PBS ventures into "Reality TV" with Frontier House.

Cafe Society
41

First, I love the Brooks. They are so cool! Ok, I confess, I was drooling over Nate. And he’s not just cute, he says endearing things about his father. The previews make his future wife seem like a complainer, though.

The Clunes – where did PBS find these people? Crying over make-up on the <i>first day</i>? This family must have been picked because the producers thought to themselves “oh yeah, the family America will love to hate.” My jaw was on the floor everytime Gordon found something else to complain about – loose tea! straight razors! walking to get water! His little speech about his wife having a degree in Food Science was the living end. The kids are not much better, but they seem to be improving, and with parents like that, you can’t expect too much from them.

The Glenns – I can see how they are a bit annoying, but I would probably be worse if I had to spend any significant time with the Clunes. Mr. Del came home during the cow debacle, and he thought they were hopelessly mean. However, I see their point, you can’t have someone else’s cow eating your cow’s food, especially when you can’t run out to the store and pick up some Cow Chow. I think the Glenn father was reasonable and not at all nasty when he told the girls to bring the cow back home to milk – first, it’s easier to move just a cow than a cow AND full milk pails. Second, he is right, the cow needs to get used to being milked at her own house. Third, if the girls were so cold, the smart thing to do would be to get the cow home ASAP, go inside and warm up for a few minutes, and then milk the cow. But it was still sweet that Nate came to help them. Swoon! Swoon!

I love the Glenn kids, especially the daughter. She’s so sweet and she seems to be enjoying everything about frontier life.

I completely understand about the hunting thing – the local animal population is protected for a reason, and the deer don’t care much if at all if it’s 2002 or 1873 or whatever. But, I think the producers should have compensated the families somewhat, maybe by delivering fresh meat at the same rate that a frontier family would have had a successful hunt.

The previews promise an episode about sex on the ol’ prairie – the thought of the Clunes having sex makes me want to heave.

42

Geepers, did you guys see that wagon crash? Oh my god! When the girl and the team of horses were just a bit out-of-frame, and then wagon lurched, I was sure that they’d run over the girl! Even when they replayed it, it scared the pants off me!

I started out hatin’ the Clunes. The womenfolk lost all sympathy with me with all their whining about makeup. The mother actually bawling because she didn’t think she looked nice for her picture without her war paint . . . sheesh! Since I’m not kindly disposed toward teenage girls in general, and since these seem to be particularly spoiled, nasty teenage girls, I decided to avoid the Christmas rush and start hating them early. And Pa Clune just irritates the snot out of me. “I’m going to have to be sharp with them and bark orders.” Yeah, well, maybe if you didn’t raise them to be spoiled little snots you wouldn’t have to yell at them, eh? And why does he sound like he’s actually getting off on it?

But I agree with Mr. Brooks. (Of course! How could I not! Swoon!) The Clunes are the ones who are growing the most through this experience. I was really impressed with the girls marching through the snowstorm to milk their escaped cow. They were upset about it–understandably!–but they had given up their petty whining; they knew what had to be done, and they did it. (And maybe I’m dumb, but wouldn’t they have been better off in slightly wet dresses than in those dumb blankets? After they slogged through a mile of snow, their dresses were going to be wet anyway, wouldn’t they? Well, anyway, hard to say. . . )

And I can’t believe that Mr. Glenn just came out and yelled at them. I was yelling at the TV: “INVITE THEM INTO YOUR CABIN (which was built for you, you ungrateful turd!) AND LET THEM WARM UP, YOU JERK!” Unbelievable! I mean, I can see how the Clunes would be hard to get along with, what with their whininess and all, but when there are two girls freezing their asses off in the snow, maybe you could put that aside for the moment and be decent to them. Give them a freakin’ cup of tea, for the love of Mike! Is that going to bust your precious budget?

But then along came Nate. Swoon!
All the kids get high marks from me, now, and so do the Brooks, of course. I hope that the Glenns will find it in them to give the Clunes another chance, but instead I think they’re locked into a cycle hate.

And I agree with Eve. Who wants to watch 2 hours a night, three nights in a row? 1900’s House actually made me look forward to Mondays! I hope they’ll be rerunning it. I have to tape tonights soas not to miss 24. (FH will probably be better, but I’m more invested in 24.)

43

Pssst, Podkayne, 24 isn’t on tonight. It’ll be back next week. Oh, the suspense is killing me. Who is the mole at CTU? :wink:

44

Well, I missed the last hour. We set the tape to go for one hour - realized it was two hours long - tried to fix it, and somehow only ended up with the first hour anyway.

So onwards…

The Clunes drove me nuts! I thought about all the hardships one would have to endure living in the time period, and not wearing make-up really seemed so trivial! I thought, “Geez, save some tears for when you and your family run out of food, lady!”. What was she expecting? And Mr. Clune thinking that it would be a great time to get to spend time with his kids. Sure, I can almost see that. Except I would expect a lot of time would be spent surviving and working your butt off in ways that you have never experienced. It won’t be all Little House on the Prairie. I didn’t blame the Glenns for complaining about them. If I had been out there, I would have been really close to decking them myself.

I thought the Glenns were ok. From what I saw, they seemed to have a little more realistic impression of the way life was going to be out there. The Clunes were obviously making them crazy, but as I said earlier, they would have driven me crazy as well.

I LOVED the Brooks! They were my favourites. I didn’t know what else to say about them, but they just struck the right chord in me.

Bearing in mind that all of my above opinions might be different if I’d seen the WHOLE episode… I can’t wait for the next installment.

45

I watched part of it, when the cow was sick. And the little boy asked his mom (I think it was Mrs. Clune) “Mom, are we gonna have to kill Crystal (the cow)?” And mom said “I don’t think so, but we may have to kill the calf, honey.” And the little boy looked so sad and gave a big sigh. He [hearts] his cow. ::sniff::

46

Foo. My roommate took her TV out and moved it over to her summer apartment. I can’t watch parts 2 and 3. :frowning: I called my mom and she’s taping it for me, but I won’t get to watch it for two weeks.

47

Why did the girls start to milk the cow over at the Glenn’s corral? By doing that, they’d have to carry the milk back themselves! Wouldn’t it have been easier to have the cow carry back the milk and milk it back home?

Zev Steinhardt

48

THANK YOU!!! I agree with all your points and I was thinking the same thing. Instead of the gals whining “Look at how cold my legs are!” to every passer-by they should’ve taken the cow home, warmed up for a few minutes, THEN milked it. They didn’t seem all that concerned that the cow was missing in the first place, did they? I mean it seriously could’ve been ANYWHERE and they just assumed it was at the Glenn’s corral.

The Clume mother is the absolute worst. I especially like how she couldn’t bear to eat PLAIN BREAD with NOTHING SWEET on it. What a hardship! I bet you’re wishing you didn’t use your honey bottle to smuggle shampoo, huh? :rolleyes:

Re: the hysterical crying the first day – someone on another board I frequent mentioned that these people were possibly going through MAJOR caffiene and sugar withdrawal, which would explain quite a bit. But geez!

Oh and let’s say you’re going to be stuck in pioneer days with no modern luxuries, do you smuggle:

A) A lighter or matches, so you can stay warm, dry and fed?
B) Some sort of hunting knife or pistol, for protection and food?
C) Some sort of modern, emergency food, such as jerky?
or
D) A G-DAMN FREAKING TUBE OF MASCARA!?!?!?!!?

49

Clune, not Clume, sorry.

Another thought. I have a seriously hard time believing these people cannot go a few months without sex, ESPECIALLY as they have to work like dogs for all the daylight hours and are exhausted, have their children sleeping about 2 feet away, and have been married to each other for ages. The newlyweds I can understand, but even they only have to wait 3 months or something. They could potentially starve or freeze to death and they’re worried about gettin’ some? Oy! That’s right up there with the makeup in my book.

50

You forgot the best part: After that he said, “Can we keep it until the cute goes away?” Awww!

I really like those little boys, and the younger girl. The older girls…eh, they seem to be getting better.

And yes, the Brooks’ are way cool.

I really enjoyed the show. (And I’ll just leave it at that, since y’all pretty much covered my thoughts on it. Makeup! Feh.)

51

I don’t think the Glenns are being selfish. I think they absolutely knew they started with an advantage, and they went out of their way at the beginning to be nice (“come sleep in our house”), but the Clunes are just such awful people that the Glenns pulled back. I probably would have done the same, to be honest; remember, this is after three weeks of whining and griping and self-centeredness, whereas we at home just see an hour of TV time. After three weeks of hearing those spoiled-rotten people bitching about makeup and having to walk 150 feet to get water (gimme a frickin break), I would’ve kicked 'em out too.

I do think it’s a little disconcerting to hear the occasional reference to “this game,” because I thought part of the point is that this is a social experiment, and an educational opportunity, not just a shallow competition with a cash prize. It suggests to me that some of the participants are coming to this with an improper attitude.

Oh, and Brooks fils and pere are awesome. You couldn’t ask for a nicer couple of people. I worry about the grumpiness displayed by the incoming fiancee in the preview.

I love this show!

52

I had a lot of the same reactions that have already been posted. The spoiled rich kids are having the most trouble adjusting. No surprise there. Maybe they could have given the kids a few chores at home to prepare them for this novel concept of responsibility. The rich executive is having trouble accepting that his view of the way things should be does not alter the way things actually are. I’m sorry you don’t like the location of your cabin relative to the water source but it’s really not that bad. Several of these people seem to have had no idea what the experience was going to entail. Jeez, even reading the little house books would have given them some idea what to expect.

My only original observation is how often “It’s not fair!” came up in the private reactions. The Glenns and Clunes all need to watch the Princes Bride when they get home just so that they can hear the line “Who said that life is fair? Where is that written?” Besides, fair compared to what? The life they’re living is really much easier than pioneer life. They only had to walk 2 days to get there, not 3 months. They were all well fed Americans to start with so even if they run out of food they’re not really going to starve. If there really was a medical emergency they’ll be whisked back to civilization. Both families had their cabins at least partly built for them. The only ones who really had cause to complain about an unfair scenario are the Brooks, since they drew the penniless characters and have to build everything from scratch. But we haven’t heard a single whine from them. I really wish we got more time watching them build a homestead instead of watching people have agonies over their makeup.

I should get my grandpa to watch this show and get his reaction since he actually grew up on a homestead on Oregon.

53

Oh, one more thing, about the water carrying gripe: I agree that it’s ridiculous to complain about having to walk a whole 150 feet to get water, but I wondered why he had to carry that whole huge barrel. Seems like it would have been a lot easier to use a smaller container and make more trips.

54

I’m finding one of my greatest reactions to watching and reading about this project is jealousy. I would absolutely love to have an opportunity to do something like this - step back in time. The homesteading era is one of my favorite times to read about, and I wish I could’ve gone on this show to try living it. I’d probably have ended up bitching in private just as much as these folks, but at least it wouldn’t be about mascara. :wink:

I think the producers spent far too much time watching the Clunes whine about things and far too little watching the Brookses actually doing things.

55

And what did Nate say to his dad when they got to their homesite? He joyously yelled, “We got the crown jewel, Dad!”
And they didn’t even have a house! Nate and his dad are just so sweet together.

I didn’t realize Adrienne dumped her honey to smuggle shampoo. What a dope. And the girls with their smuggled makeup. And what was that bit right before they left, with putting on lipstick one last time. How frigging vain can you be?

56

Yeah, that was classic, then a couple scenes later, Mama Glenn says, “You don’t need a college degree to figure this out!!!” when she ranted about the Clunes running out of supplies! I cracked up!!

I also watched the preview on Oprah, and the 2 women defended their actions by saying, “Hey, we were stressed out, hungry, tired, emotions ran high”. I can buy that. Plus, it’s not like they are next door neighbors IRL, so they really don’t need to like each other.

Seems to me, though, that early on the Glenns tried several times to help out, but the Clunes resisted…bawled and squawled when the Glenn’s dog (allegedly) ate the biscuits while Papa Glenn was helping to build their freaking house!! no less, wouldn’t accept the offer to sleep over, etc. Did they even say thank you?? I can hardly blame Papa Glenn for being exasperated at the girls coming over in the snow and stupidly milking the cow BEFORE taking it back to their corral. It’s not about being a jerk, it’s about doing what’s right, he was right to scold them, too bad they were too stubborn to say, “OK, maybe that is a better idea”.

Also, I thought it funny that Papa Glenn mentioned something about Mama Glenn being a “micromanager” and he was glad for it…sounds like he changes his mind about it, looks like they are not getting along according to the preview for the next show.

Intriguing experiment…made even better by NO COMMERCIALS!!!

57

I agree. I would love to be there !

58

Count me in as another person who would love to do this. One thing, I think, that would make it easier is if you went into it with other people that you already know and like. Didn’t extended families sometimes homestead in the same area? For example, if your brother and sister-in-law had the claim next to yours, I think it would be an advantage to already have a dynamic established.

I’m sure I would also bitch and complain. It’s probably unfair that the producers focus on the bitching and complaining – surely there would be more times when the people really enjoyed what they were doing.

All things considered though, I probably would be more excited to do a “1900 House” era experience. Some of the women in my book club were saying that a fun way to do it would be to do “1900 Hotel” and have half the people be guests and the other half as the hotel staff … then switch half-way through.

59

I’m not sure I would love to do this, but I like to think that if I did sign on I’d have at least a tiny little clue of what I was getting myself into. I can’t believe the Clune females and the obsession with makeup - I mean did none of them do any research, or did they all just think it would all be wearing pretty dresses and being on TV? Sheesh.

I cannot stand Mrs. Glenn. She started out being a sympathetic character, but quickly turned into a mean and judgemental woman. Her version of being neighborly is not too accomidating of others foibles and weaknesses.

My favorite has to be the Glenn girl - she seems to be really getting into the spirit of it and adapting nicely.

Overall very much enjoyed the show and look forward to tonite. Does anyone have a tape of the Oprah show that they’d be willing to share?

Twiddle

60

Well, while I was watching, I did flash back to the little house books (wasn’t allowed to watch the tv show) and remembering how their lives, um, sucked. Though it was written in a way not to scare small children, I remember them having to bring snow into the house to save their limbs from frostbite & going out to save the cows in the cold so they didn’t freeze to death & them being tired and hungry and dirty and everything else. And the women doing backbreaking work in the house & the men doing it outside in the field. And sickness and accidents - so it was Little House. Just not the one that springs instantly to mind.

Hate the Clunes. When the father was talking about getting harsh with his children (the ones who smuggled in makeup and mentioned how they were going to miss the nintendo and nintendo 64 and super nintendo) all I could think was “About F***ing Time.” But there isn’t a single person in that family who seems redeemable. The incessant whining. The makeup. The obvious inability to plan or budget (I’d love to see how much they threw away) Plus, the wife’s holier than thou about birth control?
Question for those with kids - can you really tell your kids are getting thinner that fast? (It seemed like just a day or two and she was complaining.)
I like the Tennessee couple. She seems to have tried and then has now just given up on being nice to the Clunes & I absolutely understand that, I’d even understand not caring after being rebuffed by a nice family - but by that family… I am very much on their “side.” plus their kids were great which says something about them. And the Brooks go without saying.

Luckily tonight it’s on after buffy so I can tape again!