This week’s discussion: America’s Most Smartest Model, Eps. 1-3. Watch it on Hulu.
Next week’s discussion: The Only Way Is Essex, Season 18, Eps. 1-3. Watch it on Hulu.
Our very first episode! We introduce the format and goals of the podcast as well as discussing our previous experiences with reality TV and our preconceptions of it going into the show. We then get to the meat of the episode where we discuss the show’s humor, product placement, outdated technology, reliance on stereotypes, and gender/body politics. We also speculate as to why this show failed to be renewed and delve into what makes a reality TV series successful.
Show Notes and Links
1:20 / Introducing our show’s format and goals
3:32 / Our experiences with reality TV and our reality TV touchstones
JS: Survivor (season 1), American Idol (season 5), COPS
Mike: Blind Date, The Jerry Springer Show, Jersey Shore, Mike’s Challenger moment and possible new reality TV show pitch
9:22 / Our preconceptions and stereotypes of reality TV
11:07 / Gender and Reality TV fights
12:23 / Our (not very extensive) experiences with America’s Next Top Model, Mike mentions Tyra Banks’ Oprah rip-off
13:11 / Concept of America’s Most Smartest Model
14:14 / The show’s judges
14:50 / The ‘point’ of the show
15:34 / Questions about the contestant interview process
16:10 / This is not a show about merit
17:00 / Issues with pacing and questions about timescale
18:23 / The show’s body politics
20:53 / Back on topic with discussion of the contestants
26:25 / Stacking the deck on gender and ‘dumb model’ stereotypes
27:37 / Mike’s theory on the dominant ideology of reality TV
28:47 / JS thinks the show is reminiscent of the movie Zoolander
29:20 / Celebrates modeling industry despite poking fun at stereotypes, Product placement
31:13 / Mean-spiritedness of show’s humor, fashion industry; is it a hallmark of reality TV?
33:24 / Mike preferred the meanness being channeled into zany challenges rather than mean comments (He also forgot to mention the commercials they had to film while taking an ice-cold shower, that was funny too)
34:41 / Being put off by some of the show’s gender politics, particularly Mary Alice’s dismissive response to a contestant’s concerns about being approached by male strangers (she’d get pilloried on Twitter if this show aired today) and Ben Stein’s leering
36:03 / They’d have to take the smartphones away if they re-did this show today
37:35 / Reveling in the shittiness of this show’s video post-production quality, Mike mentions the 90’s vintage VH1 show Pop-Up Video
39:20 / The show’s bipolar attitude towards the fashion industry’s relationship to sex, Mike thinks Mary Alice needs to get off her high horse
41:30 / Mike thought that the show’s attempt to change gears and get us to sympathize with the participants in the finale was a failure
42:06 / JS compares the narrative arc of reality TV competition to horror
42:57 / Discussing the finale
44:40 / Mike hadn’t seen a reality TV competition finals with two ‘designated villains’ (admittedly drawing from a limited sample)
45:15 / Who we found (kind of) sympathetic and our difficulties sympathizing with the contestants, Mike mentions the Grand Guignol Theatre
47:13 / Mary Alice’s myopic attitude towards non-modeling interests
51:05 / The Wikipedia page for the show
51:23 / Reality TV as a ‘springboard’ to notoriety
52:43 / The Calvinball-esque quality of the competition element and Mary Alice’s odd “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” attitude and strange judging criterion
54:31 / Mike has a grander theory about the show; JS is skeptical
55:14 / Discussing why this show was not renewed; JS thinks the lack of fairness in the competition undermined the show’s prospects
57:32 / Would playing it straighter have helped?
57:57 / The ‘Borat’ problem; if the show is successful, it’s harder to replicate because everyone is in on the joke
59:02 / Is the show too gimmicky to sustain itself beyond a season?
1:00:04 / JS thinks celebrating success is an integral part of successful reality TV competition
1:00:51 / Mike thinks the show lost steam because it became more of a ‘regular’ modeling show as it went on, but thought it had fun moments with the creative challenges
1:02:41 / JS thinks the most successful moments were the challenges that forced the contestants to be creative
1:03:50 / The answer to what would make this show succeed: America’s Next Top Model
1:04:30 / The ‘novelty Christmas album’ of reality shows; works best as a one-off
1:05:10 / Why people come back to new seasons of reality TV shows, JS mentions the show Chopped
1:05:55 / This show doesn’t celebrate success, but failure
1:07:13 / Mike liked this show more than JS because he likes watching people fail
1:08:06 / Comparing this show to Top Chef (or more accurately, Mike’s second-hand impression of Top Chef), Trade-offs of focusing on humor v. competition, accessibility vs. sustainability
1:10:01 / Failure can be sustainable, but needs variation
1:10:46 / Mike found some weeks of competition worked better than others on a merit-level, but the bogus competitions sometimes led to entertaining results
1:11:41 / Discussing the humor of the quirks of some of the contestants
1:15:02 / Reality TV humor and ‘creative editing’
1:16:09 / Mike goes on a tangent about Jersey Shore (get used to this)
1:17:10 / JS wraps up with a discussion of gender stereotypes and humor, picks on the poor women and their laughter
1:18:42 / Signing off and announcing next week’s show
[…] / Different from America’s Most Smartest Model, but both share a worldview that plays on […]
LikeLike
[…] 1:29:55 / Would a more sincere matchmaking show be as successful as this one? (Our original conversation about success and failure in reality TV took place in our first episode) […]
LikeLike
[…] / This show, like other reality shows we’ve watched, is very focused on individual control and individual […]
LikeLike
[…] / The emphasis on age and ‘generation gaps’ stuck out to Mike in comparison to other shows we’ve watched, which emphasize […]
LikeLike
[…] / Comparing this show to America’s Next Most Smartest Model and America’s Next Top Model; JS found how it puts children into an adult setting […]
LikeLike
[…] 32:55 / Returning to the topic of stereotypes and reality TV (Mike’s ‘theory’ was stated in Episode 1) […]
LikeLike
[…] / Introducing this week’s show (eventually); Mike mentions America’s Smartest Model, The Surreal Life, and Flavor of […]
LikeLike
[…] 2:00 / Revisiting our conception of reality TV (Episode 1 is here) […]
LikeLike
[…] / Mike’s memories of the show as a kid (callback to Episode 1); here’s a ‘review’ of the porn site Mike mentioned for all you pervs (NSFW, […]
LikeLike
[…] with Dave on Hell’s Satans is here and our first episode on America’s Most Smartest Model is here): The Fashion Hero and Behind Bars: America’s Toughest […]
LikeLike
[…] / Mike makes a call-back to our first episode and compares the two shows in terms of the relationships they fostered between […]
LikeLike
[…] towards the derivative nature of this show and our prior experience with COPS (our first episode is here, the COPS theme […]
LikeLike
[…] 20:10 / Coming back to the worldview and comparing it with Springer – small ‘c’ conservatism in a tawdry package (our discussion of this in Episode 1) […]
LikeLike
[…] 37:45 / Contrasting the original worldview to that of the reboot (the Guardian article Mike mentioned is here; our episodes on The Fashion Hero and America’s Most Smartest Model) […]
LikeLike
First of all the show is kind of lame and some of the challenges are actually quite nasty! VJ is a liar and a downright cheater. The rule was that everyone was to get a certain amount of time with the script and while the other contestants respected the rule, he was a sneaky cheat. At the beginning of the show I liked him, but episode by episode he became more and more repugnant. It was obvious Mary Alice liked him and I am sure she wanted him to win right from the beginning. .MOST IMPORTANT…t tho, ben stein and mary alice stephenson are mean and cruel ben was like a lascivious dirty old man …especially with regard to mandy lynne..hard to believe he is still walking around and has not been called out on his creepy behavior. Both of them were rude and unnecessarily insulting…especially with the elimination of Jessie and the snide reference to when the Fat Lady sings… It is never OK to body shame a person like they did with Jessie. Yes, I get it that most models need to be fit and slim, altho in this day and age, as in Ashley Graham has shown, there needs to be more acceptance of the real sizes of people and this should be applicable for men too. Both ben and mary alice have displayed their very obvious preferences..they are not impartial at all nor do they judge fairly on just merit. I hope this show, which is in such poor taste, is either totally dropped, or at best, finds new hosts and evolves to a higher level just like it asks models to do. In the beginning I so disliked Andre, however the real POS was VJ
LikeLike