Next: "Knocked Up," the reality tv spin-off

NBC needs some Boston teens for a new "documentary" (as they call it):

Are you and your partner ready for adult life? Do you want your own money and independence? ... We are looking for teenage couples (18-19) who would like to experience life as an adult. If you would like to live in your own house, take on adult responsibilities and get the chance to live with your partner and look after babies and children, then please get in touch! We would love to hear from you!

A friend sent around that invitation, and another replied with my thoughts exactly: "I don't even understand it -- are they going to give these reality show contestants little babies to take care of? Or just get the girl pregnant?" Fanciful thinking, perhaps, but it turns out to be partially true: The "documentary" -- ahem, the reality show -- will feature teens taking care of babies, toddlers and, eventually, some actor playing an aging parent. This from the NBC press release:

When a real (baby) appears at their door ... the fumbling new teen parents are in for three long, arduous days that make chilling out a distant memory.

Zing! Baby got no time for your homies, teenagers! The series is clearly supposed to be funny -- it's "a rollercoaster of emotions, laughs and empathy for people of all ages," says an NBC exec in the release -- and let's not forget how they'll accomplish that: by removing the consequence. We can laugh because these teens, overwhelmed as they'll be by new babies, aren't actually stuck in this life -- unlike, you know, teens that actually do have babies to raise.

I'm no connoisseur of reality tv, but I can't think of another instance in which a network replicates a real-life problem for yucks. Is there? Did ABC ever make someone sleep on the streets, where chilling out comfortably is a distant memory? Is CBS recruiting families to live in homes with long-overdue electric bills, where, to avoid literally chilling out, they have to sleep next to an open oven? (There's stuff like "The Biggest Loser," I suppose, but that's at least taking a problem and turning it into a constructive contest. It's not like they recruited a bunch of skinny guys, made them wear fat suits and then, uh, said chilling out with hot girls at a club would be a distant memory.) I don't mean to get preachy, but the NBC crew could probably find a real-life teen couple with a baby and shoot, shot for shot, the exact same stuff they'd get from their fake couple. But we idiots at home wouldn't quite lap it up the same way.

Posted by Jason Feifer at June 6, 2007 08:43 AM