Road Rules
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Grooch

Friday, June 14, 2002 - 07:00 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I guess a new season is about to start. Yea!

I found this in the NY Post:


FIRST GAY ON ‘ROAD RULES'

June 14, 2002 -- AFTER 11 seasons, "Road Rules" is off and running.
When it premiered in 1995, it was as a spin-off of MTV's other wildly successful reality series, "The Real World." The audience often lumped "Road Rules" as "The Real World" on wheels.

"It was the first reality show with challenges," long before bug-eating on "Survivor" or "Fear Factor," says its co-creator, Jon Murray, proudly.

The location of the show have changed every year, but the angst is still the same.

This season, we have Eric, the All-American boy; Darrell, the boxer with a temper; Sarah, the independent wild child; Rachel, the heartbreaker; Kendal, the sad angel; and Shane, the show's first openly gay man.

It's a distinction that Shane's parents aren't exactly thrilled over.

While Shane is cool with the revelation being made on national TV, his parents aren't. It's not that they don't accept him. They are afraid, he says, that homophobic viewers may try to hurt him.

Still, Shane says he did not sign up to make any social statements.

For him, it was all about the journey.

"I don't think reality television equals stardom," says the 21-year-old, who attends the University of North Carolina and wants a career in television production.

In fact, he is working as a waiter in Durham, N.C., this summer to make ends meet. He has no grand dreams that "Road Rules" will be anything more than a nice diversion from his regular life.

"I've watched every season of ‘Real World' and every season of ‘Road Rules.' Those shows practically raised me. I know all [the participants'] names and what they did," he says.

"That's the joy of reality television. There are people on those shows I hated and some I loved. That's why you watch. I'm not stupid. I know people will watch our show and do the same thing.

"I can't help what other people think. I just hope I am [looked at as] The Loved One."

This season, for "Road Rules 11: The Campus Crawl" (premiering Monday night on MTV), production was done mainly in the South because most of the outdoor shooting was done during the worst of winter in the North.

"We've somewhat returned to our roots," Murray says. "But we are adding a different spin to it by going to different colleges" for each week's challenges.

"It added a new life to the show."

Kaili

Friday, June 14, 2002 - 01:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Grooch- I was wondering what was going on with this show- I thought it was usually on with the Real World. Monday...hmm...not much warning- I haven't even seen anything on MTV about it.

Have you (or anyone) heard if there is a casting special?

Seamonkey

Friday, June 14, 2002 - 02:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I think they did a preview last week.. I missed it but undoubtedly they'll repeat it. Going to college campuses in the south.. well, that sounds pretty boring.. One good thing about RR was some of the locations.

Kaili

Friday, June 14, 2002 - 07:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I have never been able to get into RR the way I have RW. I feel like I never get to "know" the people in RR as well because so much of the focus of the show is on the activities. I guess- I can't really explain why- it just doesn't draw me in as much. I usually end up only watching about 10 episodes then start to forget it's even on TV.

Seamonkey

Monday, June 17, 2002 - 12:43 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
oops.. I blew it and started a RR2002 thread.. hopefully someone can move or remove or whatever.
*Done* Mod(14)

But it does start tonight, looks to be an hourlong show.

Like Kaili, I sometimes become inattentive, to say the least, with RR.

Seamonkey

Monday, June 17, 2002 - 11:22 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Well we have the self-proclaimed "girly girl", Kendall? who is cute and flirty and glommed on to one of the two straight guys, dancing, flirting, kissing, snuggling, then announced that she had been hurt in the past and wasn't available but later was jealous when he danced with someone else.. and ?? the self pronounced bisexual girl and the slightly chunkier, shorter haired, emotional girl from Iowa who started out distancing from the rest, they lost the first challenge. But surprisingly for this early on, the others talked about it and talked to her and she seems to be easing into the group.

Guys Durell (might be spelled Darrel or Darrell or.. but pronounced with the emphasis on the last syllable) the self-proclaimed "black guys don't do stuff like this but I am".. (hmm) but so far seems pretty sweet (the proclamation was made to the camera before meeting the others), SHane? the self proclaimed gay guy who is outed instantly by Kendall (who also asked Chris if he was gay in the first 10 seconds).. at least when she asked Chris it was just the two of them (he's straight) but with Shane they were all together.. at least when he said yes and then laughed and said it wasn't set in stone, the one girl said same with her, that she identified as bi.. so he wasn't the "only" one..

They won their second challenge, an absurd deal where, after they had a huge dinner, THEN they were weighed and told they had to gain 15 lb as a group by cruising the dorm and begging for food. They did it, then ran to purge.

(the first challenge was the one that had them walking high wires as pairs.)

This year they win prizes for challenges, but if they lose two challenges then they must choose between losing the prizes or voting someone out.. harder than last time when they just had to vote someone out.

Unlike past casts, no one of them was "the one to hate" first hour.

Muse

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 12:17 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I used to be more into RW than RR. But lately I've been finding the RW casts hard to like at all, while RR has only had a few irritating cast members as of late.

I don't like the option of giving up prizes if they lose two challenges. Last season I was so fed up with Jisela that I was happy to see her go. I'm guessing that it'll be the same this time around, so I'd probably much prefer seeing the "weak link" replaced than seeing them lose some prizes. Also, I'm a bit annoyed with all the prizes in the first place - they didn't have that in earlier seasons, did they? With the theme ("Campus Crawl" - seems like it'll get old quick, and also seems like it'd be relatively cheap to set up, as compared to the other seasons) and the heavy emphasis on product placement, I feel kind of dirty watching this...lol. Cheap entertainment, whee!

My initial opinions of the cast:

Kendall - You know, it's rather rude to ask if someone's gay immediately upon meeting them. I was glad that Shane and Rachel were honest, however, since I think lying or being evasive just blows the whole thing out of proportion. Anyway, she's obviously immature when it comes to handling relationships...here's hoping it doesn't become another endless Kyle/Keri sort of thing. Overall I'm thinking she'll be a bit annoying with her silly/immature behavior, but tolerable otherwise.

Eric - Aka the Frat Boy. Ego the size of Texas, and not nearly as attractive as he likes to think, IMHO. But goofy, and I suppose that might be his endearing quality. Emphasis on *might*. I did like how he opted to seek out other girls at the party, rather than just chasing after an unavailable Kendall. My impression is that he ranks right up there in the immaturity department with her, however.

Darrel (sp?) - Didn't see much of him, but so far, so good. I thought it was sweet how he tried to get to know Sarah, and to get her to dance. His efforts seem very sincere, while I'm not necessarily sure about all the others. And he handled losing the first challenge well. Took responsibility without beating himself up over it.

Sarah - I like seeing someone who is a bit different from the rest, but she seems a little *too* intent on staying separate. She could make a little more of an effort to get to know the others, especially when they try to accomodate her (by offering to walk if she didn't want to go out jogging, for example). And the trust issue was simply ridiculous. She doesn't need to trust these people right off the bat (whether they argue otherwise or not - I'm sorry, but it's silly to say someone should trust another person 100% after just knowing them a few days), but using that as an excuse in the challenge seems a bit much. There was no reason why Darrel wouldn't want to succeed, and she had all the safety measures (netting, harness) there anyway. It's not a matter of trust. Nerves, maybe. Not trust.

Rachel - Didn't get too much of an opinion of her. Although she was pushing the Sarah thing a bit much. I mean, it's not a matter of her sleeping in the RV (hey, maybe the girl's tired) or her "socialness" (heh). It's more than Sarah doesn't seem *interested* in getting to know them. Instead of talking about it with others or acting annoyed, Rachel should work more on doing stuff that would get Sarah to feel more comfortable, and thus come out of her shell.

Shane - Very much the cutie so far. :) He seems like he might have a good sense of humor as well. And like Darrel, he seemed relatively laid back and easy-going. Of course it's early yet, so I could be wrong about that (and all my other initial impressions, too!).

Whew - long post! I have a feeling I probably won't have much to say the rest of the season, though...lol.

Max

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 08:36 am EditMoveDeleteIP
First thing I wondered was where the past cast members were to get them started off. Usually there are a couple of cast members from previous shows who initially greet them and get them started on whatever task they need to complete to get the RV keys. This time, there were a couple of kids from the Appalachian University campus instead. What's up with that?

It sounds like Sarah has a pretty interesting back story that she hasn't really shared completely yet. Her parents don't like her and when she came home from college they said it "wasn't working for them" and kicked her out? THat's harsh. Wonder what the full story is. I suspect she'll either start to open up and we'll find out or, before that has a chance to happen, they'll lose a second challenge (from the clips, it's clear that will happen) and choose to boot her rather than lose prizes.

Shane reminds me of Brian Gaskill who plays on ABC's Port Charles (used to be Bobby on All My Children). Not so much the way Brian looks now with the beard, but how he used to look on AMC.

Seamonkey

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 12:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
It looked to me like Sarah was starting to open up, but I wonder if she'll be there long. She got outed as being different in so many ways right off and I agree that Rachel seemed to be quick to make an issue of it, but I liked that the five of them discussed how to bring Sarah out of her shell, and then worked on it. I hope she does stay because she could be interesting.

The college crawl theme seems completely lame to me, but, I'm not producing here.

Seamonkey

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 12:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
http://www.survivorsucks.com/summary.asp?id=557

Ryn

Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 12:18 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Moved this from the Real World area.

-Ryn

Lobster

Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 05:17 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Ryn. That was confusing me. Not that it takes much.

Seamonkey

Thursday, June 20, 2002 - 08:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Ryn.. makes more sense to me too.. I did start RR2002 before realizing that this thread had started previously under RW.. and mine was diverted to this one.. but this works great!!

Squaredsc

Friday, June 21, 2002 - 06:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
i saw the first half hour, liked it, and the last 5 minutes, liked it again. kendall for some reason reminds me of amaya from rw hawaii. sarah it appears has issues like ruthie from rw hawaii(getting the impression that rw hawaii was my favorite.....it was). don't really have much to say about the others. but this campus crawl is probably totally geared to the under 25 crowd. i suppose that if nothing else, it will bring back some college memories. 1

Seamonkey

Monday, June 24, 2002 - 11:34 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hmm episode three (there were two the first week) finds the group much the same.. still the yoyo relationship between Kendel and and Eric and now Rachel and Darrel are getting closer.. Shane seems to be the strongest in the challenges and Sarah just talks about her estrangemnt from the others and seems to make little effort to push herself.. she's not physical, why did she try out for Road Rules?? But once ON RR.. if the others are doing push ups, why not try a few?

Anyway they had a challenge where they had to drive a car at a ramp and flip it.. each one had a car and one chance.. NO practice runs and they didn't make it. Shane had the only complete flip, Darrel did 3/4, Eric ? 1/4 or 1/2. None of the girls flipped but Sarah went last so she felt she was the one who lost the challenge and the others did seem to assume that if they chose the option of voting one out, it was automatically Sarah, but they decided to give up their prizes
(moter scooters.. Darrel said he voted to give up the "Barbie Scooter".. pretty cute..)

It looks like this whole season is going to consist of clubbing and partying with challenges on campuses worked in.

yawn.. maybe next week will be better.

Oh. and shades of Ruthie .. Sarah talks to her girlfriend on the phone, but then tells Kendal that she's with the girlfriend but when she dreams it is of men, and she's getting chummy with Darrel.

Muse

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 02:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Sarah seemed slightly less annoying in this episode. Up until the end, at least. Then she made that comment about everyone agreeing to give up the prizes, and that she felt everyone felt sorry for her. And then she added that while that was sweet, she didn't appreciate being put on a guilt-trip. Man, she really looks to find something to whine about, doesn't she? From what we saw, her fellow RR-ers avoided saying anything rude to her, even if they were feeling pity, resentment, or whatever. She should appreciate what they did. I mean, she admits that she doesn't really try to be part of the group. She's lucky that they felt sorry for her, because otherwise she'd be out of there. She should just shut up and try harder to get along. And STOP blaming herself (especially aloud) for everything - she's just looking for sympathy that way, and often it's not even needed. She wasn't the only one who failed the flip the car.

Anyway, I still think Rachel can have a real nasty streak. Just this vibe I get from her. I still like Shane and Darryl for the most part. And I was sort of amused when Kendall said she didn't get what was going on with Darryl and Rachel - isn't it pretty much the same thing that's going on with her and Eric?

Seamonkey

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 07:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh, Muse, yes.. although she was pretty self negative throughout but jeez.. at the end.. just agree and go on.. I do think Rachel did mention to the camera that it was a choice between the prizes and Sarah..

I'm not sure if it is just whining or just self-esteem in the pits but it is annoying either way.

I agree about Rachel. I think it is Darrell, the black guy, Rachel is getting close to.

Muse

Monday, July 01, 2002 - 10:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Okay, Sarah was a bit more likable this episode. Or maybe it's just that Shane and Eric seemed less likable. Sarah really seemed to be trying in this mission. She was still complaining, but it *was* a lot more difficult for her than it was for everyone else. And Shane and Eric were not sympathetic or understanding about her injury at all. It looked like she fell pretty hard. She may have technically quit, but it would've been ridiculous not to. And while I'll admit that Sarah can probably be annoying to the other RR-ers, she is nice enough to them. So she doesn't deserve them being nasty behind her back. The catty comments seemed especially out of place considering the fact that they were just hanging out and supposedly having fun (bonding) at the end of the episode.

I think Shane could've cut the smiling if he really tried. I mean, sheesh - he almost cost them the mission. But I'm sure everyone would've blamed Sarah for it somehow.

Kendall's story was very sad. It was kind of nice to hear her think positively about her dad overall, though, considering what happened. I guess she's had time to deal.

Seamonkey

Tuesday, July 16, 2002 - 12:39 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
So last week Sarah shined, this week she again sucked. Girl.. fight those problems.. don't just give up!

Puttergirl

Thursday, July 18, 2002 - 07:05 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I like Sarah, but it is really embarrassing to watch her be so wimpy!! I'd be ashamed to give up as fast as she does. 5 minutes after coming down from the pole she's eating and looking fine! Doesn't she have a clue how much that pi$$es the others off????

Squaredsc

Friday, July 19, 2002 - 05:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
im sorry but sarah has got to go. she let them down again and they had to stand longer to stand for her time. nope she has got to go. nothing personal, just business.

Seamonkey

Monday, July 22, 2002 - 11:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Tonight Sarah was one of the strongest ones.
Kendall really reached out to her and they are bonding. Kendall had the hardest time with the creepy-crawlies tonight. Meanwhile Rachel decides to cool things down with Darrel, who isn't pleased at all. They seem to be on different pages. She also found out that Amy, her gf at home is dating. Later calls Amy and claims that she didn't say they were through.. Amy thought that is what she said.. so Rachel's trying to keep that bond going it would seem.

Rachel especially, but the other girls, too, take exception to the guys getting cocky/macho when they decide to move the mama alligator (not something required of them) and handle her not so nicely.

In New Orleans after the challenge, it is Rachel who chooses not to go out and party.

Spramp

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 - 05:26 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Sarah really did pull it through this episode but I'm still very disappointed in her. Did she not watch previous episodes of the show and realize what a physical contest it was? I think she's definitely more Real World material.

Seamonkey

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 - 07:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Sarah reminds me of Amaya.. not when Amaya was on Real World, but when Amaya went on one of the RW/RR challenges.. just too many instances of being accident prone (or just not trying). Actually I think if Sarah feels support from now on she may just be ok, but I also am disappointed. She's not even tried to work out (look at Bunky on BB, Gerry now on BB.. people who aren't in shape but take the opportunity to work on it)

Seamonkey

Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 07:19 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
hmm so this week it is Kendal turning antisocial, sort of.

Shane always has to push things.. I think he might also be on the list of who might get booted if he loses them a challenge.

Seamonkey

Tuesday, August 13, 2002 - 07:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Shane or Sarah.. who will be gone?? hmmm???