I know you forum members don't like reality shows, but there is one that comes on every Wednsday night on ABC. The premise is that the shows bosses pick two wife/mothers from totally opposite homes and lifestyles in two different cities and states, apart from each other, and switch them, lock, stock, and barrell for two weeks. For two weeks, they get the other's home, family, and even husband (no sex, i'm sure, but who knows...). The two wives and families are not allowed to meet each other until the experiment is over. The first week, the women have to follow the life of the other woman, as detailed in a series of instructions. The second week, the women get to impose their own lifestyle and rules on the families they are with. This is where the fun begins. Usually, the children rebel bigtime, but have to abide by the woman's new rules. This goes as far as diet, cleaning, traditions, flags, leisure time, pets, you name it! At the end, the two couple finally meet and sit down to discuss the experiment, and someone is always angry or hurt. But, in the end, both families learn life lessons from each other, and adopt some of the other familiy's lifestyle. In one show, the substitute "wife" went so far as to remove all the guns from the house and demanded the confederate flag be removed from the front. In another show, a family of vegetarians were forced to eat lots of meat and no veggies, while the pre-pubecent boy in the other actually had to dress himself and comb his own hair. In one show, the house was so filthy that the little gorl had ants crawling on her panties in her drawer. To be sure, this isn't meant to be funny, but it is a serious social experiment. It also lets us see how people *really* live. It reminds us that no two houeseholds are the same, and that we are a nation of a dizzying amount of lifestyles and cultures. Some families are complete slobs, and don't ever clean. Some are total cleanliness nuts. Some fly flags and are very outwardly patriotic, some aren't. Some meditate daily, and some don't have time to sit still. I missed the episode where the rich NY wife had to trade places with a pig farmer!
It's an interesting show, though I can see it getting stale fairly quickly. That episode was good, the rich NY husband was a big ********.
This is the show where the FOX network allegedly stole the idea and put their version out first this past summer. The FOX version pales in comparison, an obviously thrown together show. The ABC Wife Swap is more interesting in that it gives more insight into how the "new mom" is affecting their lives and how much they really took for granted their real mother/wife. The FOX version is more of a game show because at the end there is a money prize, and it doesn't delve as deeply into the emotional aspect of it all. I think Wife Swap is a good show. It's interesting to see how different 2 families can be, and the families seem to take something good away from the experience.
I saw the one with a multi-millionaire NYC semi-socialite who has never worked and a NJ housewife that needs to chop wood for a few hours a day to make ends meet. The socialite hardly ever sees her kids....nanny's do all the work including feeding the kids. The socialite gets to go out for expensive dinners every night. Very sad. The NJ housewife was shocked by that couple's behavior.
They later appeared on Oprahp and the husband went to NJ to chop wood for the day to make up for his behavior. The socialite wife reminds me of the infamous Lizzy Grubman. She also appeared on Oprah and now spends more time with her kids. Thats nice.
I missed that...Would've love to hear his comments during the chopping...reminds me of a Howard Stern without the Howard...
The socialite one was the only one I missed! Damn! Oh well, if the show runs throiught the whole season, I will catch the reruns.
ABC just picked up Wife Swap for the full season (22 episodes) plus ordered two special episodes (Husband Swap & Boss Swap) as potential spin offs. You can read about it here. I guess it has been pulling down respectable numbers in a tough time-slot against formidable competition. Gary
The "socialites" husband was very contrite on the Oprah show as he had to be because he came off as a total *** on Wife Swap. Wife Swap may have actually saved that family because have your kids raised by 3 nannies was gonna cause problems down the road. That couple hardly did anything with those kids.
Those kids are going to have to deal with having an ******e for a father anyhow. If that guy can't even behave when he has cameras following him around, can you imagine what he's like normally?
