One of my pet peeves (one of only a few) is when a reality show turns out to be a complete fake. I have complained about Operation Repo, American Colony: Meet The Hutterites and a few others.
I've been watching Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC American channel and I knew some of it was faked, but didn't realize how bad it was.
Miami Herald writer, Glen Garvin was able to see what goes on during a taping of Kitchen Nightmares:
When Kitchen Nightmares, Fox's loud and bleep-filled restaurant makeover show, airs an episode Friday
that was shot in a Pinecrest restaurant, there's one moment I'm sure you won't see: my near-arrest by
the Fox Reality Police.
After a tip from a reader that Kitchen Nightmares might be shooting at the Scandinavian restaurant
Fleming, I dined there the night that the show set up its cameras. And when I tried to surreptitiously jot
down a few notes, I caught the eye of one of the shrill producers barking orders at waiters and
customers.....
Once inside the restaurant, 8511 SW 136th St., the producers made it clear exactly what we needed to
do to be on TV: Complain, volubly and bitterly. ``If you have something to say about the food or the
service,'' a producer instructed, ``give us a signal so we can bring the camera to the table. Once we're
there, don't look directly at the camera, but speak in a loud voice so the microphone will pick you up
clearly.''
Since even the un-media-savviest of the diners understood that shouting ``Waiter! Waiter! This is the
best damn salmon I've ever tasted!'' was not likely to make the air, the producer's speech unleashed a
gushing torrent of querulous complaints: The tomatoes were small. The martini was weak. The chicken
was undercooked. The chicken was overcooked.
At the table next to mine, three couples from Fort Lauderdale tormented the waiter so viciously that I
really thought he might cry. (Great shot, camera No. 1! Zoom in on his eyes!) Watching them was like a
scene from a culinary Lord of the Flies as their nostrils flared at the scent of videotaped blood.
``Waiter, the lettuce in my salad is dry and wilted,'' shouted one man. ``Hey, so is mine!'' chimed in
another. Amazingly, all six salads at their table turned out to be dry and wilted. Even more amazingly,
the two at mine were just fine. And while I can't say I enjoyed the dining experience -- it was like eating
dinner in the middle of a flock of squawking parrots who learned English from Rodney Dangerfield -- I thought my food was pretty good. (Perhaps more significantly, my opinion was shared by my companion
Sue Mullin, a former Miami Herald dining critic who has written three cookbooks.)
http://cssimi.com/fleming/Reality%20bites_Fake%20scenes.pdf
And apparently, Ramsey doesn't give much advise when the camera isn't turned on.
Are there any reality TV shows that actually show reality out there? COPs, perhaps but that's probably about it.
Interrogation 101
29 minutes ago
I'm glad to know about Claudia. I wondered if she would go to college. I also read somewhere else that Wesley says his heart attack was staged. did the hospital know that when they admitted him? And was the barn set afire on purpose by Nat Geo? I still love the show and respect the Hutterites. I fell in love with these people!
ReplyDeleteThey also filmed an episode at Ms Jeans Southern Cuisine in Pittsburgh and one of the waitresses named Larissa was also in a different show. I think i saw her on Robert Irvine's Restaurant Impossible but Kitchen NIghtmares isn't as bad as Restaurant Stakeout where you can see the employees looking at the camera and you can also see the earpiece in their ears during the show but when called to the control room it mysteriously disappears. Also really really bad acting on that show.
ReplyDeleteHow I can to know the next shootings of Kitchen Nightmares?
ReplyDeleteI want to go to anyone.
Thanks
They encourage complaints, so what. This doesn't mean the whole show is fake as you lead on. I have met owners from an eatery on the show and they said 95% of what was aired was real. That takes the cake as far as reality TV is concerned.
ReplyDeleteRamsay follows the same routine, F bombs, all the food is not fit to eat, bla bla bla bla. It's all about DRAMA just like the Apprentice, Houswives, Jerry Springer, etc. TV is pathetic, we live in free anything goes country, sex, drugs, explosives, guns, other countries laugh at us.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comments. Most reality shows do contain a large amount of "barking" as you so eloquently put it, from the producers at various extras in the scene. However, I don't think that it was more over the top with Kitchen Nightmares as usual. Customers will say what they need to say to be on camera, that's a given. Editing also plays a big role in deciding which direction certain scenes are going to go. But even though all these techniques of filming are used a lot in the show, I don't think that it has a dramatic influence on the entirety of what the episode is trying to illustrate in being the problem with the restaurant. As a whole, it is very well rounded and, from the words of Gordon Ramsey himself "we do not doing anything (on our show) that is cynically fake".
ReplyDeleteVisit Kitchen Nightmare Updates
ReplyDelete