Does anyone out there remember reality TV gold, ABC’s Wife Swap? Narrated by John Schwab, each episode focused around a two week period where two mothers/wives swap lives with the other. In the first week, the new wife must abide by the manual of the original household while the second week they are free to implement their household rules in a new manual and ‘change of rules ceremony’ to which the new family must concede.
Sounds like the perfect cocktail for classic family capital-D Drama, am I right?
Well, yes and no. If we’ve learned anything about television in the last decade ( dare I mention the national heartbreak from MTV’s finale of The Hills ), we know that drama needs a little studio light and producers’ nudge to break the charts. So for full disclosure, let’s discuss the rumors debunking WifeSwap‘s dramatic integrity:
The TV show’s producers would allegedly ask the children of the respective families to play certain ‘roles.’ For instance, in season 3 episode 17, the infamous child dubbed himself ‘King Curtis,’ manifesting the performance of an overly spoiled and entitled boy. Show runners were also cited asking the same question over and over until the child exhibited desired negative behavior. Exploiting the energy of young children is one way the show’s producers skyrocketed their following.
The manuals from the original household and the ‘change of rules ceremony’ are supposed to be written by the wives but are allegedly written by the show’s producers. By exaggerating minor character traits from each household, and then sending the manuals to the opposite house weeks before filming, the families develop biases toward the new mother even before they meet. Stereotyping people based on microscopic characteristics invalidates the meaning of reality, does it not..?
The show’s two week period was supposedly altered or shortened. Using studio lights, producers would manipulate time of day and would shoot what appeared to be ‘multiple days’ in only a few hours. The device of staging real life scenarios takes away a lot of the show’s timeline credibility ( but also really cool that show runners can dupe us that easily! ).
These inconsistencies are mild compared to what the WifeSwap internet rabbit hole churns up. However, the idea of show runners taking advantage of young children and stirring the pot for the sake if ratings is kinda gross ( not as gross as LC driving off of a six season finale into a sound stage BUT I digress ). Then again, that’s show biz baby. If we can look past the puppet strings ( broken marriages, lost jobs, indictments, jail sentences and ‘balloon boy’ hoaxes ) we may see the very genuine premise for a show about finding middle ground.
Which brings us to why we need WifeSwap now more than ever. It’s important to note that the producers do deliberately take wives from polar opposite lifestyles, whether that’s for ratings or for the benefit of the family being exposed to alternate mindsets is for you to decide ( it’s for the ratings ).
Let’s take season 6 episode 5, the Beauvais / Clayton swap ( to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7eJJLlVD8o ). Here, you’re introduced to the Clayton family; blue collar, lost main income to the recession, living in a trailer park, relying on soup kitchens for their meals, unmotivated by a ‘healthy’ diet. And the Beauvais family; wealthy, upper crust “inventors” ( selling ‘self care’ books and investments to uneducated investors, clearly making a buck off the recession ) who eat organically and practice daily affirmations to manifest their goals into reality. Like water and vinegar, we can already smell the trouble that this pairing will bring. Dina Beauvais ( whose makeup is tattooed on, and last name low key sounds made up and suspiciously similar to Jackie Kennedy’s maiden name, Bouvier ), when swapped brings the good word of positive thinking, exercise, clean eating and self respect. While Sherrie Clayton ( who claims to have insufficient funds when it comes to fruit and vegetables but seems to have plenty of money for making buttercream icing from scratch ), when swapped aims to ground the privileged family by showing them life on the other side of the tracks.
Besides the inevitable cat fight, what makes this concept worth watching? And with everything on television or in the cinemas, why now? Why this show? Well, class is the most universal thread throughout all current films these days; i.e. Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Netflix Trump: An American Dream, John M. Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians, Gerard McMurray’s The First Purge, etc.. Turn on NPR, local public radio or any podcast and you’re sure to hear bank sponsorship to a sickening degree. Having a business tycoon representing our country as we attempt to clean up ( more like staring at, talking about, grieving – no action ) the financial crash of 2008/2009, has us oddly fixated on wealth. Why do we stand for our leader hugging a WHITE SUPREMACIST on the white house lawn? Because power is money. We may reject everything Mr. Donald stands for, but we all want and work tirelessly for what he has; cash ( and power, but mostly cash).
Besides the lights and effects, WifeSwap shows you how two social classes can find their common ground. Dina Beauvais, for example, was first shocked ( low key/high key disgusted ) at the Clayton’s lifestyle. Over time though ( whether it was two weeks or one hour under studio lights ) she recognizes the need to teach the Clayton’s, as she does her own fam-dam, self-care, pride and passion to rise above poverty; Dina gave the family haircuts, spent time understanding each the Clayton’s passions by inventing products, and taught them the importance of cleaning your space. While, Sherrie Clayton was at first horrified by the Beauvais’ wealth and excess and how it kept the family apart. Throughout the episode, she found her personalized strategy for portraying the positive side to having less material wealth; since the Beauvais’ father worked from home, Sherrie put an ‘Out Of Business’ sign on his office door and refused to let him work, demonstrating the shocking reality of unemployment, she blocked off 90% of the house to centralize the family and force compromise and bonding, and finally she staged a workshop in giving less of a shit as she showed the family how to destroy their clothes (pouring condiments all over themselves (great content)).
Whether these episodes are lessons in network puppetry or an national conversation about our oneness, the underlying themes of willingness and compromise that culminates in a (sometimes) civil conversation, is what America needs.
March 2018 CMT bought the rights to WifeSwap. R.I.P.