Features
Tours de Farce: Must See TV
What happens when you combine some of today’s biggest concert stars, like Bob Dylan, Barry Manilow and Madonna, with heavy machinery that seems to have a mind of its own? That’s the premise behind a new reality show where celebs attempt to build a 16,000 seat amphitheatre in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness using only their combined experiences derived from being America’s favorite live entertainers. Although filming has yet to be completed, producers point to the popularity of a bootlegged clip circulating on the Internet featuring a ticked-off Jessica Simpson running down Hilary Duff with a John Deere 7600 backhoe as proof-positive that this show has “legs.” Fear Tractor debuts this fall on Fox.
Coming up on the WB it’s The Swan with a twist as contestants experience grueling plastic surgery, skin grafts and extreme spinal realignment as they attempt the ultimate makeover which will transform one lucky contestant into an exact mirror image of Joe Walsh. Be sure to catch Knife’s Been Good, Thursday nights at nine on the WB.
Finally, UPN plans on testing the mettle of the average concert goer by filling a 20,000 seat sports arena with obsessed Ozzy Osbourne fans, locking the doors and then instructing the fans to “do what it takes” to obtain a front row seat, all the while introducing foreign elements into the concert experience, including poisonous snakes, rabid dogs and flesh-eating bacteria. Based on a popular North Korean reality show (sans the automatic weapons), Extreme General Admission is considered to be the fall season’s ultimate reality program.
Yes, real-life programs abound on TV’s upcoming fall schedule. Dangerous stunts, death-defying feats of courage and occasional emergency blood transfusions are guaranteed to keep viewers glued to their sets. Or as one anonymous TV exec told us: “Forget ‘Must See’ TV. Come this fall, we’re serving up Must Bleed TV!