Church-Based Reality TV

A post at Songbird's place today got me thinking about pastors and reality tv shows. There aren't any that I know of. Why not? Wouldn't the church provide as much drama and angst as Last Survivor, Lost, or The Biggest Loser? You know it would.

So, what kind of church/pastor reality show would you like to see on tv?

What about:

Top Evangelist--a soul saving competition for aspiring street evangelists.

Extreme Church Makeover--church consultants compete to remodel both the church building and the congregation. Imprecations and lawsuits fly.

Mission Scramble--a group of missionaries are taken to a remote corner of the globe. The first one to find their way back to the Mission Base WITH a new convert wins a Piper Cub airplane and pilot to expand their missionary efforts.

Homeless Shelter Decor--successful interior designers compete to renovate homeless shelters on a shoestring budget.

Street Savvy Cuisine--prominent chefs develop inexpensive but gourmet meals for church soup kitchens.

What Not To Wear, Thrift Shop Edition--Stacey and Clinton turn their talents to putting together stylish outfits from church Thrift Shops for unemployed people to wear to job interviews.

Bet you have some better ideas! Add them in the comments.

"Idol" For Classical Music Fans

Last night while playing with my remote control I stumbled across Bathroom Divas.

There are several short videos from the show on You Tube, so here is one of them for those of you interested in checking it out.

Divas is a reality show in which aspiring opera singers go to an "opera boot camp" and then are judged on how much they have improved week to week. The prize is the chance to sing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. So I can't call it the Classical American Idol because it is a Canadian production (although apparently by the American reality network Bravo which brings us Project Runway and Top Chef). It's on a network called Ovation, which I don't remember seeing before.

Bathroom Divas has the usual drawbacks of a reality show, although I thought the episode I saw had much less feigned drama than Top Chef and Project Runway. The remarks of the vocal coaches were fascinating to me as an avid amateur classical singer myself. I got interested in it because one of the young women in the competition chose to learn the incredibly difficult aria of the Queen of the Night from Mozart's Magic Flute. What a gutsy move! And she did a creditable job and moved on to the next round.

Playing around with the You Tube videos, I learned that the first season winner was the guy who was a country-western singer! Do you love it?

Classical music fans, check it out!

The Tudors Trashified Is On Your Computer!

Purechristianithink left a comment on my post below pointing out that you can actually watch episodes 1 and 2 of The Tudors on your computer through this link.

Thanks, PCIT! Now inquiring minds who want to know what this is all about, but don't have Showtime available, can see it, too!

~scurries off to watch Episode 2~

The Tudors Trashified

It's all Babs' fault.

She alerted me to a new series, "The Tudors", that premiered on Showtime last night. She thinks it will be our new guilty TV secret. Beneath the respectable sounding title promised to be an uber-trashy modern take on Henry VIII and his court. We're both English history buffs, so I watched it last night.

Ads for the series tipped-off the theme of the series:

"Ladies lose their heads for Henry."
"King of hearts with a powerful sword." (~groan~)
"This lady's not waiting any more!"

Last night's first episode proved to be as anticipated. The actor portraying Henry VIII doesn't resemble any of the famous Holbein portraits. And he's too short for the part--Henry's exceptional height was one of his most noted attributes. The script lacks historical credibility because of its modern sensibility. I seriously doubt that Cardinal Wolsey ever used the word "pan-European" in promoting a peace treaty to the King. I fancy myself something of a Tudor era expert and I question the historical veracity of a couple of the incidents in this episode, but I'll have to research it to see if I'm correct. Not that I think the producers are as interested in historical accuracy as they are in bodice ripping!

The first episode had several nude sex scenes and a bloody murder, earning the R rating. Don't let the children watch this one.

UPDATE: Babs called to opine that the reason the actor portraying Henry VIII isn't believable is because he's playing him as a metrosexual. So true.