Being a kind of anti-fan of reality television (though that may not mean what you think it means), I'm thoroughly impressed with the concept of TV Land's new reality effort Make My Day. One unsuspecting person per show is basically reverse-Punk'd. For one day, a team of professionals, and their friends and family, will conspire to make everything go right, and have amazing things happen to them.
There's no drama. There's no list of people we brought on the show specifically because we knew they were a little crazy. It's just some fairly deserving people getting set up to conveniently meet celebrities, or do things they wouldn't normally get a chance to do. The question is, if we throw out a show that isn't designed to showcase idiots, will anybody watch? We're running in fairly untested waters there actually.
The show is brought to us by a much-celebrated 50 hidden cameras, and we have the opportunity to watch every moment of these very special days. The first episode finds John Castellano, die-hard NY Giants and Sopranos fan meeting up with Amani Toomer and Vincent Pastore, and meeting them is not nearly the entire ride.
While it may not have the instant hook associated with pranking people, or any entry into the reality staple schadenfreude we all love so much, there's something undeniably fun about watching hard-working, community-supporting, regular guy Castellano stumble into treat after treat.
It would be nice if this was a show that got a decent enough audience that it could go on long enough to work its way into the culture. Good things would happen to people, who would then look around and ask if they were on Make My Day.
When the world of reality television has become little more than figuring how you choose which donkey is the one to send home this week, you've got to like the idea that at least someone out there is wondering if we can't do something interesting with the whole affair.
Photo by Brad Barket/PictureGroup
Future episodes will feature Vivica A. Fox, Montel Williams, Seinfeld's Wayne Knight, Robert Vaughn, and many more.
Make My Day premieres Wednesday, August 5th at 10:30pm and continues in that slot. I really hope you'll check it out. It's a lot of fun, and I'd just love to see a good-natured reality show take off.
Check out some more images below and a trailer which serves double-duty with TV Land's other new show, How'd You Get So Rich?
TV Land PRIME Presents "How'd You Get So Rich?" & "Make My Day" from Mitchell Squires on Vimeo.
Photo by Fernando Leon/PictureGroup
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About Marc Eastman
Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.
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