funnier than any sitcom.''

My Life Is a Sitcom will air at 7 p.m. and use 10 half-hour segments to introduce viewers to eight families selected from videotape submissions. During each show, the family will be ''natural'' in front of a camera crew, visited by a sitcom writer and, at the end of the episode, evaluated by a celebrity judge panel.

Remember Marsha (Maureen McCormick) from The Brady Bunch, Joey (Dave Coulier) from Full House and Bud Bundy (David Faustino) from Married With Children? Well, they'll be the judges who will decide which family has enough talent and comedy to star in a sitcom based on their lives. The series will end with the premiere of the winning family's sitcom pilot.

Like many of these reality shows, folks from Tennessee are involved.

Remember Knoxville's Tina Wesson from CBS's Survivor? And, most recently, Mandy Wilson, a Tullahoma native, who appeared on Fox's Joe Millionaire?

This time, we'll meet the Sampsons of Carter County, Tenn., located 106 miles from Knoxville. Yes, right along with an unemployed, stay-at-home father, a single mother of three, a family of 11 kids and punk rockers turned suburban parents, My Life is a Sitcom will introduce a Tennessee family that prides itself on its lighthearted nature and hillbilly heritage.

Travis, the dad, is a former pro-wrestler, and Jennifer, the mom, is a certified personal trainer. They have four sons: Aaron, 9; Erick, 7; Trevor, 5; and 1-year-old Gabriel. And they live on a 60-acre farm with 50 head of cattle, four horses, two dogs, two parakeets and a 22-pound cat named Big Sexy.


Their segment will air Feb. 17.

The blending of farm and family life creates a comedic combination, says Travis Sampson, a 31-year-old who speaks with a sing-song Appalachian accent.

''Anytime you mix children and livestock, it just comes out funny,'' he says. ''A lot of times children, when you're feeding (cattle), may be a little timid. The child jumps and then the cattle jump.''

The hillbilly humor must have worked. With more than 600 families, the Sampsons entered the contest with a 3- to 5-minute videotape of them ''being themselves'' on the farm.

When the good-news phone call came in the fall, Travis Sampson, a former finalist for Survivor: Marquesas, was calm and cool.

''This time, I took the phone away from my mouth when I screamed,'' he says with a laugh.

Brian Casentini, vice president of development and current programming for ABC Family, says the Sampsons were chosen for their mix of hilarity and unique background.

''The bottom line was this family was very compelling. He's a pro-wrestler turned farmer and the mother is a weight-lifter-slash-mom. Overall, these people were just naturally funny,'' he says. ''It became very clear that they were very loving, very warm, very young at heart.''

Aaron, the oldest of the Sampson boys, says the charm of his family is their compassion. ''We always seem to have a good time together,'' he says. ''We all love each other, too.''

And there's a lot of loving that goes on while the boys help their parents with farm chores, including harvesting corn, green beans, lettuce, onions, peppers, potatoes, spinach, squash and sweet potatoes from the 4½-acre garden they share with their extended family.

Aaron's favorite chore?

''Really, none of them,'' he says.

But one cool part of being taped by ABC Family was having a camera crew, who taped the family for a week in October, show up in his fourth-grade classroom. For that, he gives one-word approval: ''Great.''

Jennifer Sampson, the 30-year-old mother of four who is so fit she finished in the top three of a national fitness competition eight months after her youngest was born, says the taping made her nervous at first.

''I tried to clean up more than usual,'' she says. ''It was kind of scary.''

Her husband of two years enjoyed the whole shebang.

''The reason we got on the show is I'm proud of my family and I want the world to see what a beautiful family I have,'' he says. ''I'm proud to be a third-generation farmer. It's more than a heritage, it's a lifestyle and we're still living it.

''Being around here is a hot-bed for reality television,'' he says. ''Everybody around here has a tremendous work ethic. People have full-time jobs, keep up a farm and they still find time to spend with their children.''

Ed Crasnick, an Emmy award-winning writer who has written for HBO's The Sopranos, visited the family to evaluate their sitcom style.

''We got close,'' says Travis Sampson, who was called ''Romeo'' during his seven-year career as a pro-wrestler. ''We keep in touch a lot through e-mail. When (the camera crew) left, there were tears. We didn't want them to go.''

If the Sampsons are judged the best and funniest family to have their own sitcom, they may meet Crasnick, or any of the show's four writers, again.

They'll be flown to Hollywood, says Casentini, and ''delve into the techniques and the process of actually making a sitcom.''

Of course, that includes taking acting classes, discussing wardrobe options and rehearsing again and again and again until the show feels right.

Travis Sampson, who recently graduated from his local police academy, is excited about acting, especially since wrestling taught him how to ''work the camera.''

Being an actor full-time ''would be great,'' he says. But it's a gig that may work better for a single man. ''It's more important that my children have a father. I want to coach their football teams. I want to be there when they fall and scrape a knee.''

And if he and his clan are funny enough, he can do all that in front of a national audience.


Starshine40
Member

07-30-2002

Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 7:32 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sounds "well rounded" in interests. A red flag to me is that he says he is "outspoken and enjoys critiquing others flaws". That may be his downfall.

This other tv show they've filmed sounds like something Cowboy from BB5 would have wanted to do. He should have sent in a video for that one, LOL!

Tntitanfan
Member

08-03-2001

Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 12:51 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh Lordy, all this time I have spent trying to convince folks that Tennesseans are sophisticated and cosmopolitan is going down the tube!

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 2:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
His description reads like a guy who will be quickly sent home (unless he learns not to love critiquing people!)

Tntitanfan
Member

08-03-2001

Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 4:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
He may have a chance of staying for a while if the "fat five" can hold their alliance together!