ACCCKKKKKK!!!!!! The Mike Boogie Connection Once Again!!!
MoveCloseDeleteAdmin

TV ClubHouse: Archives: 2003 February: ACCCKKKKKK!!!!!! The Mike Boogie Connection Once Again!!!

Grooch

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 07:45 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Fudge Factor


EW uncovers the white lies behind reality shows. Producers behind ''Joe Millionaire,'' ''High School Reunion,'' ''Survivor,'' and other faves stretch the truth a bit -- in the name of entertainment by Caroline Kepnes & Lynette Rice

Poor Nicole Redmond. On Jan. 12, more than 4 million viewers watched this Tall Girl get dissed by her longtime crush, the Player, a.k.a. Dan Barbato, on The WB's ''High School Reunion,'' in which 17 alums from Illinois' Oak Park-River Forest High School shack up in Hawaii for a six-week trip down memory lane. ''It's weird,'' Redmond laments to the camera after Barbato rebuffs her advances. ''This was not how it was supposed to go at all.''

Funny, the same could be said about the actual series. The sunbathed school shown in the first episode isn't Oak Park (The WB won't say what building they shot). And four of the schoolmates bunking in Maui for their televised 10-year reunion -- including Redmond -- didn't even graduate in '92. ''Nicole was a year younger than us,'' reveals class of '92 alum Artie Smith, who bowed out of ''Reunion'' after producers asked him to play something he wasn't in high school: a bespectacled nerd who had a crush on Natasha Desai, a.k.a. the Popular Girl. (His ''role'' went to Ben Reb instead.) ''I was just so struck during the interview process over how simplistic the clichés were they were looking for,'' says Smith, now a Cornell University track coach. ''But I guess that's what sells.''

Sounds like we need a reality check. With nonscripted shows continuing to draw huge ratings (the Jan. 5 bow of ''Reunion'' marked The WB's best-ever Sunday debut), networks seem increasingly fond of blurring the lines on -- how can we put this gently? -- the truth. ''There's a reason that TV's reality seems too good to be true. It is,'' says Matthew Felling of Washington, D.C.'s Center for Media and Public Affairs. ''Reality TV is like actual reality much in the same way that pro wrestlers are wrestlers and exotic dancers are dancers -- not quite the real thing, but they draw a crowd.''

Consider Fox's ''Joe Millionaire,'' whose Jan. 6 debut was the highest-rated premiere among 18- to 49-year-olds of any show this season, reality or nonreality. The network bills ''Joe'''s Evan Marriott as a construction worker making $19,000 a year -- without mentioning that he also earned coin as an actor (he had a bit part on NBC's ''Days of Our Lives'' in 2000) and a model (he donned tight togs for the underwear catalog California Muscle). He even dabbled in professional wrestling. Argues a Fox spokesman, ''He earned a nominal fee for his participation in those projects'' (though he apparently never got paid to grapple with the guys). As for how Marriott afforded rent on a $1.7 million home in Venice, Calif., where public records state he lived as recently as December 2002, the spokesman says only that he no longer lives there.

Hmm, we'll have to take his word for it. After all, Fox promised better background checks for reality-show players after disclosures that the original ''Temptation Island'''s Ytossie and Taheed had a child and that Rick Rockwell of ''Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?'' wasn't such a perfect dreamboat (network inquiries didn't turn up a restraining order filed by a previous girlfriend).

But even CBS entertainment president Nancy Tellem is willing to forgive Fox. ''I don't think viewers care whether Joe Millionaire makes $19,000, $25,000, or $50,000. The integrity of the show is so less important. The bigger question is over viewers' standards in this post-9/11 world. They look at this entertainment as a frivolous escape.''

Of course, CBS' ''Survivor,'' the granddaddy of the current reality TV boom, isn't immune from temporary amnesia. The net failed to identify ''Survivor: Thailand'' winner Brian Heidik as a former soft-core porn star and is similarly cryptic about one contestant on this spring's ''Survivor: The Amazon.'' Turns out Los Angeles triathlete-trainer Alex Bell is a doorman at the same L.A. bar that's owned and operated by Mike ''Boogie'' Malin, a contestant from CBS' ''Big Brother 2'' (and the spot where Gabe Cade from ''Survivor: Marquesas'' also worked as a barkeep). A CBS spokeswoman claims the net learned of Heidik's acting career, under the name Dave Roth, only after production had begun and that a casting crew ''stumbled'' upon Bell during an unofficial visit to Malin's bar. Seems they didn't need the nationwide casting net on that day.

Just don't expect any mea culpas from the folks who make sorta-reality shows like ''Reunion.'' ''It has people from other classes? What a huge scandal!'' mocks exec producer Mike Fleiss, who's also responsible for ABC's ''Bachelor'' franchise (which has produced two on-camera love matches but no weddings to date). ''Our nerd is a nerd. He admitted it. Whether he was the ULTIMATE nerd I don't think really matters.''

Given the heightened competition for viewers, the little white lies may not seem so bad. Perhaps that's why Fleiss and Co. tried to woo Smith into playing ''Reunion'''s ex-nerd and falsely claiming that the Popular Girl was the One Who Got Away. ''She was great, but I never hung out with her,'' says Smith. ''I didn't know her!"

Grooch

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 07:47 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Forgive me if this was discussed already. I haven't been checking up on the Survivor threads and I am so sick of Mike Boogie.

Hermione69

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 08:23 am EditMoveDeleteIP
ACCCCCKKKKKKK! is right!

And why does it have to be Alex that has the connection?? SOB!!

(That is "sob" as in "cry" not the other SOB)

Weinermr

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 08:36 am EditMoveDeleteIP
ACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

Weenerlobo

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 09:37 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Grooch - good find. Just goes to show that Boogers have a way of showing up more than ya want 'em to.

Squaredsc

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 09:51 am EditMoveDeleteIP
geez, will he never go away? does he have a contract with cbs or something as a talent scout?

Fanny

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 10:34 am EditMoveDeleteIP
dang. must be where cbs holds auditions.

Neko

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 11:39 am EditMoveDeleteIP
He NEVER leaves O.o;;;

CBS must own Belly's or something under the table, there's no way all of these Reality show people could just *happen* to be realated to Bellys...

Marysafan

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 11:58 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I think it might be a case of lazy casting people.

"Let's see we could sort through this mountain of video tapes looking for interesting people...or...we could go and have a couple of beers at Belli's and see if anyone there is interested in a reality gig."

Marysafan

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 12:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I forgot to add...in a chat with Mike Boogie recently, he admitted that Sean and Gabe from Survivor IV KNEW each other BEFORE they were on the show. I think that stinks....but take some consolation in the fact that A) they were on different tribes and B) Gabe was voted off before the merge.

Hippyt

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 12:37 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Poor Boogie,couldn't get another gig on tv to save his life! I think his agent must pay Zapit money to put his name in an article every few weeks.
And yet another contestant from Belli's?Why do they have casting calls? I think you're right mary,lazy casting directors hiring wanna-be actors.

Twiggyish

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 01:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Who is Mike Boogie that he has such pull with these shows?? Or..who does Mike and these other people know? Are they all cast by the same people? All things to make you go hmmmmmmmm...

oh and I agree with your acckkkk!!

Juju2bigdog

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 03:13 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hahahahahahahaha!!!! I am laughing my tail off, and it is a tail of considerable size.

The Mike Boogie-dom of reality tv. Hahahahahaha!!!

Twiggyish

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 03:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
He just doesn't go away!!!

Ryn

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 03:54 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Sheesh - next is gonna be a report that the Surreal Life didn't cast real celebrities!!!!

Juju2bigdog

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 06:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
And next - same thing about Celebrity Mole.

Ocean_Islands

Friday, January 17, 2003 - 06:58 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This booger has strange connections. Follow your nose.

Sadiesmom

Friday, February 14, 2003 - 07:53 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Anyone check out the new survivors for a Mike Boogie woogie connection. Shudder, the possibility is frightning.

Spygirl

Friday, February 14, 2003 - 08:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I saw this thread pop up and thought, "NO WAY! Not again!!" LOL

Niceguy

Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 10:55 am EditMoveDeleteIP
C'mon now. You all remember, Mike is a star and the rest of us are extras.

Hehehhehhhehhhehhhehheh...