I wrote a while back about the possible comic consquences of ripping Benjamin Franklin from the late 1700’s and planting him in the present. Little did I know that television producers were already working on a similar idea for reality television. In early 2004, UPN, which is owned by CBS which is owned by Viacom, announced its plans to launch a new reality series tentatively titled Amish in the City. This series will follow a group of Amish youth as they embark on Rumspringa — a period of an Amish youth’s life when, at 16 years old, he or she has the option to depart the Amish faith to experience the “English” (modern) way of life. CBS chairman Les Moonves unveiled this program insisting that it is “not intended to be insulting to the Amish, but to have people who have never had television, who will walk down Rodeo Drive and be freaked out by what they see.”

The idea of gawking at Amish lost in modern society has been a popular theme of movies and television from Witness to the Farrelly Brother’s Kingpin. The Amish are an easy target for the media. The Amish don’t watch the media that mocks them and they can’t/won’t fight back.

One of the latest movies that directly influenced UPN to create this project is Devil’s Playground. This documentary chronicles the exploits of Amish teenagers as they try to reconcile the world in relation to their religious community — like kids in a candy store that sells drugs, cars, and cellphones. Two of Devil’s Playground’s producers are executive producers on the UPN series.

Amish in the City rose to the top like television flotsam in the wake of CBS’s sinking attempt to make a reality series based on the 60’s television series, the Beverly Hillbillies. The Real Beverly Hillbillies is still floating in production limbo due to protests raised by agrestic communities and organizations like the Center for Rural Strategies. However, Moonves cracked that the Amish “don’t have quite as good a lobbying effort.”

If UPN/CBS/Viacom are looking for people sans legal representation who are ignorant to the methods and the nature of reality television, they will next be plucking African Bushmen from their huts to star in The Gods Must Be Crazy for Reality TV.

It is obvious that UPN/CBS/Viacom are looking to garner viewership through sensationalism, as most reality programming is wont to do. Water cooler talk and outraged press are great forms of free advertising. Plus the viewing public just can’t avert it’s eyes from television wreckage. But it is now evident that Viacom is also employing itself as a source of “free advertising.” CBS News contributer, Lloyd Garver, is using this as fodder for his own commentary. He begins his Op-Ed piece by stating, “You can no longer spoof ‘reality shows.’ They’re spoofing themselves.” Or in other words, “You can no longer spoof ‘reality shows.’ We’re doing it ourselves.” CBS using UPN for “News” (or is it the other way around?) is like FOX News trying to disguise last night’s American Idol results as “News” instead of a commercial in news’s clothing.

The intricate scheming of television conglomerations is absolutely new to the Amish which makes them a prime target. A Washington Post article mentioned one critic in attendance at the UPN press tour who asked “why on earth they would allow television producers to manipulate and massage a ceremony that will literally alter the course of these kids’ lives.” Moonves’s response was simply, “Well, we couldn’t do The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Bibliography:

• New series to follow ‘Amish in the City’ (CNN)
• Reality TV Goes Amish — and Amiss (Washington Post)
• UPN Show Is Called Insensitive to Amish (New York Times)
• Viacom’s Dominion (Viacom’s media companies)