Must-read expose of reality TV contracts

One of my Doc's daughters works for American Pickers.

 

It’s a good show.

 

I have friends who work in reality and I've done so a little myself, but not on that side of production. This story is fairly tame. One of the worst stories I've heard involved a contestant's phone being thrown out into the street after being tricked into believing there was a family emergency.

 

have to check it out...thanks.

 

I've worked in reality.

Reality is vastly overrated.

 

: )

 

I always thought Reality TV was a good idea.......until the 'real' runs out. Which doesn't take much time.

Used to love Storage Wars, Pawn Stars and American Pickers. Not anymore.

But I will watch Deadliest Catch, Axemen and Swamp People anytime

 

So basically the situations that can't be rigged by a sleazy producer. The first three you mentioned can easily be rigged by "salting" the storage units or sending in people with items that no one would ever actually pawn.

 

There was a Canadian spin-off of 'American Pickers' - 'Canadian Pickers'. There was an episode in which a teenager sold some items he stored in his bedroom to the two pickers. I read an article in an antique trade magazine written by the teenager about his experience on the show. He applied to be on the show - he was not randomly cold-called nor did a tip lead the pickers to him. The items to be sold were selected before hand and the prices agreed to, as well - the haggling on the show was rehearsed. The scenes and interviews were not shot in sequence and several takes were often photographed; and the dialogue was at least in part coached and scripted. (BTW, the teenager seemed happy with his televised segment and enjoyed the experience and meeting the two hosts.)

Even though I still enjoy watching 'American Pickers', I presume it operates in a similar manner. For example, I do not believe Danielle is researching leads for the guys, but rather some intern or assistant producer combs through applications sent into the show and a thorough vetting process takes place from there.


I enjoy watching 'Forged in Fire' - a show about making swords and other related weapons. The contestants are perhaps the most civil, polite and authentically good-natured people on television. And no-one gets humiliated, either.

 

I love this show, don't really care how much of it is real...that said I heard something last night that bothered me. Mike is a self proclaimed 'bicycle guy' who worked in a bike store, owned a bike store, collects bikes...you get the idea. Last night he was talking about a 70s racing bike and started naming popular racers of the era. He mentioned French racer Bernard Hinault, who as far as I know pronounces his name 'EE-NO.' Mike pronounced it 'HINN-ALT.' Now I know he's from Iowa, but come on.

 

I believe it does. Some are cold calls to the producers & some are invited to be on. I read that Frank, although a collector, wasn't really a picker per se but was asked by Mike, his friend, to join the show. I think Danielle was friends with Mike for sometime, well before the show, IIRC. I'm sure at some point she was researching picks if she worked with him at any point before the show, but at this point, I doubt it.

I still enjoy the show as it's still quite entertaining. You have to figure it can't just be shot in sequence and have everything play out in real time. It would be impossible to do that and make a show watchable. There has to be some scripting involved.

Canadian Pickers fun fact..I know a record shop owner who was cold called by them as they were looking to unload a bunch of lps. He declined to look at them. They pulled the, this is blah blah from Canadian Pickers calling, etc. Didn't impress him. He told them to call Sonic Boom as they tended to buy everything (or were back then).

 

IIRC Danielle owned her own store and Mike wooed her away.

 

There was an article on American Pickers that I think I read here. It's mostly faked. Danielle is an actress friend of Mike's. The guys don't arrive in a van together, they fly in separately and then get filmed driving down the road to the site in the van. Those overhead shots of the van? Not them. The haggling? Not real. A producer shows up first, finds the items, agrees on prices and then the guys show up and "find them".

 

I'd read this too, who knows. I think all of these shows start with a grain of truth, but have to be augmented in order to maintain a production schedule.

 

In this thread: people comparing heavily scripted shows (dramas) with slightly less scripted shows (reality shows). Distinctions without a difference.
I used to watch The Real World back in the day, so I'm not judging, and some people I respect very much watch these shows. This is Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" taken to it's absurd extreme. If it gets you through the day, more power to you.
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one"-Albert Einstein.

 

I contend that the first season of any kind of reality show is generally the best. After that they tend to start grasping.

 

Scripted or even less-scripted is the wrong word to describe reality TV. The fact that new seasons of reality shows were ordered by networks in response to the 2007-2008 writers’ strike is proof alone that the word “scripted” has no place in describing reality TV.

Even then, not all reality TV is created equal. There’s many different types that are all created differently. There’s competition reality (Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race, and various talent completions) that are all different from each other in terms of production). Then there’s the Real Housewives and Kardashians type of reality tv. Then you have the TLC type of reality TV. Last you have Discovery Health and TruTV type of reality TV. All these types can’t be simply be lumped together and spoken of in the same way and treated as equals.

 

Well if you think about it you can't really have a camera crew following Mike and Frank as they drive from Iowa to California or wherever. It doesn't make much sense production wise in terms of costs or time. Location shots e.g overhead shots are of course not going to be about them. They probably have a whole bunch of those already in their library and cut them in. I bet if someone was vigilant enough they'd see the same footage used in more than one season.

As much as you want everything to be as presented it really can't be for logistic reasons. Otherwise you might as well just give them a go pro, let them go on a picking trip and cut the footage and then nobody would watch. lol.

What makes these shows watchable isn't how they get it done but rather who the presenters are. Are you buying into their personalities or not? I keep watching American Pickers but I like watching those two guys. It's what all reality TV shows come down; the characters.

 

So during a lull today I asked him if he had any dirt on the show. He said his daughter is one of the researchers. Yes they do scout out all the picks and yes they do find items ahead of time and yes they do arrange prices. That said, sometimes the sellers change their tune.

So when Mike picks up a hand mixer and starts talking about how it was made in Nebraska by Irish immigrants using tools he made himself...that's all HER research work. The Dr. I work with collects presidential campaign buttons and gets mad when they pass over them at picks. I told him they need to make him one of those 'experts' they send a few pictures to for identification and prices. He doesn't even have to appear on the show, just phone calls. She said no

 

Remember the ghetto pawn shop show that was on a few years ago, "Hardcore Pawn"? They called a friend of mine when he had something active on eBay. They suggested if he ended the auction and paid his own way to godforsaken Detroit (from Texas) to show up at their pawn shop with it, they'd buy it for some small amount over the bid he'd already received, plus he'd get to be on the teevee. He politely told them to bite his crank.

 

See my observation above about cocaine. There is a great deal wrong with liking something that is so manipulative and calculated with zero regard for the people involved. I'm all for entertainment, but I encourage you to engage your critical thinking skills and consider what you're actually consuming when you watch this stuff.

 

No, no, no. If you take the time to read my earlier comments and the comments they replied to, you will find that I am not defending reality shows at all. I find them insulting to my intelligence and I don’t like how they’re constructed or how they “flow”.

I am saying that is why I think people have turned shows on cable channels such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and such. I think people are tired of garbage “reality” TV shows and have turned to these shows for a reason!

 

They might well try it, but it probably would fail. First, the author is a media-savvy individual. She would have zero problem turning it into a very ugly and damaging PR disaster for the show, its stars, and its production company. Moreover, I suspect the publicity and the obviously offensive and bullying nature of such a suit would result in offers of high quality pro bono legal assistance from outfits like the EFF.

On the merits, and without researching the question more thoroughly, I suspect such a claim would be a loser. The only potential IP right in the text of the contract would be copyright, and an infringement claim likely would fail for numerous reasons:

1. It would almost certainly be fair use, since the purpose would be to illustrate the nature of such contracts, which is a matter of social, legal and political concern and therefore directly in the wheelhouse of fair use.
2. To be protected it has to be an original work of authorship. Most contracts are an ocean of borrowed/cribbed boilerplate, with a pool of language and provisions tailored to a particular situation.
3. There presumably would have been no attempt to exploit the contract commercially (e.g., selling it as a form contract through Legal Zoom).