Am I the only one watching this, or just the only one willing to admit it?
Not sure that one week is enough time to really dig in and bring out the crazy, but I guess you can’t seriously expect celebrities (and “celebrities”) to commit to two.
Carnie Wilson and Tracy Gold – whoa, is Tracy a little OCD or what? At the same time, she came across as a lot saner than Carnie, who’s living in filth despite three (?) staffers, and whose relationship with her husband can only be described as peculiar.
And who’da thunk there’d be so much mutual forbearance in the Gary Busey/Ted Haggard swap?
Definitely entertaining – a great revamp of one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
I watched it last night. The thing that surprised me most was just how well adjusted both families seemed. Yeah, Gary Busey’s a little loopy, and Ted Haggard, well, I’m sure you’re all familiar with the headlines he made a few years back. But other than that, their families didn’t really seem to have any serious issues or particularly unusual quirks. It seems like they really had to go out of their way to create drama between Ted and his daughter, by her saying that he wasn’t spending enough time with her.
I saw it last night…hey, it was an accident! I had a fine time making all the many shitty comments I could think of about Gary Busey and Ted Haggard, but I felt dirty afterward.
I’m willing to admit I even went looking for the episodes online. I don’t have a television so I rarely catch reality TV. The last wife swap type show I saw was the one with the crazy God Warrior lady.
I watched Busey/Haggard on Hulu. I agree the daughter v. brother v. Ted thing was kayfabe based on a lack of real drama.
The most surprising thing to me is that Gayle Haggard seems a genuinely nice person, one I think I’d disagree with on every religious point but that I’d like. I thought it was funny when she was asking Gary if he had anything to ask her about her ordeal and he had a blank expression; she seemed to be under some delusion Gary even remembers who the hell she is let alone gives a damn about anybody else’s story or opinion.
Gary’s girlfriend/wife is such a freaking flake (31 lives together? Really? And many of them as Native Americans and one at the Alamo of course [there were thousands and thousands of Mexicans there and less than 200 Americans, but somehow I’m guessing Gary was, if not Davy Crockett, then one of the characters in the Alamo movies).
The Haggard family just makes you put your head in your hands. They seem like genuinely nice people but they’re in such denial over Ted, who seems like basically a nice guy but just so frigging fake. There’s a scene where he’s having a tender ‘bonding’ moment with his daughter where he clearly glances his eyes over at the camera as if to say “Are you getting this?” I think they’d all be so much happier if Ted would just learn to say and mean “I like cock… and I’m okay with that”, have a friendly separation, and each look for other partners. Ted can still love his children and even Gayle without having to believe he’s damned or pretend he’s something he isn’t; true, they’d probably have to downsize their lifestyle and any ministry he had would have to be a lot more liberal, but even if he got a job managing a Denny’s but being openly gay I think his ever present smile would be a lot more genuine.
Successful ministers who get defrocked remind me a lot of floundering child stars. I’ve wondered before “Why are you doing D-list schlock and pathetic reality shows when you can get it instead of going to school and becoming a therapist or a realtor or a manicurist or something that will pay the bills without humiliating yourself?” Defrocked ministers will often follow Haggard’s path- he sold insurance for a while and worked at real estate IIRC and then, like Swaggart and like Bakker and like a lot of less famous ones, he gets a revelation that what God really wants him to do is go back to the ministry… “because now I’m humbled and cured… it has nothing to do with much higher earning potential and being surrounded by people who kiss my ass and look at me like I’m semi-divine”. I think with child stars they can’t concentrate on a career in landscaping or architecture because they’ve had that taste of being overpaid and overadulated rather than actually having to prove themselves again, and with ministers, same story.
That was on Trading Spouses, Fox’s ripoff of Wife Swap. I think I liked their version better, though.
As for this, only saw the Busey ep, but was pretty disappointed at how nothing insane really happened. Sure Busey was a bit out there, but for him he was outright serene.
I really enjoyed the Busey/Haggard episode and found them all to be lovely people. I like that they were both a little far out into the extremes of their beliefs but they still seemed rather down-to-earth. And there were no silly conflicts.
The Tracy Gold one was so boring I skimmed through it. It’s been one day and I’ve already forgotten who the other mother was.
Oops just popped into my head. Carnie Wilson. She wants to overact on a reality show. I wonder if she’s that annoying in real life.
Her husband, Roby Marshall, is the son of Robert O. Marshall, a super successful insurance executive (or so twas thought) in New Jersey and husband of Maria, with whom he had three sons. Unbeknownst to the public or their sons, Robert was in serious financial difficulties and he and Maria were on the verge of divorce due to his infidelity. He killed two birds and a wife with one stone when he hired a hitman to kill her and make it look like a robbery murder. Ultimately he asked his sons, including Roby, to perjure themselves to protect him at his trial, but they would not. Robert was sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment after many years on death row. He is still serving.
The murder case became the basis of a bestselling true crime book, Blind Faith, by Joe McGuinness. The book became a TV movie on which Roby was hired as a consultant. Roby’s mother, Maria, was played by Joanna Kerns, Tracey Gold’s mom on Growing Pains, who evidently thought Roby and Tracey would hit it off and introduced them. Looks like she was right.
I was surprised that there was no mentioning on that episode of her and Carnie’s shared eating disorders (actually they have opposite eating disorders, but they do both have one). Tracey also had that DUI some years back while driving her husband and sons, which seems 100% incongruous with the control freak lifestyle. Even so, I think I’d many times rather have her and her husband and boys as neighbors than Carnie and family. Carnie and her husband both seem like spoiled brats, that house was disgusting considering the amount of help she has (I’ve seen worse, but not from people who have several employees), and I wouldn’t be the least surprised to see her divorce announced in an entertainment news column at some point or her daughters growing up to do vapid-needy-celeb-spawn reality shows.
I think either of those women would get on my nerves before we ever sat down on the sofa, and Dee’s family seemed like they were auditioning for a PG version of The Osbournes. Flavor Flav knows how to work cameras of course, but I don’t think there’s anything fake about his total selfishness and “tell 'em exactly what they want to hear [and make sure the camera gets it]” attitude, and I don’t think there was anything faked in Suzette Snyder’s hatred of him. I felt Flavor’s wife was thinking “… honey, I’m only with him til he gets another big paying gig and I can take him to the cleaners”; his stepson, though, seems like he stepped out of an Ivy League recruiting ad.
I saw it. I don’t remember much (it’s my gift and my curse), but I recall thinking that Flav had the better family, despite being an obnoxious man-child. I’d like to see someone smack that phone right out of his hand.
Just watched the Niecy Nash/Tina Yothers one. Both mothers seem like nice people and good mothers, though I think the families really could learn a lot from each other: I agree with Tina that Niecy’s family should have more dinners together/less mall time and a little more outdoor time (she made a really good point about how in the future you don’t want your kids looking back on the mall as what they did with their family as a kid), and Niecy made a great point about Tina’s girls needing some pampering and her son needing to be reined in now before it gets a whole lot harder. I preferred Niecy’s husband- Tina’s seems a little bit… mmm… well… too Alabamian.
Personally I lean way more on Team Niecy’s side in taste (‘glitter v. nature’) but I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere which probably influences that decision. I think kids need to be exposed some to both city and country as they’re growing up. I did get irked with Niecy refusing to camp, but she still seems like somebody you’d love to have on speed dial. It was an interesting pairing due to contrasting childhoods:Tina grew up a pampered kid on a hit show and wants ‘the real world’ while Niecy grew up in ‘the real world’ (she says she’s ghetto, no idea how accurate that is) and loves the frills of success, so really cool differences.
That said, Niecy would be a great star if they ever decided to revisit the GREEN ACRES formula.
Wow, I find Niecy so obnoxious, and liked Tina much more. (I am unabashedly a city girl, but more for the cultural opportunities than the shopping.)
ETA: Did anyone see this week? Antonio’s fiance, who seemed so sane throughout – and seemed to genuinely get along with and enjoy Mick’s family – really flipped out there at the end. I couldn’t even figure out what she was flipping out about.
I wondered if she was still hormonal from childbirth, or if she was playing it for the cameras, or if she’s just a crazy bitch. Sabato seemed a decent sort (a lot more serious than I’d have thought) and the little girl (who apparently he has custody of) is sweet, but I didn’t like anybody else on the episode; with people like Foley’s wife, I feel sorry for them but wonder how they let it get to the point where they’re a maid in their own house.
It’s definitely a guilty pleasure for me. Part of me would love to be a fly on the wall when the production team is tossing out celebrity names looking for a good pairing: “I’ve got Tracey Gold; she’s OCD and a clean freak who still wipes her kids’ bottoms. What’ve you got?”
And it’s that you know stuff like this that makes me adore you.
Yeah, I don’t know if that was editing or what, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand what got her so upset that she said she was breaking up with her BF.
Well, in Foley’s case, I’m sure there really is a lot of stuff he can’t do for himself with all his wrestling injuries. Even by the standards of the sport, he took some pretty severe beatings.
