"Reality" TV
09/12/12 05:27
Oh my! There is a television casting crew in town. They are seeking people to play a part in a television reality show. Charisse Simonian of Big Fish Casting says, “The Dakotas are hot now. It’s kind of like the last great frontier of television that no one has really tackled yet. Your part of the country is kind of like the last place that a lot of people in the country aren’t familiar with – its history and its landscapes. That’s where we want to be.”
Of course they are welcome to be in our town. We don’t even mind if they take pictures. For what it is worth we’re not sad that they paid Trinity Lutheran Church to rent a few parking spaces in the corner of their lot while they stay at the Alex Johnson Hotel. We’re used to tourists. We’re even used to people for whom the place where we live is new and exciting.
But I really can’t think of anyone to recommend for their show. According to their advertisement, “If you’re a survivalist, ranger, sheriff, cowboy, rancher, hunter or tracker and you have a big personality & spend your time outdoors in the beautiful South Dakota country, we are looking for you!” It is an interesting list of jobs. We know people who are sheriff’s deputies, and ranchers. I know some people who get to wear the smoky bear hat of the National Park Service. I guess they’re rangers, though maybe not what the casting company has in mind. Most of the survivalists, hunters and trackers we know don’t pursue those interests full-time. They need day jobs as well. As for spending time “outdoors in the beautiful South Dakota country,” maybe they’d like to follow the woodchucks around for a few days. We do see some really beautiful country.
So I’m not much of a television watcher. We do have a new-to-us flat screen TV in our basement. It is great for watching YouTube videos. We don’t have cable, but there are quite a few interesting programs that can be gotten over the Internet. But it takes time to watch TV and I often have other priorities for the use of my time. People who like to live outdoors have less time for being indoors, I guess.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that television show casting company has no interest in guys who are pushing sixty and whose jobs involve occasionally tackling a pile of paperwork on a desk that is far too messy to be pleasant to look at. And I wouldn’t describe myself as a survivalist. I learned long ago that I need other people in order to make it in this world. I find my time better invested in building community than in figuring out how I will survive without others.
In fact, I find it a bit intriguing to think that anyone would be interested in the stuff of real life in South Dakota. I am no expert. I don’t watch reality TV. But I think that there isn’t anything on TV that is very much based in reality. The way real people live isn’t the stuff of television. If they want to follow a real South Dakota man, they probably have to get used to getting up before daylight all winter long. They have to be understood that cattle have to be fed regardless of the weather. They have to understand that machines break at inconvenient times, that cleaning diesel filters is stinky and so is the stuff underfoot when it warms up a little. Sometimes when things go wrong there are words that would need to be “bleeped” from television. I’ve been out in “the beautiful South Dakota country,” when it is so muddy that you bring a half pound of the stuff into the car when you get out to open a gate. I’ve been out there when it is so windy that their sound crews wouldn’t be able to record voices. I’ve been out in the middle of the country in the middle of the night when there is nothing very interesting to look at. What we see as reality might not be the stuff of television.
It turns out that the casting director isn’t really in Rapid City at all. There is just a crew sent by the company and a lot of advertising. Simonian, it seems, likes the idea of South Dakota far better than she likes the reality. “I’ve never been to South Dakota. Close, though, I’ve been to Minnesota.” They have no idea what the television companies will be interested in – they’re just trying to come up with ideas at this stage. They probably aren’t interested in riding 2 ½ hours in a car to get up to Eagle Butte or in taking the gravel roads through the reservation. They probably don’t want to take pictures of children who have to ride the bus 2 hours a day or of the folks who have to drive for hours to get to a hospital. They probably don’t understand that sometimes it takes the sheriff a couple of hours to get to the other end of the county.
And they probably don’t understand people like me, who will never watch one of their “reality shows.” Real reality is good enough for me. I don’t seem to crave watching someone else’s image of what reality should be like. Actually, I’m thinking that most real South Dakotans don’t go in for all of that drama all of the time in the first place. We sort of enjoy the peace of this place. We like quiet times and enjoy sitting on a rock watching an eagle circle overhead. We go outside at night just to look at the sky. We can sit by the edge of the creek and watch for the fish for half a day. Sometimes we don’t move very much at all.
Now if they’re interested in lots of Dakota Drama, I think their other project is bound to yield plenty. Watching all of those imported Texans dealing with 30 below is a real spectator sport.
Of course they are welcome to be in our town. We don’t even mind if they take pictures. For what it is worth we’re not sad that they paid Trinity Lutheran Church to rent a few parking spaces in the corner of their lot while they stay at the Alex Johnson Hotel. We’re used to tourists. We’re even used to people for whom the place where we live is new and exciting.
But I really can’t think of anyone to recommend for their show. According to their advertisement, “If you’re a survivalist, ranger, sheriff, cowboy, rancher, hunter or tracker and you have a big personality & spend your time outdoors in the beautiful South Dakota country, we are looking for you!” It is an interesting list of jobs. We know people who are sheriff’s deputies, and ranchers. I know some people who get to wear the smoky bear hat of the National Park Service. I guess they’re rangers, though maybe not what the casting company has in mind. Most of the survivalists, hunters and trackers we know don’t pursue those interests full-time. They need day jobs as well. As for spending time “outdoors in the beautiful South Dakota country,” maybe they’d like to follow the woodchucks around for a few days. We do see some really beautiful country.
So I’m not much of a television watcher. We do have a new-to-us flat screen TV in our basement. It is great for watching YouTube videos. We don’t have cable, but there are quite a few interesting programs that can be gotten over the Internet. But it takes time to watch TV and I often have other priorities for the use of my time. People who like to live outdoors have less time for being indoors, I guess.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that television show casting company has no interest in guys who are pushing sixty and whose jobs involve occasionally tackling a pile of paperwork on a desk that is far too messy to be pleasant to look at. And I wouldn’t describe myself as a survivalist. I learned long ago that I need other people in order to make it in this world. I find my time better invested in building community than in figuring out how I will survive without others.
In fact, I find it a bit intriguing to think that anyone would be interested in the stuff of real life in South Dakota. I am no expert. I don’t watch reality TV. But I think that there isn’t anything on TV that is very much based in reality. The way real people live isn’t the stuff of television. If they want to follow a real South Dakota man, they probably have to get used to getting up before daylight all winter long. They have to be understood that cattle have to be fed regardless of the weather. They have to understand that machines break at inconvenient times, that cleaning diesel filters is stinky and so is the stuff underfoot when it warms up a little. Sometimes when things go wrong there are words that would need to be “bleeped” from television. I’ve been out in “the beautiful South Dakota country,” when it is so muddy that you bring a half pound of the stuff into the car when you get out to open a gate. I’ve been out there when it is so windy that their sound crews wouldn’t be able to record voices. I’ve been out in the middle of the country in the middle of the night when there is nothing very interesting to look at. What we see as reality might not be the stuff of television.
It turns out that the casting director isn’t really in Rapid City at all. There is just a crew sent by the company and a lot of advertising. Simonian, it seems, likes the idea of South Dakota far better than she likes the reality. “I’ve never been to South Dakota. Close, though, I’ve been to Minnesota.” They have no idea what the television companies will be interested in – they’re just trying to come up with ideas at this stage. They probably aren’t interested in riding 2 ½ hours in a car to get up to Eagle Butte or in taking the gravel roads through the reservation. They probably don’t want to take pictures of children who have to ride the bus 2 hours a day or of the folks who have to drive for hours to get to a hospital. They probably don’t understand that sometimes it takes the sheriff a couple of hours to get to the other end of the county.
And they probably don’t understand people like me, who will never watch one of their “reality shows.” Real reality is good enough for me. I don’t seem to crave watching someone else’s image of what reality should be like. Actually, I’m thinking that most real South Dakotans don’t go in for all of that drama all of the time in the first place. We sort of enjoy the peace of this place. We like quiet times and enjoy sitting on a rock watching an eagle circle overhead. We go outside at night just to look at the sky. We can sit by the edge of the creek and watch for the fish for half a day. Sometimes we don’t move very much at all.
Now if they’re interested in lots of Dakota Drama, I think their other project is bound to yield plenty. Watching all of those imported Texans dealing with 30 below is a real spectator sport.