Kid Nation.

Reality TV. No, wait... don't leave the thread just yet.

Ok, I realise that the above may immediately prompt some to run from this and I completely understand why. I have caught very little of the numerous 'reality' shows and am a social outcast (yes, even more than usual) when the likes of Big Brother fever grip the nation. I just can't see why I should find this dross entertaining or of any value at all... (wanders off ranting...).

This one I may take a peek at though:

Lord of the Flies goes live for reality TV

· Children left to fend for themselves in ghost town
· Participants aged between 8 and 15 to set own rules

Ed Pilkington in New York
Friday May 18, 2007
The Guardian

In the hands of a master such as William Golding, the subject matter makes for awe-inspiring literature. But in the hands of the producer of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? And as reality TV?

CBS television, desperate for a hit to follow on from its reality shows Survivor and Amazing Race, has had the bright idea of emulating Lord of the Flies, Golding's 1954 dark masterpiece that earned him the Nobel prize for literature. The network has chosen 40 kids aged eight to 15 who will be left to their own devices for 40 days in a ghost town in New Mexico.

Continued at source...

Could be interesting, could of course be absolute pants.*

Jak



*Huge disclaimer quite clearly stating that the responsibility over any loss of consciousness caused through watching any reality TV programmes lies elsewhere and at no time may the author of this thread be approached in the street and poked vigorously with sticks, pointy or otherwise, for wasting what could have been potentially valuable time in your life.

So child abuse goes PrimeTime...woohoo. Must see tv indeed...

And they, TV executives, wonder why TV was called a vast wasteland. Yet another show you couldn't pay me to watch. Now then...

I know I had a pointy stick around here somewhere...

I certainly hope they take all the scissors...

YOU know what your Momma said!!!!!

We don't want a bunch of one eyed kids running around..

LOL

Semper

I've heard of stupid concepts but this one takes the cake. Putting a bunch of kids at risk just for ratings just how low do they intend to go? Prime time chld abuse is one way to phrase it. The sad thing is their will be parents who allow their children to do this in pursuit the the almighty dollar. Have our morals decended to this level? Lord, I hope not.

Wait a minute Seagull I'll help you find two pointy sticks. I'm pretty darn sure I can think of few uses for them. Here greedy little TV executives I've got something for you.

Hmm can anyone say Lord of the Flies???

They claim they are left alone but i guarentee you this kids wont be. They will have food there and will keep suppling them, and they will have to act halfway right cause if anything goes down their will be ppl there in a minute. If they are they network would be liable for all kinds of charges of abuse and explotation. Hmm wonder how they got this through child labor laws since they will be "working" 24/7.

Man we may have bottomed out here as a society. :shk:

I agree with you, JAK, I really can't stand reality shows either.
Maybe someone will call Children's Protective Services on this one.
Gadzooks, this really is hitting bottom. How much lower can we go?

Originally posted by Quicksilver
Hmm can anyone say Lord of the Flies???

You beat me to it! That was the first thing to pop into my mind. Since it's a ghost town setting, I guess there won't be the mighty conch shell form of government. This concept is just creepy.

I am also wondering about the child labor laws on this. Hollywood has long had to deal with the X number of hours children can work in one day. Perhaps, there is some loophole that allows them to say that the kids really aren't "working" per se. Talk about exploitation.

It's sometimes too easy to tell who clicks the links and who doesn't.

Of course the children will not be left alone. Adults will have to run the show or there won't be any video tape to air.

Reality shows bite because just having a camera present alters reality and, of course, all those tech people running around doing all the stuff techies have to do, influences behavior.

With all the publicity, you know that Child Protective Services will have a hand in insuring the welfare of the kids.

Maybe this is the death knell of reality shows, which networks love because they don't have to hassle with all those cranky writers and actors and their unions.

I don't think we've bottomed out as a society.

We haven't started throwing people to the lions for entertainment yet.



[edit on 2007/5/18 by GradyPhilpott]

Grady you're right there will be adults present by necessity. However, I still find the exploitation of kids by both the network and their parents for money repugnant. I truly hope your right and this is the death knell for reality TV.

While on the topic of reality TV, acceptable entertainment and its standards, today and I noticed this :

Australian Big Brother under fire

The Australian version of the TV programme Big Brother has come under criticism for deciding not to tell a contestant that her father had died.

Emma Cornell has been cut off from the outside world since entering the reality TV show's house a month ago.

She still does not know that her father Raymond died of cancer last week.

Jak

[edit on 25/5/07 by JAK]

As it was said earlier in the thread, 'reality' tv isn't real. I know when I'm being filmed, even just by my brother for family stuff, I change in the way I act.

As for tv, take that Big Brother thing for a start. Stick a bunch of people alone together in a house with no outside contact for 3 months. How is that real? People aren't going to act 'normal' in a situation like that, and the people auditioning for it are all whacked out anyway. I friend of mine was a helper on the Belfast auditions for BB a couple of years ago and she said the amount of men turning up in drag was beyond belief! And this is supposed to be the most conservative part of the UK! I dread to think what the London auditions were like...

This 'Lord of the Flies' thing won't be normal either. As has been said, there will be child-welfare officers on the set and the kids won't have to fight for food. I can see stroppy teenagers doing the stuff teenagers do, but the first hint of violence or (dare I say it) sexual activity and the adults will be in there like a shot to close it down.

If tv producers want total reality then they should film people without their knowledge with hidden cameras. Oh right, the government already do that do, it's called 'security' isn't it?

As I was reading the posts, I initially agreed with most.

But childhood memories began flooding back. We were left free to roam. The beach was on our doorstep and a long, narrow peninsula consisting almost entirely of sandhills and water-holes, commenced just metres away. It went for miles and miles.

Parenting was different in those days and children were made responsible for their own safety. We kids would meet up early in the morning on school holidays and weekends --- and that was the last our parents saw of us until near darkness. We were expected to safeguard ourselves and our younger siblings.

I can remember at least three (no, four, five, six, twenty) occasions on which our lives were definitely on the line. For example, my younger sister and even younger brother (about seven and three respectively) hopped into a dinghy (small rowboat) which they assumed was anchored. Only when they were in the middle of the wide river and being carried off by the current, did they realise they had no means of either steering the boat or getting it back to shore. Fortunately, some good samaritan rowed out and saved them. I was at school at the time. On that occasion, our parents did hear about the escapade, from the neighbour who'd supposedly been caring for the younger two. She nearly had a heart attack and refused further 'child care' duties !

On another occasion, a bunch of us (aged about seven years old, bit more, bit less, in some cases) decided to hollow out a sandhill to make a cubby-house. It took a day or so. We then raided our homes for 'provisions', consisting of bananas, some cakes and bottles of drink, a pack each of sugar and tea, a billy-can for water and a bottle of kerosene and some matches. There we were, enclosed in a sand-cave, the only 'door' being the hole at the top. With bunches of dried grass and some twigs, we tried to make a fire to boil the can of water, our intention being to make tea. The fire wouldn't light because the grass was damp, so we threw kerosene onto it, the way our father's did to get bar-b-ques going.

There must have been six or more of us in the sand cave when the explosion happened.

Some of us were singed, but we all survived, by some miracle. It sobered us up. I can still remember the adrenaline flooding through my veins. Talk about every child for him/herself. Half of us climbed on others heads in order to get out of what we suddenly realised was a potential sand-coffin. We limped home, scared. But we learned a lot that day. I'm sure it made us better parents when we eventually had children of our own. None of us told our parents at the time, because we guessed (pretty accurately I suspect) that we would have received a good hiding for our stupidity. And by now, we realised we HAD been stupid.

We were caught in bush-fires, nearly drowned in dams and in the ocean and the river, were chased by men who we sensed regarded us differently to the way our fathers and uncles did, fell out of trees, waged 'wars' with other gangs of kids, spied on courting-couples ... and learned our individual strengths and weaknesses.

Occasionally, city kids (whose parents had brought them to the beach for a holiday) wanted to join us. It rarely worked out. Their parents would want 'just some' of us to 'visit for the day', in order, we knew, they could control their own child's activities. It was stifling, being constantly observed and monitored by anxious adults. " Don't climb that -- you'll fall ! Don't sit on the furniture with sand all over you --- that couch cost good money! Don't run around the yard like that --- you'll get sunstroke. Don't be so stupid. Of COURSE you can't go swimming! You ate lunch only an hour ago! You'll drown! "

Poor kids. Their faces showed their misery. Sometimes I'd put up with all the fussing from adults, just to play with the rich-kid's toys or to wander around their palatial (to me) holiday home. Sometimes we really liked those 'outsider' kids. They were fun when allowed to be themselves. But eventually we'd drop them, or tell them they could play with us if they wanted, but OUR way, on our home ground. Those who did manage to sneak away from their overprotective parents had a ball. They discovered and developed a new side to themselves: became spontaneous, self-reliant and participated in the give and take of the group.

Kids are great little survivors when allowed to be. They possess an innate sense of fair-play, will group against bullies and ostracise them -- will defend and assist each other against enormous (for them) odds and are easily capable of acts of heroism, wisdom, empathy and altruism. Living semi-wild develops their intuition and natural abilities enormously.

It's a shame it's not possible to make a genuine ' Kids Survivor' type show, using concealed cameras. It would be refreshing to watch kids behaving naturally, after decades of neurotic, artificial 'children' in movies and tv., who in turn become 'child role models' in many instances, in the minds of parents and children alike.

Real children are interested in death, odours, cruelty, sexuality, violence, tastes, colours, the paranormal, noise, weapons, fire, etc. Left to their own devices and believing themselves unobserved, they would provide entertaining and instructional tv-content that might have the effect of changing many parents' opinions about what 'childhood' is supposed to be.

Of course adults are going to be present on the set of this "reality" TV show. Hopefully that would go without saying...

This is just so exploitive and well rather stupid, ain't none of these kids going to be acting "normal". They know they're on TV and will act accordingly.

I can't even express how stupid I find this idea.

There might be more truth and honesty from pitching people to lions, than this stupidity.

Hmm the show could be quiet interesting but rather then have the kids run a town set in the wild west they should have put the Kids in place of Bush and Congress . I am sure that the kids would do a better job at running the US government then the current flock does.