A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
By Rich Trzupek
Misery For Sale
If you�re old enough, you probably remember the old Freak Shows. They suffered an unfortunate demise, 30 years ago (more on that later) but we�ve recently seen the comeback of the Freak Show, this time to national television audiences.
According to thesmokinggun.com, a producer for ABC�s �Extreme Makeover: Home Edition� recently put out a casting call via e-mail that was � well, extraordinary is probably the right word. Producer/Family Casting Director�s Charisse Simonian�s list of story ideas reads more like an emergency room roster than entertainment. Among the stories she�s �especially looking for� are the following:
�Extraordinary mom/dad recently diagnosed with ALS (aka, Lou Gehrig�s Disease).
�Muscular Dystrophy child.
�Madd/Drunk Driving�Family turns tragedy into triumph after losing a child to drunk driving.
�Family who has multiple children (with) Down�s Syndrome (either adopted or biological).
�Home invasion�family robbed, house messed up (vandalized) � kids fear safety in their home now.
There�s more but you get the idea. ABC solicits misery, so that ABC can sweep in and turn everything to gold. The more heartwarming the tale, the better.
On the face of it, there�s nothing completely awful here. If a family gets a bit of badly-needed help and the network providing said help gets a bit of a ratings boost, who�s the loser? Nobody, really, with the possible exception of dignity � whatever that counts for.
Yet, in another sense, aren�t we trivializing tragedy here? Or, more properly, isn�t that what TV does? The contrast between what �Extreme Makeover: Home Edition� is trying to do and the genuine giving that goes on in every town, big or small, is striking.
There�s something especially sick about some of specifics Ms. Simonian asks for. The ALS patient should be �recently diagnosed.� Why is that important? Could it be that someone in the advanced stages of ALS just wouldn�t make good TV?
One Down�s Syndrome child doesn�t seem to be enough. �Multiple children� are preferred. Kind of the show to accept both biological or adopted though, ain�t it? One cannot be too demanding when seeking out pain.
Contrast that to the far smaller, yet infinitely more sincere charitable efforts we see every day. Who hasn�t attended a golf outing to help out a kid with cancer, or donated to a fundraiser to get a family back on its feet after an accident, or dropped a buck in a homeless person�s cup? Who hasn�t dug out their change for the Kiwanis, Lions, Moose Lodge or Knights of Columbus at a street corner? We perform thee unselfish acts of charity every day, without demanding that the cause rise to a particular level of network quality.
Shows like �Extreme Makeover� venture into the realm of charity, without actually being about charity at all. It�s all about ratings, which means it�s really all about profit, and misery sells � as long as it�s not too uncomfortable for the viewer.
The old Freak Shows were about profit as well, of course � but with an important difference. The people involved chose to be there � were happy to be there. Indeed, when the Freak Shows closed up, the people most upset were the freaks themselves. �You think I�m exploited?� they protested at the time. �Then you haven�t seen my pay check.�
Extreme Makeover isn�t doing anything like that. The show doesn�t provide anyone with a living - one that they can choose or not, it rather offers a cynical deal: if your misery meets our criteria, we�ll fix up your house. That�s the choice, and it ain�t pretty.
It�s rather painfully cynical, in the worst way. If honest charitable giving is mankind at it�s most noble and unselfish, this thinly-disguised bit of self-aggrandizement amounts to little more than the worst kind of exploitation, one that diminishes us all.
To be sure, your humble correspondent has a built-in prejudice against most every kind of reality TV. There�s certainly nothing at all wrong with money, but when people happily sell their dignity for a moment of fame and a paycheck, something is very amiss.
No doubt that a great many of those who have cashed healthy checks or otherwise been the beneficiaries of such shows would scream �shut the hell up.� It was worth it for them. Which is fine.
It�s just a little disconcerting � especially to those of us who make giving a very private part of our life � that some lives should be worth nothing but money.
