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Sen byrd has reality show idea { July 26 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003072618/In case Moonves was tuning into C-SPAN, Byrd shared his ideas for a new reality show: take television network executives and relocate them to "the sticks," where they have to find a job with health care and pension benefits.
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003072618/
Show angers Byrd Senator says many television offerings are ‘garbage'
Karin Fischer
Daily Mail Washington bureau
Saturday July 26, 2003; 10:00 AM
WASHINGTON -- If trash talk show host and Democratic Senate candidate Jerry Springer does convince the people of Ohio to send him to Washington, he shouldn't anticipate a warm welcome from Sen. Robert Byrd.
Byrd, D-W.Va., took on "The Jerry Springer Show," "Temptation Island" and "Fear Factor" during a Friday afternoon tirade against the "low-grade garbage" that airs on commercial television.
By the way, he doesn't think much of White House intern-turned "Mr. Personality" host Monica Lewinsky or late night talk show host Jay Leno.
What so got under Byrd's craw?
"The Real Beverly Hillbillies."
The proposed CBS reality show would transport a rural, possibly Appalachian, family to Los Angeles, where they would live in a mansion, hire servants and hobnob with movie stars. Cameras would record how they adjust to the luxury life.
CBS has been doing what Byrd termed "hick hunts" for nearly a year, to the protests of everyone from Southern politicians to the United Mine Workers.
CBS president Leslie Moonves recently said he hasn't given up on the idea, apparently rousing Byrd's ire.
Marveling at what he called the "insensitivity and mean-spiritedness" of the proposed series, Byrd said Appalachians are one of the few groups still acceptable to mock and stereotype. Leno, he said, would have more to worry about than competitor David Letterman if he made similar jokes about other racial, regional or ethnic groups.
Byrd, who says he watches little television, nonetheless expressed scorn for "garbage" shows created by "bottom feeders," a list that includes "Joe Millionaire," "Mr. Personality" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," a sentiment that may not win him the votes of teenage girls.
"I have to ask, ‘Is this the best they can do?' Is this the best television has to offer," Byrd said. "Unfortunately, it is. Just when you think the television standards can get no lower they do."
He's not a much bigger fan of older programming that stereotypes the South, including "Green Acres," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Waltons," which he says had "uplifting storylines" but romanticized poverty.
"Poverty is beautiful when you are not poor," Byrd said.
In case Moonves was tuning into C-SPAN, Byrd shared his ideas for a new reality show: take television network executives and relocate them to "the sticks," where they have to find a job with health care and pension benefits.
Writer Karin Fischer can be reached at (202) 662-8732.
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