Marching to a familiar drummer...

The ClubHouse: Boot Camp: Marching to a familiar drummer...

Admin

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 07:12 pm Click here to edit this post

Marching to a Familiar Drummer
Boot Camp
Fox, Wednesdays, 9 to 10 p.m. ET
Series premiere: Wednesday, March 28


By Diane Snyder

A super-sized reality show?

That's not how the Fox network or the producers of Boot Camp are describing TV's latest reality series, but listening to co-executive producer Scott Messick expound on the premise, it seems apropos.

Although the format of the eight-episode series — in which 16 "recruits" chase a $500,000 grand prize by spending a month enduring the rigors of Marine-style boot camp — is similar to Survivor, CBS's runaway-hit reality show, it adds a new twist to the familiar process for eliminating contestants.

The person who is voted off at the end of each Boot Camp episode gets to take someone else with him or her. On Survivor, the participant is sent packing alone.

"Any strategy now has a flaw," says Messick, a supervising producer on the original Survivor. "You can't form a simple alliance and count on it, because if you and I hate each other it sets up a scenario where I'm going to protect you, because I know you're taking me with you if you get voted out."

In the action leading up to each episode's voting ceremony, four former Marine Corps drill instructors train the recruits for missions, Messick explains. Recruits work as one team and each week elect a different squad leader to guide them. If they succeed, they get a reward, and the squad leader cannot be voted out that week.

Unlike Survivor, however, failure results in punishment for the squad. Messick wouldn't elaborate on what the rewards and punishments entail, but he said the missions involve such tactics as hostage rescue, demolitions and reconnaissance.

Although a team was assembled to research military missions and adapt them for Boot Camp, David Francisco, a 20-year Marine Corps veteran and one of the show's drill instructors, stresses that TV's Boot Camp and the real thing are quite different. "But I think viewers can get a flavor for how drill instructors act, how we talk," he says.

Francisco maintains that it didn't take much time for him to adapt to the presence of TV cameras and adds that his persona onscreen is the same as it is off. "You can't be a phony, because the people that you're training will know that, and the recruits will lose respect for you," he says.

Minus the bonfire, the Boot Camp voting ceremony Messick describes resembles Survivor's Tribal Council, but instead of smilin' Jeff Probst, the hard-nosed drill instructors oversee the proceedings. The recruits traipse out to Dismissal Hill, where they cast their votes in a logbook. When the results are tallied, the evicted recruit faces his cohorts and has the chance to speak his mind.

"If you want to rip into somebody — have a Susan moment — you can," says Messick, referring to truck driver Susan Hawk's notorious tirade in the Survivor finale. "Then you take somebody with you."

The final two contestants battle it out in a punishing two-day mission called the Gauntlet. (In the Marine Corps, this final test of mental and physical endurance is called the Crucible.) It comprises seven events, each one named after a recruit who was voted out.

Whoever wins each event is awarded that recruit's dog tags. Afterward, the recruits who were pulled from the game by the voted-out contestants return and pledge their dog tags to one of the final two. The contestant with the most tags wins.

"You've got to earn it physically, mentally and endurance-wise, and you have to have the personality," Messick notes.

To cast Boot Camp, Messick says producers sifted through about 6,000 to 7,000 applications before narrowing the pool down to 48 people with no military experience. They were then given background checks, physicals and psychological exams.

Military officials cooperated with the production and even let producers set up camp in a remote part of a National Guard base near Jacksonville, FL. Messick says producers built their own military compound, but "we had access to all the things that the base had: tanks and helicopters and great military backgrounds."

Although reality TV has taken hits from critics who question its authenticity, Messick sees Boot Camp as a "dramality or unscripted drama." "This is a drama show more than anything," he says. "We lay an obstacle in their way and we step back and see how they get around it."

Lancecrossfire

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 07:20 pm Click here to edit this post

Oh, getting to take someone with you! Just think what that would do to how voting went on Survivor!!!!

Wooooo Doggy!!! I like it!

Digilady

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 10:29 pm Click here to edit this post

OH man this one sounds really great.

Lance, I agree. Taking someone with you sure puts a new slant on it... carefull who you cr*p on, or they take you with.

OH yeah count me in.

Norwican

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 07:52 am Click here to edit this post

What a great idea! Having to take someone along will definitely throw a wrench into things.
I'll be watching too!

I heard an ad on the radio this morning for another show starting tonight on TBS called War Games hosted by Howie Long. It said that real military personnel would be in combat type competitions... anyone know anything about this one? It's the first I had heard of it.

Resortgirl

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 01:08 pm Click here to edit this post

Bootcamp sounds great.. I will definitely watch!
I love the twist... taking someone "down" with you...

Seamonkey

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 09:14 pm Click here to edit this post
I'm watching now... oboyoboy.. I hope they vote
someon off tonight..

(That bathroom that the one woman was hiding in was gross)

Max

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 09:16 pm Click here to edit this post
What WAS that chick thinking showing up in a leather skirt and high-heel shoes. Good thing she quit early! LOL

Skipper

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 09:17 pm Click here to edit this post
First episode of Boot Camp - One person quit within the first 15 minutes of show, so the person that was voted off didn't get to take another person with them!!! Drats!!! It would have certainly been Meyer - he has to go!!!!

War Games was interesting - real military!!! Real guns and bombs! Is this going to be a series???

Digilady

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 09:38 pm Click here to edit this post
Meyer! That's the one!

Meyer for the win! LOL

(I always pick the losers. This guy sure looks a loser... so I'm picking him to win!)

Penpoint

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 10:40 pm Click here to edit this post
The beginning of this sure brought back memories that I have long suppressed, memories of my time in Army basic training. It wasn't quite as bad as Marine boot camp, but there were similarities. The Drill Instructors also had those strange constricted voices with strangulated vocal cords from all that yelling.

Well once I got over the deja vu, the show got me hooked. Other than a few of the participants that they concentrated on, I'm not sure who is who, so there is no point (at this point) trying to guess who is going to win. Looks like it will be interesting next week when the one dismissed gets to pull another player out of the game. Nice twist!

Puttergirl

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 04:14 pm Click here to edit this post
I loved it! Whoever wins this one will have really earned it!

On Big Brother, it was made way too easy for people! They didn't suffer enough. I loved BB, but that was my biggest complaint with it.

On Survivor, they have it much harder, but still not hard enough. Except for the lack of food, they spend most of their time there lying around.

But not on Boot Camp. These people won't be given a moment's pause. I love that!!!!!!!!!!!1

Enb

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 07:17 pm Click here to edit this post
I liked this show too. It moved along really fast, but has a bit of Big Brother, Survivor and all the rest thrown in. Next week we find out there's a Lesbian in the mix and I'm sure we'll see more of Meyer..(Die!! Die!! hehe..)