In television’s reckless race to the bottom, producers have shown us our baser selves in a range of disheartening “reality” series. By now we are accustomed to shows that play on human frailties, rely on deviousness, make contenders feel inadequate or encourage them to be just plain mean.
Some capitalize on adolescent fears and grossness (“Fear Factor”) or focus on physical defects (“The Swan”). Others specialize in backstabbing (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice”). A few use sex as a competitive tool (“The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette”) or combine money and sex as motivators (“Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?”).
Only now have we arrived at a reality series so “real,” it has been deemed too awful for broadcast.
ABC’s “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” a competition for a four-bedroom, three-bath estate on a cul-de-sac near Austin, Texas, depicts bigotry in all its unadulterated ugliness. The series was pulled before its scheduled Sunday broadcast after it was suggested the elimination game violated the Fair Housing Act.
The National Fair Housing Alliance launched a campaign against the show, but ABC blinked. The project could be reworked and kept alive.
Gauging by the first two episodes, which were sent to critics, “Welcome to the Neighborhood” is awful, all right, but hardly worse than the usual “reality” debasement. In fact, this morality play has a positive point to make.
Contenders for the suburban McMansion are unlike the uniformly white, Christian, adamantly Republican residents we see “protecting” their Lone Star neighborhood. Arriving one family at a time, the contestants are Hispanic, gay, African-American, Wiccan, heavily tattooed, Korean – plus one nice-looking Caucasian family (oops, Mom is a stripper).
The competition is about more than dating or prize money. This is a series that looks into the mainstream American soul and finds ignorance and darkness there. It’s about prejudice, bigotry and the trouble with first impressions.
The judgmental cul-de-sac residents come across as uneducated and shameful as they size up the contenders upon arrival.
“Omigod,” one mutters at the sight of a heavily tattooed couple. “My first impression is I don’t like what I’m seein’.”
“I want a family similar to what we are,” states another.
“I don’t understand it, neither do I care to understand it,” says another about the self-described Wicca priestess.
At the end of six episodes, the narrow-minded families evolve to accept the contenders as people, beyond race, ethnicity, religion, national origin or body art. But we’ll never see that part.
ABC released a statement acknowledging the problem:
“Our intention with ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ was to show the transformative process that takes place when people are forced to confront preconceived notions of what makes a good neighbor, and we believe the series delivers exactly that.
“However,” it continued, “the fact that the true change only happens over time made the episodic nature of this series challenging, and given the sensitivity of the subject matter in early episodes, we have decided not to air the series at this time.”
Besides, they could have been sued.
One family got the house, but we don’t know which one.
So for now, reality TV will stick to less-tricky forms. Back to one-upsmanship, scheming, lying and petty treacheries.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
