Duggars Losing It?

[Sweetpea1]

Really hope that there is a future special featuring Duggars who have escaped the compound.

[jockosmom]

I think most reality shows are only "reality" for the first season and maybe part of the second. After that, they start making money and getting some fame, so it's not real at all anymore. Also, for the Duggars I think they have to script things because these people are so boring in their everyday life - what else is there to show? So then we get episodes like the wedding dress at Kleinfield's, which is probably about the last place in the world that Michelle would have looked for a wedding dress and Michelle taking the girls for mani-pedis before Anna had little Michael. You can just feel the awkwardness in those episodes.

[MamaJunebug]

I honestly want to see the show go own I want to know how Josie turns out, see the girls married off, and see if someone escapes.

Except in this world, the Duggars would quickly put up a ($ubscription-ba$i$) blog and any escapees would be blogging or blogged about!!! :drool: I'd love to see the show end with a huge ratings drop, just to make Bill Gothard sweat in that 14-inch collar around his 15-inch neck. :whistle:

[bananacat]

I think most reality shows are only "reality" for the first season and maybe part of the second. After that, they start making money and getting some fame, so it's not real at all anymore. Also, for the Duggars I think they have to script things because these people are so boring in their everyday life - what else is there to show? So then we get episodes like the wedding dress at Kleinfield's, which is probably about the last place in the world that Michelle would have looked for a wedding dress and Michelle taking the girls for mani-pedis before Anna had little Michael. You can just feel the awkwardness in those episodes.

Honestly, they are not even real during the first season. Reality shows have never been real, even from the beginning. The truth is that EVERYONE is boring in their daily lives, but everyone wants to think they are so exciting that everyone else wants to know all the details. This is why we have long twitter feeds and facebook walls that most people only skim lightly. We get to make announcements and pretend that everyone reads them, while ignoring everyone else's mundane lives. TV stations are in it for the money and they know if they just followed any family around, nobody would care in the slightest no matter how weird the freak show is (and let's be honest-TLC is the modern version of a freak show). So they exaggerate from the very beginning, stage scenes, and selectively edit things. It's a way for them to produce a fictional show without paying actors and with the added allure that many people still believe it's actually real.

[lilwriter85]

Honestly, they are not even real during the first season. Reality shows have never been real, even from the beginning. The truth is that EVERYONE is boring in their daily lives, but everyone wants to think they are so exciting that everyone else wants to know all the details. This is why we have long twitter feeds and facebook walls that most people only skim lightly. We get to make announcements and pretend that everyone reads them, while ignoring everyone else's mundane lives. TV stations are in it for the money and they know if they just followed any family around, nobody would care in the slightest no matter how weird the freak show is (and let's be honest-TLC is the modern version of a freak show). So they exaggerate from the very beginning, stage scenes, and selectively edit things. It's a way for them to produce a fictional show without paying actors and with the added allure that many people still believe it's actually real.

I agree the show has always been edited heavily or staged since the first season. The preseries documentaries were probably heavily edited. I think staging has been more in the past two seasons and like others have mentioned in other threads some of the staged events are done as attempts to shut up the critics.

[Aurora]

Honestly, they are not even real during the first season. Reality shows have never been real, even from the beginning. The truth is that EVERYONE is boring in their daily lives, but everyone wants to think they are so exciting that everyone else wants to know all the details. This is why we have long twitter feeds and facebook walls that most people only skim lightly. We get to make announcements and pretend that everyone reads them, while ignoring everyone else's mundane lives. TV stations are in it for the money and they know if they just followed any family around, nobody would care in the slightest no matter how weird the freak show is (and let's be honest-TLC is the modern version of a freak show). So they exaggerate from the very beginning, stage scenes, and selectively edit things. It's a way for them to produce a fictional show without paying actors and with the added allure that many people still believe it's actually real.

Haha, bananacat. I think you are right, and now I feel better about MY boring life!! :lol:

[GeoBQn]

I can picture producer Sean reading TWoP, sweating bullets and shouting, "But we're addressing all they're concerns! Why aren't they satisfied with the show yet?!?" I think the only thing that would get us to stop nitpicking would before them to actually tell the truth about everything.

[lilwriter85]

I can picture producer Sean reading TWoP, sweating bullets and shouting, "But we're addressing all they're concerns! Why aren't they satisfied with the show yet?!?" I think the only thing that would get us to stop nitpicking would before them to actually tell the truth about everything.

I agree Sean is probably sweating bullets. I don't think the TLC producers will ever be able to appease the people who dislike the Duggars or who are questioning their lifestyle. TLC can't control a lot of info on the Internet about the Duggars, QF and fundie movements. TLC knows they are in a bind. They are aware that part of the Duggar's fanbase are naive people who know nothing about fundies or QF's. There are some mainstream Christian fans of the family that don't even know half of the stuff that fundie Christians do or are involved in. If TLC was to reveal that the Duggars are apart of a strict fundie movement, they know some of the naive viewers would be turned off.

Also I think TLC sometimes makes viewers question things more because they sometimes don't realize it is easy for anyone to find out more details on certain things or people. It was mentioned on another thread that after the last episode Sarah Malley's book was on the BN top 100 and Amazon top 200. I think if some viewers of the show bought Sarah's book, some of them will be pissed when they read it. I found a review on Amazon for the book in which the reviewer saw through Sarah's BS and blasted the book. I think some viewers will hate that book and hopefully they will go digging around online for info about Sarah and the Duggars.