It’s Christmas, the season for bad TV, and so here’s another post detailing another new reality TV show on US telly.
Remember when the Sheriff would get a posse together to round up the bad guys? Well things have moved on since the Old West days and now Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa Count, Arizona has called on TV producers to join his deputies in catching criminals in “Smile … You’re Under Arrest!”
A cross between “Punk’d” and “Cops,” the program sets up elaborate sting operations to snare people wanted on outstanding warrants. Actors and undercover deputies play along in faux scenarios where scofflaws are enticed to have a good time; the drama comes when cast members reveal the prank and waiting deputies slap on handcuffs.
Sounds like good clean honest crime-busting fun to me.
Strictly Come Dancing finishes tomorrow night on BBC1 in a blaze of glory (or should that be anger over the votes scandal) and upwards of over 6 million people will tune in to see who dances to glory.
I have nothing against ballroom dancing but the latest reality show to be commissioned for American TV is more my thing, Toughest Cowboy:
Fearless cowboys will ride in three dangerous events each night-bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding-an unprecedented test of endurance in modern rodeo competition. In reality-show style, one competitor will be pulled each week in a sudden elimination bull ride match, with the ultimate Toughest Cowboy champion winning the deed to a Rocky Mountain ranch near Laramie, WY.
If you’re in Raleigh, North Carolina on 3 January 2009 then stop by - the first 500 kids even get a free cowboy hat!
And there’s more good stuff too. Visit the official website at toughestcowboy.com and you can read all about “international rodeo star and a true cowboy, Whiplash, the Cowboy monkey” - yes that’s right the 21 year old Capuchin monkey “has been riding since he was two years old”.
Now that has to beat John Sargeant shuffling through the tango any day of the week!
A story by Bruce Dancis in the Houston Chronicle has just caught my eye, what with the DVD buying Christmas season approaching!
John Wayne would have hated Deadwood.
Since Wayne referred to the 1952 Western High Noon as “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life” because of its depiction of frontier townspeople as cowardly, it’s reasonable to assume that the conservative cowboy actor would have despised David Milch’s HBO series.
With just days to go (for presents arriving by post anyway) HBO have just released a new box set of the three seasons of their infamous western TV show set on the 1870s frontier.
I usually like a good HBO series, Six Feet Under being a great example of the risk-taking channel. The freedom to swear so frequently in a TV show always seemed to me to add realism to a medium where ‘damn’ is usually the nastiest insult on prime time British TV.
I never did catch many episodes of this show though perhaps because I could never get my head round Lovejoy being evil!
Ian McShane is a fine actor but having grown up with the genteel ramblings of an East Anglian antiques expert I never could see past that loveable rogue exterior. Now I know why David Tennant fears Dr Who typecasting…
Anyway, our American cousins can now take advantage of the new box set with extra features on the town and ideas for future movies. In the UK you’ll have to make do with the heavily discounted old edition on Amazon.
Before you rush off though be sure to vote on my Deadwood poll:
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Buy Deadwood: Complete HBO Seasons 1-3 (12 Disc Box Set) at Amazon.co.uk:
I watched the ‘intro’ for the new 7th series of American TV perennial ‘24′ last night - the 2 hour one-off show titled 24: Redemption - and was struck by how much Jack Bauer has morphed into the cowboy icon from movie classics such as Shane.
A few years ago the show was ground breaking and original and fun to watch. Now I find I’m a little cynical about Jack and his magic bullet-dodging powers and the whole ’saviour of the poor African children’ routine in Redemption did grate a little.
The funniest part had to be the cartoon-like one dimensional portrayl of the UN peacekeeper - not only did the man with the funny accent and wimpy blue helmet hide with the kids in the cellar when the bad guys rode into town, he also tried to barter the children and their protectors for his own safety!
I realise this is shown on Fox in America and the centre ground is never going to be the political place to be but I thought the American Might vs European Flight routine was a little overdone.
Anyway I’m getting into politics when what I really want to say is Jack/Kiefer does indeed make a very good ‘man in white’ cowboy hero, ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of the downtrodden vilagers (whether they be African orphans or the poor people of Los Angeles under siege by Middle Eastern militants).
I know Sutherland once played a cowboy in New York in the early 90’s film The Cowboy Way. What I’d like to see now is a movie studio ready to put CGI to good use and cast Kiefer / Jack in all 7 roles for The 21st Century Return of the Magnificent Seven…
Is it time for a re-make?
I love Louise Theroux. For me he’s the embodiment of the modern British gentleman, a combination of incisive wry wit and a laid back attitude to the cultural oddities of 21st century living. It’s his ability to put interviewees at ease that has led to some sensational TV over the years.
He writes on the BBC website about his new programme, Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder in Philadelphia and confesses at the start “I’m not the most macho guy in the world. I am not what you would call a ‘man’s man.”
With this in mind, Louis has boldy stepped into the role of shadowing modern day lawmen who patrol the mean streets of Philadelphia.
The sixth largest city in the US was no wild west outpost even way back in the 19th century. Whilst intrepid pioneers made the long trek west by covered wagon to seek riches in the gold fields of California, Philadelpia - once the second largest city in the British Empire after London - had been the social and geographical center of the original 13 American colonies and can claim such American treasures as Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the house where Betsy Ross stitched the original stars and stripes.
It turns out though that The City of Brotherly Love nowadays has one of the worst homicide rates in America and so Louis risks life and limb to document gang warfare and the perils of the drug trade:
My only issue with the finished film is the huge flak jacket I’m wearing throughout. It does make me look a bit of a wally, especially when I’m interviewing a man holding a small child (neither of them wearing flak jackets). But there you are - I’m not a man’s man and now the world will know.
The programme will be shown on BBC Two on Sunday, 30 November, at 9pm
I’m too young to remember the 60’s but I’ve seen some of the TV shows from that era and it looks like many mainstream television stars had a lot of fun, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. being a good example.
Were Robert Vaughn and David McCallum the stars of just one of many American series inspired by the success of the British secret agent James Bond? This article in the Los Angeles Times would seem to confirm that listing the recently re-made Get Smart and sci-fi/western crossover ‘Wild Wild West’ as two more 60s spy shows.
The Times interviews Robert Conrad who played US Secret Service agent James West as a collectors edition 27-disc-box set goes in sale stating that
when the show was originally pitched to the networks, it was described as “James Bond on horseback.”
For 4 years on CBS James West and Artemus Gordon acted as agents of President Ulysses S. Grant taking their private train through the west to fight evil.
If you’ve seen the truly awful remake starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline you’ll know about the half science fiction / half western, packed with gadgets approach.
I’d like to see just how the original TV show compares but it would appear the reissue is only on sale in the US for now. Are there fans out there who can confirm just how much fun the original was to watch?
