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Friday, August 15, 2008
8/15: Pseudo reality with Bobby Brown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All reality shows are contrived to varying degrees. Some can offer the illusion of documentary-type truth better than others “The Hills” can sometimes pull this off to the point that it looks downright cinematic. Competition shows such as “Idol” and “The Amazing Race” use the competitive device to get “real” reactions. It’s hard to say what “Outsiders Inn” on CMT (10 p.m. Fridays) exactly is.
There is very little set up for this show when you watch it. Maureen McCormick leases an inn in the Smoky Mountains in Newport, Tenn. (population: 7,000). She recruits former Atlantan Bobby Brown and Carnie Wilson (fellow alums from “Gone Country”) to join her. Wilson is the chef and Brown is the “entertainment director.” Sure, that really happened spontaneously, right?
Well, no.
This is basically an idea contrived by executives at CMT to try to recapture the magic of the trio’s chemistry from “Gone Country.” (It’s a spinoff! Reality does it just like scripted TV. See Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav, which started on”Surreal Life” and ended up on “Strange Love.” New York got multiple spinoffs from “Flavor of Love.” And how can we forget Christopher Knight and Adrianna Curry, who went from “Surreal Life” to “My Fair Brady.” Thanks VH1!)
It’s not even an original idea in reality land. Tori Spelling did the inn thang a couple of years ago.
But face it: all three need a paycheck. So why not?
Bobby himself explains the “Outsiders Inn” concept in this blog on the CMT Web site. I have my doubts he actually wrote this blog. I suspect he told it to some CMT staffer, who dutifully taped it and transcribed:
Me, Carnie Wilson and Maureen McCormick became really close on Gone Country, and we decided we wanted to work together again. CMT was wanting us to be a part of the CMT family and we graciously accepted. Outsiders Inn was an idea that was brought to our attention, and we worked on it and we had a lot of fun.
Is the show actually entertaining? Somewhat. But the fresh chemistry formed during “Gone Country” feels more calculated now because it’s done simply for TV’s sake.
In the first episode, Maureen and Carnie go shopping. Bobby buys a piano for $300 and free meals at a spa place that doubles as a liquor store in a dry county. (Okay…). Three locals join Bobby back at his pad, where they drink what Bobby thinks tastes like rubbing alcohol that burns his throat. Yet he keeps drinking it. An older couple cools their heels waiting for Maureen and Carnie to return. Maureen struggles with a pen, then an elevator. Carnie cooks. The three men show up to eat dinner unannounced, catching Carnie and Maureen unawares. Bobby is shown sleeping off the liquor.
Carnie has to cook extra food and is annoyed. Maureen gets in Bobby’s face when he wakes up but no fisticuffs. The men are demanding (but not in an overly mean way.) Everyone eventually gets a meal. After dinner, the local guys play some music for the old couple, who later “do it” in the roof. Carnie, Bobby and Maureen laugh off day one on the front porch.
I interviewed Carnie, former singer for Wilson Phillips and “Celebrity Fit Club” alum, since Bobby isn’t exactly easy to get on the phone.
“I thought the idea was really fun,” Carnie said. “And truthfully, any time I get to cook, I’m happy.” Heck, she was cooking butternut squash soup as we did the interview.
She said this was actually more relaxing than “Gone Country.” “That was a competition. We got no sleep. There were cameras 24 hours a day. This was more fun and more mellow although it was crazy at times.” She said she’d be willing to do it again.
Wilson said she liked Tennessee so much, she’s considering moving there, though she’d choose Nashville. (Other options: Palm Springs or Pennsylvania, where her husband is from). “Newport is in the middle of nowhere,” she said. But this 2,000 square foot Georgian colonial mansion was quite lovely as a bed and breakfast.
“We had weird guests. Awkward requests. S**t that you wouldn’t expect to happen. There was a huge goat who came by eating my pickles. I was really angry. We had an animal courtship convention come by.” (I didn’t even want to know what that was about!) She noted that the locals made the show funnier. One guy who played the banjo (Leroy) was so funny, he became a regular.
She said she cooked a lot of comfort food such as meatloaf, bread pudding and mac and cheese. “I did some really nice turkey chili. I did a lot of baking,” she said. She not only fed the guests but the crew and staff picked off her food, too. “I went nuts making multiple dishes!” she said.
Her take on Maureen: “She’s extremely passionate. I usually need an earplug.” Carnie’s verbal style is more like the seven words we can’t use here while Maureen is “like dandelions and sunshine. She loves it. Are you kidding? There’s a twisted gal in there.” She said it took her six months to get past the fact Maureen was NOT Marcia Brady. “It’s so ingrained in our brains, her look, her voice.” Yet she loves Maureen, too: “We talk three times a week. We got very close during both shows.” They’d stay up late at night after the cameras were off (usually around 10 or 11) and share life experiences. “We went through similar inner struggles,” she said.
Her take on Bobby Brown: “He behaved surprisingly well.” (Oh, bummer!) He went deer hunting and played lots of music, of course. She said off camera, “Bobby was more private. He secludes and does his own thing. And he was with his girlfriend [who is not seen on the show.] He stayed in this guest house on the property.”
She said she related to Bobby and “that crazy addictive unpredictable thing. He loves to cook. He loves children. He’s really emotional and sensitive.” He was also weird about food. He loved fried food and would prepare stuff himself and not eat her healthier fare.
The shoot lasted 26 days with only three days off. One quirk that drove her nuts about the South: “The people talk so *ing slow! ‘Hi. My name is Leroy’ takes five minutes. When we first met Leroy, the banjo player, we had to keep reshooting it. My mouth would drop to the floor. I couldn’t believe this person was real. He was just the most absolutely pure person I’ve ever met.”
She said the dialogue was improvised but the producers would tell them to do stuff. “There’d be a scene in which you guys go in a store and you’ll encounter something there. Now go!” “It was very organic,” she said. “It was true natural reactions.”
If you visit Newport, Tenn., check out the inn, which is actually called The Christopher Place.. The show called it Pigeon Manor. “I didn’t like the name,” Carnie said. “It’s like ‘Welcome to bird **it inn.’ I hate pigeons!”
