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I don't count Ace of Cakes as "reality tv" but I suppose you could. When I think reality tv I think of something that includes average* Joes in the mix as contestants or "stars".
I liked watching Ace of cakes last year, but quickly grew tired of it. They are local and we have some friends that got one of their cakes, back when they were still affordable.
I believe their cakes start at $5k now, one of our other friends is getting married in April and last year they called to see about getting the wedding cake done by Ace of cakes, they hung up laughing after they got quoted that the cake would cost $15K !!!!!! It was going to be a theme cake and would likely have been 80% styrofoam and condent. I saw that Duff is moving to LA now, guess he has outstripped the market around here for people willing to lay out that kind of cash for a cake you could make yourself in the garage.
I still watch Survivor and Amazing race, but Survivor is starting to get a little long in tooth. I don't see it going much longer.
Chris Rummel
MitchellC wrote:SupraWes wrote:Went from 230 to 166 in the last 8 months.
Maybe that's why I barely recognized you when I saw you a month or so back!
Yea, I was closer to 250, my high point, when you came over to borrow tools a few years back. I lost the first 20 about 2 years ago then gave up on it for a while, didn't have the proper motivation. I look a little different now.
Oh yeah forgot one. Little People Big World is really addicting too!
I find some of the reality shows interesting from a psychological perspective. Take Survivor: Watching people create "alliances" with other people or pick teams out of a lineup with almost no information on them is psychologically fascinating and reminds me of many things "political".
Some of these shows do psychological "experiments" that would NEVER be considered ethical. Take Solitary (I think it is on the Reality Channel) as an example. It's basically (and I am not kidding) a show where contestants willingly sign up to be tortured in various ways (physical and mental). There is NO way this would be ethical in any other circumstance.
Maybe we should pitch GRM Challenge to a network as a reality series. They can film people wrenching on their cars and then doing goofy stuff with them.
If they need more drama and egos, they can go to SCCA. 
I find Ice Road Truckers tolerable but it gets boring pretty fast...the logging one and ice fishing one are pretty boring as well.
I too tolerate Ice Road Berkeleyers but you realize that they are simply waiting for one of them to break through the ice, right?
I hope they make a lot of money for driving what seems to be real slow over dangerous roads...
What about the shows where they sober people up? Those are the only ones I'd watch. Of course I don't have a TV to make my decision easier.
Sooo ... who's up for BULL RUN?
slantvaliant wrote:Sooo ... who's up for BULL RUN?
I've gotta admit, I like Bull Run in spite of the reality TV antics. I'd do that even in the turbo Miata in a heartbeat.
Ice Road Truckers wasn't bad during the first season... second season was a bit annoying...
I've done my best to avoid any of the major network shows... and have succeeded so far...
I've actually come to enjoy both Pinks shows. The first type is as much about negotiating as it is about racing... and All Out is really just a form of bracket-racing.
BBC has/had a few good one. The Ramsey shows... another that was interesting was a short-lived show called "Faking It" where they would take a person with zero experience in a field and then have 30 days to train them to stump a panel of judges into guessing which one was the "fake" out of group of participants. There was even one about racing... imagine being given about 30 days of track time and pro-coaching... 
...I wanted to kill the guy in that epidsode...
Of course, right now I have no TV so I'm not watchign anything... 
slantvaliant wrote: Sooo ... who's up for BULL RUN?
I will have to check that one out. I mean really how often do you get to see a 67 VW bus compete against a 71 Pantera!! I don't think they will have to worry about getting speeding tickets in the VW, although I suspect it will be a heavily modified bus.
Doooods, I'm all about Dirty Jobs!
I like Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. To me those aren't 'reality TV' in the mold of 'Survivor', which is nothing more than a high school popularity contest retread.
I like coming home, cracking open a nice cold beer and plopping down on the couch for a few episodes of intervention.
I still like Survivor for many of the same reasons as aircooled- it's interesting to see how people intereact, and WHO they ally with to try to win.
Love Biggest Looser, since it's a very positive message show- all about loosing weight and getting healthy. Funny how viewers don't like the negative much- if you saw the end of last season (in December), you'll know what I mean.
Outside of that, Top Chief is the only other one. We ate at one of the contestant restaurants this past weekend in Chicago. Cool, as it's the art of making food.
Mrs Alfa likes a few more, but that's what multipe TV's are for.
Eric
I like the sleazy ones on VH1. Get a bunch of trashy people together and let the drunken stupidity ensue.a
I'm not proud.
Nope, all crap.
Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs are documentary educational shows hosted by intelligent, experinced professionals.
But outside of those; Burn Notice and My Name is Earl, I hate most TV shows that use even real peaple, and since Adult Swim now has King of The Hil in addition to Family Guy, I have no need to watch anything before 10 ish
I'll own up to enjoying "Chasing Classic Cars" on Discovery HD, I mean, the guy is a douchenozzle, but he has some beautiful and/or interesting machines on the show every episode.
I will also watch Kitchen Nightmares if I come upon it, at least the BBC version anyway. The fact that he held his own on the Top Gear test track doesn't hurt my estimation of the man :). Although, it always baffles me when the owners refuse to let Ramsay change anything. It's not like the guy just walked in one day with his cameras unannounced and started telling them what to do...
I've watched a little Top Chef, but I have to say I prefer the knockoff, Next Food Network Star. It isn't nearly as over-dramatized.
Ace of Cakes was cool until they got a little notoriety and it became very obvious that they are now getting paid WAAY too much money to do way too little work. The work itself has also become more lazy and uninspired now that they can coast on reputation. It's kinda the same sort of arc that OCC followed. At some point in both shows, all the new jobs seemed to be for corporate or supremely wealthy clients, while the work itself became far less important to the clients than the spectacle of the TV show, and getting the "Celebrity" craftspeople to come out to their event. I hadn't heard anything about them moving to LA, but I think it's pretty fitting if that's the case.
alfadriver wrote: Love Biggest Looser, since it's a very positive message show- all about loosing weight and getting healthy. Funny how viewers don't like the negative much- if you saw the end of last season (in December), you'll know what I mean.
Yeah, that was awesome that the viewing public voted to kick that nasty girl, Heba or whatever her name was. Now if only they'd get it right this season and ditch the Silver team ASAP!
fastEddie wrote:alfadriver wrote: Love Biggest Looser, since it's a very positive message show- all about loosing weight and getting healthy. Funny how viewers don't like the negative much- if you saw the end of last season (in December), you'll know what I mean.Yeah, that was awesome that the viewing public voted to kick that nasty girl, Heba or whatever her name was. Now if only they'd get it right this season and ditch the Silver team ASAP!
Not yet, I like angry Bob!
Yeah, that was a lot of F-bombs in a short time. Especially for someone who is supposed to be big into yoga and all that "inner peace" stuff! 
I'm suprised no one has mentioned the grandfather of all reality shows-COPS!
Not sure if they are considered reality shows but I watch Man Vs. Food, Diners Drive-ins and Dives, No Reservations, any of Samantha Brown's shows, the Ocean Force shows on Tru Tv, Mythbusters and others..
92dxman wrote:I'm suprised no one has mentioned the grandfather of all reality shows-COPS!...
If I want to see my relatives shirtless, drunk and bleeding I will look through my Prom photo album
I like the deadliest catch alot. COPs is still a great show I especially love it when they go to cities I am familiar with. Ramseys kitchen nightmares is one of my new favorites as resteraunt worker I would love to have him come to my workplace.
My guiltiest pleasure: 'My Name is Earl'. I can watch 'House' sometimes but usually by the middle of the show he's become such an ass that it pisses me off. Yeah, I know that's what he's supposed to be but still. 'CSI' can be interesting but then they come up with something completely off the wall and stupid, like tracking one particular Ford Explorer 'by the VIN number on the piece of broken taillight lens' and I want to throw something sharp and heavy through the screen. And that wouldn't do at all.
