OR: “Scenes From the Class Struggle in the Bonanza Hills”
It is said that the love of money is the root of all evil. And indeed, Bonanza City’s have-nots are greedy, so they’re fighting against the haves. When Divad opens a food stand, Jared gets jealous and opens his own food stand. Despite positive comparisons to Bill Gates, Jared doesn’t think that Divad is as clever a businesswoman, since she’s just selling something people can get for free. So he decides to take a Bill Gates-like stance and “buy out” the competition. (You don’t think he got rich just by cutting a lot of checks, do you?) Sophia gets so annoyed with the money-hungry townsfolk, she invents her own game: Stick Your Hand in “Vomit” for Nickels. The Town Council goes on a treasure hunt and finds $18.50 worth of buffalo nickels- enough to double everyone’s paycheck. The Council decides instead to buy things for the town. The town is pleased. In the challenge, Blue’s egg-catching system allows them to get 3/4ths of the eggs needed to win a prize in yet another tricky decision- state-of-the-art washer/dryers which cost 20 cents each to operate, or new clothes and a free, old-fashioned washer/dryer. The council picks the latter. Not only does it keep money in the kids’ pockets, it’s also fun and a source of excercise! Take that, Horatio J. Whirlpool! After converting to Hippieism and making up with Divad, Jared finally comes up with a unique business of his own by selling “Bonanza City 2007” necklaces made of burned-into wood. Now proud to be the “Bill Gates of Bonanza City,” he pimps himself out with a new wardrobe. At the Gold Star ceremony, three names come up: Divad (mainly through her “For Your Consideration” posters and free potatoes for the voters), Pharoah (who is poor, but didn’t really do much), and the quirky Nathan, who would rather work than play, but is overall a good kid (although the green Crocs aren’t really fashion-forward, if you ask me). When even his former rival Greg puts his name in, the council has no choice to give it to Nathan, making Divad furious.
Next week: “Starved for Entertainment.” The Bonanza kids bust their boredom with the hottest thing for kids these days: Vaudville! Watch out, Eli X. Disneyshighschoolmusical!
I thought this ep was going to address Zach’s intention not to pay her. In fact, I was looking forward to that confrontation, and now-- nothing. Disappointed!
I thought him trashing Divad’s stand was a little scary. I wonder if he has a history of tantrums like that.
Anyone else think Nathan has OCD? Washing the same spoon 100 times, washing the same laundry for an hour… poor kid. Hey, at least it made him $20,000.
I think Nathan just doesn’t know how to be social, so he’s been hiding in his work. Like people who go to parties and head for the kitchen to help the hostess so they don’t have to mingle.
At least now the girls won’t have to worry about anyone handling their underwear. Those washing machines were kinda cool.
Could Michael be any louder? What’s up with him? Too much sugar?
I have changed my heart towards Sophia. I just love her commentary, and the bucket-o-vomit was pure genius.
The Jared kid just keeps getting weirder and weirder every episode. The pimp outfit was just the funniest thing in the whole series so far. His business was very well thought out and I am glad he was as successful as he was.
It is clear to me that the whole Taylor-Zach payment issue was solved behind the camera. The producers had to step in and make sure they all get paid, lest they get into all different flavours of trouble. Otherwise, I can’t see how Taylor didn’t participate in any money making scheme.
And speaking of rules, I can’t believe there is nothing to stop things such as Divad’s business. She is basically profiting from the common goods.
Since it is obvious that no attempts at policing are allowed in Bonanza, I wonder how long will it take before the kids figure it out and the whole class system collapses.
On a second thought. I am sure that the producers will feed them the idea at some point and the kids will start doing whatever they are good at and preach some All-American editorial about the pursuit of happiness.
I was curious if kids are watching this show, and it turns out the answer is yes. According to CBS, the series is consistently the #1 rated show of the night for 2-11s and 6-11s.
I’m disappointed in how this subject didn’t play out – I was expecting the town to squabble over the guitars & the baseball mitts, because there aren’t enough to go around, and these objects create so much discord that the town finally decides to send them back to civilization, and it all depends on a young, naive bushman…oh wait, wrong movie.
The egg-throwing challenge seemed to come straight out of Family Double Dare.
Jared was great indeed. We cracked up at that poor girl’s reaction to his prancing by.
Anjay showed that while he can’t carry on a heated conversation worth a damn, he is smart and strategic. His team almost won the challenge all on their own.
Guylan was obviously a right time/right place candidate. He seems to be out of his league on the council. Especially next to Laurel (Lauren? mental block time).
It’s interesting that there are at least 2 home school kids on the show. I would have to think long and hard about sending my home schooled kid (not that I’d personally do that with mine) into a situation where your happiness and success depend almost totally on your social skills. Maybe that’s an unfair generalization (and a topic for another thread), but the homeschool kids I’ve met almost always strike me as fairly introverted, and not at all suited for something like this show.
Random thought: We always biatch about product placement in these shows, but never give 'em credit when they avoid hocking brands at us all hour long. Am I forgetting things, or is Bonanza City surprisingly ad free? I haven’t seen any Dr. Pepper cans, Kraft Mac & Cheese boxes, or Tide laundy detergent. Have they actually avoided such easy product placement situations?
Meanwhile, in the Charmin Relaxation Tent on Survivor…
You’re not forgetting anything. The soda bottles have no labels, the toilet paper was in individual rolls, and the laundry soap had no marks. I don’t think we’ve seen any packaging at all.
No, there’s no product placement (or audience participation, which it appears Surivior has added based on the advertisements. They must be really desperate for ratings.) If there was, I’m sure the children would easily be able to tell the difference between Coke® and Clorox®. Speaking of which, we saw one of the incidents mentioned in early press- being burned by the stove. I wonder if we will see the bleach-drinking soon?
I hope so. I’m sure they showed us the grease incident to prove that it was a fairly insignificant event (even according to the girl at the time). The show came off pretty well in that case (or course, they’re the ones at the editing table). Still, you can’t help but wonder whether Divad will go home without a $20,000 gold star, and whether bitterness about that prodded the lawsuit along.
There was a lawsuit? I heard nothing about that. The waiver the parents had to sign basically says “Your kids are more or less the property of CBS and/or Magic Molehill Productions, so if your kid gets sick/injured/knocked up/killed, don’t sue us.”
Was there actually a lawsuit or was a complaint filed with some government agency? Like mobo says, that waiver basically gives away any and all rights.
At least from the way it was presented, the grease spatter was a total non-issue. Divad didn’t even seem to make a big deal about it.
The SAG and AFTRA were looking into whether or not the producers broke child labor laws by having the children working 24/7, but I believe it was not considered to be breaking the laws since they weren’t employed by the company. Divad’s mother wrote a letter to the Sheriff of Santa Fe country after she burned herself. The Sheriff investigate the set and saw no instances of wrongdoing. New York Times
How much do you want to bet that all the kids who make it to the end will get a gold star? 40 kids (now 38) and about 10 awarded gold stars is 50 x $20k = $1 million. Plus all the kids get a feel-good participation award.
According to another message board I frequent, one of the kids is telling secrets about the show anonymously on the show’s IMDb message board. Among other things, DK is the one who drank bleach- he was mixing various drinks and didn’t realize one of them was actually bleach. Hopefully, he/she doesn’t get ratted out- according to the contract, if you blab secrets without CBS’s permission, you’re breaching the contract, and you owe CBS five million dollars for doing so, which they’ll take by any means possible.
Depends on the parents I guess. I have friend who home school their 4 girls and they certainly don’t lack for social interaction. Their oldest in fact is probably the most popular kid in town her age. There’s neighbors to play with, various lessons (including music lessons at the public school), after school activities, town events, the library, etc.
