Louisiana's Reality TV

LOUSIANA'S LOUSIANA'S

Reality Shows Based

in Louisiana By Emily Hingle

Reality TV took off in the 2000s, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Though often thought of as trash television, reality shows portray the interesting, unique, and sometimes unsavory aspects of people, their lives, and communities.

Louisiana is a vibrant state with a rich history full of colorful characters, and it’s an attractive place to film reality shows. Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne sponsored the 2002 bill granting tax credits to the film industry. He commented in an interview that Louisiana and its intriguing residents in conjunction with lucrative filming incentives were excellent fodder for reality shows: “It captures this interesting, fascinating, very unique aspect of Louisiana life with its beautiful landscape and a strong streak of adventure. It’s not something you’re going to find anywhere else. It’s indigenous to Louisiana.”

Since the dawn of reality TV, Louisiana has attracted producers for such shows. For the ninth season of MTV’s hit reality series The Real World, a cast of seven young adults lived together in the Belfort Mansion in the Garden District as they worked at a publicaccess TV station in the first half of 2000. The Real World came back to New Orleans for a season in 2010.

In 2004, BET premiered College Hill, a show about students attending historically Black universities around the country and beyond. The first season featured students at Southern University in Baton Rouge. 2009 was an eventful year for Louisiana reality shows, and their quick success may have enticed more show makers to travel down here. A&E premiered Billy The Exterminator and Steven Seagal: Lawman that year. Billy The Exterminator followed the eccentric owner of Vexcon Animal & Pest Control Billy Bretherton as he performed animal and pest control in the Shreveport area. The show was canceled in 2012 after six successful seasons because Billy moved from Louisiana to Illinois following his arrest involving drugs. There was one season of Billy Goes North in 2016 which showcased his new ventures in the northern U.S. Steven Seagal: Lawman surprisingly showed famed actor Steven Seagal working with Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department as a

Reality Reality TvTv

Reserve Deputy Chief. It was unclear if Steven had any actual authority in his rank, and the show was canceled after three seasons.

The Discovery Channel took over an apartment building in Chalmette to film The Colony in 2010. Ten people were placed in a post-apocalyptic zone by helicopter, and they had to figure out how to create a livable society in a matter of ten weeks. They were required to scavenge for food, create electricity, and find water.

There were some series that only lasted a short time including MTV’s Caged (2012) about MMA fighters in the town of Minden, OWN’s Blackboard Wars (2013) about John McDonogh High School, History Channel’s Big Easy Motors (2016) about a classic car restoration business in New Orleans. Discovery showed the plight of shrimpers in Venice for the show Ragin’ Cajuns (2012).

Serial entrepreneur Sidney Torres has been on some reality shows like Trashmen on TLC in 2010 and The Deed on CNBC in 2017. The shows focused on Sidney’s various entrepreneurial ventures. Trashmen followed Sydney and his company SDT Waste & Debris as they cleaned up the streets of

New Orleans before and after massive events. The Deed documented Sidney and his Chicago-based partner Sean Conlon helping struggling property investors to turn their flips into profit.

Two reality shows about pawn shops aired on different networks. CMT’s Swamp Pawn featuring Phillips Seafood in Bayou Pigeon ran for three seasons starting in 2013, and Cajun Pawn Stars on History Channel featuring Silver Dollar Pawn & Jewelry Center in Alexandria also aired for three seasons starting in 2012.

As legendary as Louisiana’s cuisine is, it is not a typical focus of our reality shows. However, Cajun Aces on Food Network portrayed husband and wife team Chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll for two seasons starting in 2017 while they worked at their restaurants Hot Tails in New Roads and Saca-Lait in New Orleans.

Quite possibly the most successful reality show out of Louisiana that no longer runs is Duck Dynasty on A&E. Duck Dynasty was a hit as soon as it aired in 2012, and it ran for 11 seasons over a handful of years, and it had a few spin-offs. The Robertson Family owned the duck call-making company Duck Commander in West Monroe, and they were beloved for their Christian values and tightknit family life. However, viewership steeply declined after the family’s patriarch Phil Robertson made controversial remarks during interviews about what he considered to be sinful behavior. The show was canceled in 2016.

Despite the number of Louisiana-based reality shows that have come and gone, some are still going strong after several years on the air. The long-running show Pit Bulls & Parolees did not begin in Louisiana. The show centers on the Villalobos Rescue Center, a dog shelter mainly for pit bulls staffed with recent parolees looking for a second chance, which was located in Agua Dulce, California. Due to increasing difficulty finding a suitable new location in California, the rescue’s owner Tia Maria Torres decided to move from Villalobos to New Orleans, and the transition from west coast to gulf coast was completed in 2012. The show’s last season aired in 2021. Episodes were filmed for a new season, but it is not known whether the show will return due to the network being sold.

Swamp People broke records for The History Channel since its inception in 2010, and it’s still going strong after 13 years. The popular show follows alligator hunters throughout Louisiana during the state’s month-long alligator season, and some hunters and their teams have been on the show throughout its entire run.

From crawfish to dog rescues to law enforcement, reality TV is full of Louisiana flavor.

HOW TO BEAT THE HEAT…

… if You're a Surrealist Painter from the 1900s

By Julie Mitchell

Summer is so hot! The Earth has lava at its core and the sun is an exploding star millions of miles away, and despite those things always being true, somehow during a few months of the year these simple facts become personal and hostile truths.

Isn’t it strange how we all experience heat pretty much the same, and isn’t it strange how the horrors of World War I ushered in a new form of art created from the deep need to explore the absurd and eerie sides of reality? In the mid 1900s after witnessing mass horror, people were like, “Art needs to be more than bridges and fruit,” and they created surrealism, a style that taps into the unconscious and celebrates illusion and the irrational. Here we have compiled a list that honors both of these facts: a summertime guide for how to beat the heat, while not forgetting the surrealist painters of the 1900s.

Eat a Popsicle: Everyone loves a cold, sweet popsicle. Whether you’re riding a bicycle to meet a friend or painting a self-portrait as a bleeding deer, popsicles are refreshing. And remember, there’s no wrong way to eat a popsicle. Bite on it fast, or savor it slowly. Shove it down your shirt if you don’t mind getting a little sticky. Trees have sex with each other. What if we are all trees wearing clothes?

Go For a Swim: There is nothing like stripping down to a bathing suit and jumping headfirst into a body of cool water. A lake, a pool, the ocean–it all feels good. You know what else feels good? Merging biomorphic shapes into a collective unconscious. Who needs temperature regulation when you have art and drugs? And for that matter, fetishes, religion, or dreams? Ha, just kidding, they’re all the same. So jump in; the water’s fine!

Read in a Cold Bath: Books are a window into another dimension. They can transport you anywhere—the past, or India. Take some time this week to run a cold refreshing bath, light a small candle, and soak away with a good book. You might be surprised by what you learn. For example, are hallucinations just repressed memories through the filter of our own experience? What if God is just an apple, and we’re all seeds—especially our ideas? The bath is a nice place to explore these thoughts.

Find an open window: Sometimes we don’t all have the luxury of pools or popsicles or open fields, but summertime relief is not out of our grasp. Even just an open window can give a cool breeze and a beautiful view, enough to escape the heat even just for a moment. Find an open window and bring a little chair and a glass of lemonade to the windowsill and watch the world down below. How tiny the people look. Notice all the triangles? Doesn’t everything kind of just look like triangles? When you think about it, isn't your relationship with your mother a triangle? You and her each a point and the world the third? Can’t everything be reduced to shapes on a gray plane? Isn’t that simply the furniture of time?

Have a Water

Balloon Fight: What is more exhilarating than grabbing a couple of gal pals or some children, dividing up a cooler of balloons and running and splashing around until everyone is wet and your colorful arsenal is gone? It is of course nothing like real war; the balloons know nothing of grief and the sadness of loss with no name because the thing that was lost was an idea of what things could be. The balloons will be fun though.

Go to the Movies: What fun. Popcorn and soda in an air-conditioned building with a soft chair for you to sink into. Images scrolling in front of you that have their own purpose and agenda. A million little lines converging on a single point that is your own consciousness, bringing emotions out of you like water from a well. And sometimes there are dinosaurs. Sit in a Swing: Speeding through the air, high off the ground but close enough to feel safe, surrounded by sky, and sun, and trees. Swinging is such a beautiful and fun pastime and connects us to our childhood. Speaking of childhood and losing ourselves in experience, how often is the representation of something more important that the reality of it? Can you ever truly experience a perception? When a clock melts, how much time would be in the drips? Drink Water: The last one is the easiest one, but often the most overlooked. Drink more water. When you sweat, you’re losing so much of your body’s precious moisture, it’s important to replenish. Not only does it feel and taste good, but this is the only item on this list important to your health. Drinking water is easy to remember, unlike, say, how anything can be a bird, or how sometimes a set of jaws can come out of your hip. Compared to the amusing yet menacing aura of the passage of time for example, remembering to drink water is easy. Drink up. Well, I hope this list helps you have a fun, cool, summer that hides nothing but still elicits mystery and keeps you from getting too hot.