# "Showbiz Moms & Dads" (Bravo, 4/13) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682 "2004-04-12T22:53:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/1 "2004-04-12T22:53:26Z")
Anyone going to watch [this](http://www.bravotv.com/Showbiz_Moms_&_Dads/)? Looks like real “point and stare” tee-vee. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/2 "2004-04-13T04:24:50Z")
My TiVo’s all set. I love a good jaw-dropping documentary into bizarre American rituals. Pageants are so creepy just on their own, but when you drag the parents in, it’s guaranteed to be entertainment gold. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/3 "2004-04-13T04:41:33Z")
I’m an artsy person, and hoping to have my five year-old daughter onstage this summer performing with my operetta company, but the attitudes of most “showbiz” parents make me wonder whether the kids wouldn’t be better off as orphans. Grrrrr. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/4 "2004-04-13T10:58:47Z")
The Nutters??? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/5 "2004-04-13T12:05:41Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > Pageants are so creepy just on their own, but when you drag the parents in, it’s guaranteed to be entertainment gold. Get out of my head! Yeah, I think I’ll watch it. There was one on HBO a few years ago, with the little girl named Swann that was just flat-out scary. Her mom was the Stage-Mother from Hell. Swann would be crying, and Mommy was shrieking at her to “Smile, dammit!” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/6 "2004-04-13T13:05:32Z")
I love the promo clip, with the mother snapping at her crying daughter, “You’re four years old—_act like it!_” I have a feeling she must be one of the Nutters . . . ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/7 "2004-04-13T13:14:42Z")
> [@quiltguy154](#): > > The Nutters??? 😃 Heh. I just glanced at the page and I thought that was the episode title. “Tonight: The Nutters, Next week: The Total Whackos!” The commercial just skivves me out, especially the bit with the little girl crying and her mother yelling, “ACT LIKE A FOUR YEAR OLD!”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/8 "2004-04-13T23:44:13Z")
Just bumping this, as it’s on in about an hour. Have my tranquilizer, anti-depressant and ice cream all lined up for dessert and tee-vee viewing of the lowest order! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/9 "2004-04-14T01:27:54Z")
Anyone watching? Poor little “Jon-Benet’s” mom is just pure [i[evil.\* The Shane kid, the 12-year-old? No discernable talent whatsoever. Mom: “I can really see him becoming an American Idol.” Oh, that poor kid. And the aptly-named Mr. Nutter? His spineless but seemingly sane wife has got to take their 15 or 16 kids and run like a rabbit away from him. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/10 "2004-04-14T01:53:01Z")
I missed about the first 25 minutes so I haven’t seen all the Nutters yet. Papa Nutter, when I saw him tearing his tickets, I was like, “I thought this was supposed to be about kids, what’s that gay guy doing there?” He has a herd of kids? _Some_one’s overcompensating! ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/11 "2004-04-14T02:11:40Z")
THANK YOU for letting me know about this show, Eve! This is the most f\*ed-up hour of TV I think I’ve ever seen. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/12 "2004-04-14T02:29:19Z")
I loved the little black girl, though. She seems to be the only normal kid. But, Jesus, someone pull that Shane kid aside and tell him, “kid, you have _no. talent._ Give up _now_.” ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/13 "2004-04-14T11:48:45Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Poor little “Jon-Benet’s” mom is just pure [i[evil.\* > > The Shane kid, the 12-year-old? No discernable talent whatsoever. Mom: “I can really see him becoming an American Idol.” Oh, that poor kid. I was prepared to think Emily’s mom was a nutcase, but now I think Shane’s mom is worse. She’s a total whack-job. And the aptly-named Nutters? Leaving a big house in the country in Vermont for a 2-bedroom apartment in New York? Yikes! Aren’t there laws against having nine people crammed into such a small space, even if they’re family? Those poor kids. Did any of them ever say they were having fun, and actually _wanted_ to go on auditions? That Jordan girl, the 16-year-old in LA, was a brat. She needs to be put in her place, and quick. ---
**Author:** ![AveDementia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/14 "2004-04-14T12:08:28Z")
I’d watch this but I don’t have cable at the moment. I just wanted to say I heard that the Swann girl from the other show that **Bibliocat** mentioned had a kind of happy ending to her story. Her mother died suddenly, and she went to live with her dad in Alaska, and is totally out of the child pageant stuff now, and so hopefully will recover by the time she grows up. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/15 "2004-04-14T13:17:20Z")
> [@Fairblue](#): > > I heard that the Swann girl from the other show that **Bibliocat** mentioned had a kind of happy ending to her story. Her mother died suddenly, and she went to live with her dad in Alaska . . . Was the mother found under the dock clutching a penmanship medal, with a heel-mark on her forehead? ---
**Author:** ![Kepi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kepi/32/7251_2.png) [@Kepi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kepi)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/16 "2004-04-14T13:38:42Z")
**Duncan Nutter** - A gay man with seven kids. Wow! During his one-on-one interviews with the camera, was anyone else reminded of Stewart Smalley by the way he spoke and his facial expressions? This is all about him. None of the kids seem to give a rat’s ass about it. The **Shane** kid - Lots of enthusiasm. Zero talent. The **Jon-Benet** girl - That whole “child pageant” scene is just creepy to begin with. The mom didn’t seem any more creepy than the rest of the pageant freaks. The **Sullen Teenager** - Might have some talent, but her attitude sucks. The **Little Black Girl** - The only one where the mom and the kid seem to be somewhat grounded in reality. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/17 "2004-04-14T13:47:48Z")
What I thought was frightening (although not as frightening as Mr. Nutter) was **Sullen Teenager’s** mom’s comment about the “sacrifices” she makes for her show biz daughter. Younger sister tells her about a test in school she failed and Mom says that one of the sacrifices she makes is not having time to help the younger daughter with her homework. Gaaah. That poor kid has years of therapy ahead of her. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/18 "2004-04-14T13:53:51Z")
(voice over) “I worry about her arteries, and my arteries.” “I’d like two nachos bel grande, and a number 6, and a steak chalupa, and…” \ ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/19 "2004-04-14T14:08:44Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Was the mother found under the dock clutching a penmanship medal, with a heel-mark on her forehead? Yet another in the long list of reasons **Eve** is such an asset to the boards: who else would casually slip in a Claude Daigle reference? I’m a bit peeved at the timing of this one, because I had a Bad Seed question planned for the next Bricker Challenge, and now I’ll have to scratch it. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![annieclaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@annieclaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annieclaus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682/20 "2004-04-14T14:20:59Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I loved the little black girl, though. She seems to be the only normal kid. But, Jesus, someone pull that Shane kid aside and tell him, “kid, you have _no. talent._ Give up _now_.” He was a total Monotone!!! Couldn’t that ex-Twirler mother even HEAR that??? Good thing he lost that Orlando Idol competition! Maybe now he can just become a hoodlum or something ordinary. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showbiz-moms-dads-bravo-4-13/239682.md?page=2)