Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2005 > August > 03 > Entry
‘Mister Mom’ not bad, Danny so sad …
Stumbled on NBC’s new reality show “Meet Mister Mom” last night, and guess what? It’s not awful.
In fact, it was actually funny and sweet. The first episode featured two Austin families, which we wrote about in Saturday’s paper.
The concept is simple: Two families give up their moms, and the dads take over. They are graded on things like parenting, nutrition and time management. The dads face challenges, such as hosting spend-the-night parties and building soap-box racers.
Meanwhile, the moms are off enjoying life at a spa or learning how to do fancy bartender tricks.
The prize is $25,000 for an education fund.
Future episodes won’t be filmed in Austin, but if the future chosen families are anything like the Smiths and the Potters of Austin, “Mister Mom” should hold up. Both families were chaotic but loving, and both dads were good dads from the get-go. And by the end of the hour, they had new appreciation for their wives and kids.
There were nice little touches along the way, like the Potter Dad “bonding” with a llama that was sent to the house as an extra pet-caring duty. Romantic music and slow-mo scenes showed him walking with and kissing said llama. Warm and fuzzy.
The best news is the kids were not brats. Most reality shows portray parents as inept and kids as brats. “Mister Mom,” at least in the early going, is considerably more appealing than the average family reality disaster.
Give ‘Real World’ Danny a break!
If I hadn’t interviewed Danny at the end of “The Real World: Austin” filming in May, I might wonder if the Boston kid survived.
Last night’s episode of the MTV hit reality show found Danny having yet another really bad day. Remember, in the show’s second episode, Danny got into a fight on Sixth Street and broke a bone in his face. He had surgery in another episode and has been sporting an ice-pack and a sad demeanor ever since.
Last night Danny finally got his stitches out and made elaborate Valentine’s Day plans with squeeze Melinda. But cupid’s wings were clipped by bad news from home: Danny’s mother died.
This kid can’t catch a break. We know he does survive the series, but will he have to endure even more hardship along the way? I hope not. It’s time for sexist pig Wes to get his comeuppance.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Ratings
Comments
By Sarah
August 3, 2005 03:15 PM | Link to this
poor danny!