Southie Isn't Interested in Reality TV
What you’re about to read is the formal announcement for a show that’s looking to find and follow five real South Boston housewives and their families. (Note: This could sound very, very familiar to those of you who’ve followed the Real Housewives of South Boston parody that’s been floating around.)
TLC ORDERS WICKED AWESOME NEW SERIES
As one of the nation’s most historic neighborhoods, South Boston is known for hard-working residents who display an outrageous passion for life, family, and town. Now, TLC takes viewers into this tight-knit community in the new TLC series SOUTHIE PRIDE (wt), going inside the homes of five South Boston women as they struggle to make a life for their families and protect the people they love the most.
495 Productions (Jersey Shore) is producing the series for TLC. The series is currently casting, and filmed in South Boston this past weekend as the town suffered through a devastating Super Bowl loss by the Patriots. Eight episodes have been ordered, and the series is scheduled to premiere this Fall.
“Spend some time with the women of South Boston and you quickly learn that pride runs deep, family comes first, and that their friendships and rivalries are forever,” said SallyAnn Salsano, President of 495 Productions. “And, their accents are wicked awesome.”
I honestly can’t decide which part of this is the most ridiculous. Is it the fact that the Jersey Shore makers are trying to jam their reality-TV-coated shoe in the South Boston culture door, after having presumably had their fill of orange people from New Jersey (I’m sorry New Jersey, I don’t mean that)? Is it the fact that their vocabulary has spontaneously and unfortunately developed an excessive fondness for the word ‘wicked?’ Is it the fact that when the Pats lost this weekend, somebody was running around with a camera thinking “This is so great! How wicked is this footage!?”
Wait! I know! It’s all of the above!
What’s more, as BostInno points out, this isn’t even the only show looking for real South Boston women. The optimistic makers of Southies have, since January, also been trying to collect “an extraordinary group of women from South Boston, who appear between 21-35, blue collar, hard working, harder partying, tough talking, damn good looking, wise cracking, sexy Southies.” Apparently, nobody gives a hoot about the men in Southie, possibly because the inspiration for both of these shows was more than likely stemming at least in large part from a YouTube video parody posted in October that happened to feature women and not men.
So far, the TLC crew has mostly been talking to closed doors, according to the Herald:
“We are getting a lot of people shutting doors in our faces. I can’t tell you the amount of times my staff has been told to (buzz) off since we have been there,” said Salsano, who is the creator and executive producer of “Southie Pride.”
The Long Island native said she is not deterred.
“The same people that tell me to (buzz) off are the ones I want,” she said. “In order to not be misrepresented, tell (your story).”
Good luck with that. I’m not sure if this shines on through in my writing here, but I’m not really that much of a reality-TV show kind of person, and so it’s possible I’m just experiencing some highly biased NIMBYism, but I say: good on you, Southie.