Reality TV - destroying family values?

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  • DaStottman
    Addiction started
    • Dec 2004
    • 330

    Reality TV - destroying family values?

    Got this off CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/1....ap/index.html

    New Fox show: Adoptee IDs dad for $100K
    Idea meets with protests from adoption community
    Wednesday, December 15, 2004 Posted: 2:24 PM EST (1924 GMT)

    NEW YORK (AP) -- The Fox network said Tuesday it will air a special next month, "Who's Your Daddy?", where a daughter given up for adoption as an infant attempts to guess the identity of her birth father for a $100,000 prize.

    Activists in the adoption community immediately attacked the special, which will air for 90 minutes on January 3.

    "This is really perverse," said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan P. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a research and policy organization. "It takes a deeply personal and important experience and turns it into a money-grubbing game show. I think it is despicable."

    A Fox network spokesman would not comment on the special, referring all calls to the producers, who said people shouldn't judge before watching.

    "I find it curious that people are calling it that without having seen an episode," said Scott Hallock, one of three executive producers of the series for the Fox Television Studios. "You might get the impression from the title that it is somehow salacious or exploitive. But nothing could be further from the truth."

    The woman who is the focus of the show, not identified by Fox, and her birth father were both involved in simultaneous searches for each other.

    Her natural dad will be one of eight men presented to her, all claiming to be her father. She will be given opportunities to observe and interview the men to narrow the field, the network announced.

    If she correctly guesses which man is her father, the woman can win as much as $100,000. If she is incorrect, the imposter that she chose will win the money, Fox said.

    Either way, the special will end with the father and daughter being reunited.

    Joseph Kroll, executive director of the North American Council on Adoptable Children, called the idea "repulsive." He said his own 29-year-old daughter is searching for her birth father.

    "If someone were to try doing that to my daughter, what I consider to be abuse, I would not behave appropriately," Kroll said.

    Pertman, a former Boston Globe reporter and author of the book "Adoption Nation," predicted the television show would denigrate the experiences of families who have gone through adoption.

    "It really is sort of one-stop shopping for insulting millions of people, maybe tens of millions," he said.

    Producers have already filmed six "Who's Your Daddy?" episodes, although Fox has only scheduled one of them for air at this point. Hallock said participants were sought through ads that made it clear the solicitation was part of a TV production.

    Viewers are invited to play the game along with the adoptive daughter; the father's real identity will not be made clear until the end of the show.

    All the participants felt it was a positive experience, said Kevin Healey, another executive producer.

    "Our main focus was to see that it would be a positive experience and we were determined not to go forward with it if that was not the case," Healey said.

    Fox had been known to be working on the show for months. This past summer, in a public tiff with Fox over competing boxing reality shows, NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker revealed Fox was working on the concept. Angry that Zucker had discussed their internal plans, Fox executives wouldn't comment on it.



    Anyone else find this disturbing? First they have that wife swap and now this? I've hated reality shows forever, but I think this is disgusting and just goes too far.
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  • djkennedy
    Getting Somewhere
    • Dec 2004
    • 210

    #2
    Re: Reality TV - destroying family values?

    try unreality t.v....the only thing that real about these shows is the fact that the people on the shows are supposedly "regular" people...i'm sure a lot of coaching goes on to make the show more interesting...sometimes they're entertaining if you don't want to think about anything....
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    Comment

    • rewing3
      I really don't care
      • Jun 2004
      • 5504

      #3
      Reality tv sucks. I can't stand watching tv anymore.
      Common Sense is not Common at all.

      Comment

      • Yao
        DUDERZ get a life!!!
        • Jun 2004
        • 8167

        #4
        Shit, already stopped reading after the header. Were did they get the guts to pull this kind of shit, and how did they get that kid so crazy to come on the show?

        Disgusting.
        Blowkick visual & graphic design - No Civilization. Now With Broadband.

        There are but three true sports -- bullfighting, mountain climbing, and motor-racing. The rest are merely games. -Hemingway

        Comment

        • toasty
          Sir Toastiness
          • Jun 2004
          • 6585

          #5
          Typical Fox programming, catering to the lowest common denominator. People watch it, though -- myself included -- so I'm not sure I can really be too critical. Give me an animal attacking someone, some guy getting hit in the nuts, or a trainwreck of a dating situtation, and I'm fixated.

          Unlike much of Fox's programming, however, this doesn't seem particularly mean-spirited. It looks like both the daughter and the father were searching for one another independently, so no one is going to be blindsided. It certainly trivializes the bonds that could be formed over the course of the show and the notion of a father daughter relationship, no doubt. The fact that there will ultimately be a happy ending regardless and that both parties have obviously agreed to play this little game makes me feel OK about it on balance.

          I suspect that the actual conclusion to the show will be overly saccharine and will focus on the fact that they are reunited rather than the $ -- Fox never delivers on the trainwreck the show suggests is coming. When all is said and done, I doubt it will be anything I get too upset about.

          Comment

          • cosmo
            Gold Gabber
            • Jun 2004
            • 583

            #6
            I hardly watch TV. So ridiculous. Boring.

            With the exception of the Sopranos of course.

            Comment

            • Jenks
              I'm kind of a big deal.
              • Jun 2004
              • 10250

              #7
              Sopranos, Deadwood, and HGTV.

              otherwise my widescreen HD is just a big ugly box in my living room.

              Comment

              • cosmo
                Gold Gabber
                • Jun 2004
                • 583

                #8
                Originally posted by Jenks
                Sopranos, Deadwood, and HGTV.

                otherwise my widescreen HD is just a big ugly box in my living room.

                Adriana gets whacked again this thursday!! Set your dvr! I know I will.

                Can't wait for the last season.

                Comment

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