Thursday, August 24, 2006

Is it Lucky Number 13 for Survivor?

"The idea for this actually came from the criticism that Survivor is not ethnically diverse enough. It's a social Experiment."
- Jeff Probst (shouldn't need to specify who he is)


When I first heard of this new twist to the Survivor series, my first thought was "here they go again, America's fascination with racial lines continue." So I could safely be put in the "skeptical" column, at least at first. But I have some questions for Jeff Probst. I know this blog has millions of eager readers, so if anyone of you in the multitudes run into Jeff, can you ask him these questions?

  • For the non-white players, are you going to bring in, say, a black lawyer, an asian physicist, and a hispanic lawyer? If you so, are you prepared for the same backlash when "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", starring Sidney Pothier, was released: minorities better become doctors or lawyers or the like if they want to matter.
  • For your ethnicities, how "pure" (excuse the use of the term) will you ethnic groups be? There's so much mixing going on in the past 30 years, who's really pure white, or pure black, or pure hispanic any more? My aunt is black, so my first cousin is mixed. I'm sure my family's not the only mixed race group, are we?
  • What guidelines are you going to have in place for the game? Will use of a racial epithet get a player punted?
  • Is the show going to get all preachy about "how we are all the same"? Or can the racial divisions be more of a backdrop? Are your team names going to be "The Asians", "The Whites", etc. ?
  • Any reaction from the Arabs, Jews, Native Americans, East Indians, etc? "Hey man, how come we're left out?"
  • Is this Survivor's swan song? I mean, in spite of your multi-year deal?
Anyways, the show doesn't begin until mid-September, so this should give one of you ample time to ask Jeff and respond to this blog with what he said.


17 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about the Bloods against the Crips?

Or maybe they should divide teams using sexual orientation: Eric leading the heterosexual team, Darwin the Vegetarian team...

Darwin Grenwich said...

Why does Jeff Probst get to be white?

Darwin Grenwich said...

Eric, the mock "outings" are getting tedious. Do you have anything, I mean ANYTHING, at all to say that isn't "Yer gay"?

Plosivity said...

Actually, in some twisted way, Eric has a good idea. The next one could be something like:

Team 1: Gay people
Team 2: Evangelical Christians
Team 3: Animal Rights Activists
Team 4: Homeless people

Now THAT is a show! Watch the fireworks then, eh?

Anonymous said...

Sorry Darwin, I know I am giving your sexual orientation a little too much exposure.

How about the Communists vs. the Capitalists?

Anonymous said...

Or how about this:

Team 1: Communists
Team 2: Capitalists
Team 3: Social Democrats
Team 4: Fascists

Darwin Grenwich said...

I think the Homeless people would have an edge over the rest, but I'd sure like to see what those Evangelical Christians would do. (collect wood to build a worship cross instead of a fire). The Gay people and animal rights activists would probably form a tenuous partnership.

We've already seen a version of "Survivor" featuring Communists, Capitalists and Facists. It was called Survivor: WWII

Plosivity said...

Or how about:

Team 1: Right-Wing Fascists
Team 2: Bungling Centrists
Team 3: Left-Wing Socialists
Team 4: Meaningless Inert Wannabees

Oh, wait. That's our parliament.

Never mind.....

Anonymous said...

WWII was pretty good, look at all the history we have now because of it. Not to mention all the technological advances that were a result.

Anonymous said...

You pussies! You have no idea what WWII was like. It was hell, I tell you, it was hell! Well, I did hook up with some nice Filapina chicks but other than that it was hell!

Darwin Grenwich said...

Gerry, you wrote about women's shoes last time and reality tv now, so I thought I'd mention the best reality tv show pitch I've ever heard:

"Naked Women Shopping for Shoes
with Naughty Monkeys"

Something for everyone.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I don't have a monkey fetish...

Darwin Grenwich said...

Yeah, I guess you don't like Naked Women either.

Anonymous said...

well, I'm not into bestiality if your perfect reality show would involve a relationship between naked women and naughty feces-throwing monkeys. I find your morals sickening.

Your friend,
Eric

Darwin Grenwich said...

NOTICE:

No monkey was harmed or sexually abused in the filming of the reality tv show pilot "Naked Women Shopping for Shoes with Naughty Monkeys" nor were there any feces thrown at or by said Monkeys and/or Naked Women. No shoes were hurt either.

Darwin Grenwich said...

But the post-production party—now that was something to see! I'm still sore...

Anonymous said...

yeah, how's that stubbed toe?