Induction #258 - Truth or Consequences:
The Unsold FOX Pilot
Where's My
Liquor? I need it after this one.
Unsold FOX Pilot: (2003/2004?)
Text by Cyndi Seidelman
FOX always had a knack for pushing the envelope in
the early-mid 2000s. It seemed like almost every week there would be a truly
despicable reality show or game show or special on the schedule. Shows such as
The Chamber, Mr. Personality, Love Cruise: The Maiden Voyage, Bachelorettes in
Alaska, Boot Camp, The Glutton Bowl, My Big Fat Obnoxious Whatever, Unaminous,
Who's Your Daddy, among others just made us question our existance of a higher
being than us. If the following shows were truly awful, the question that
inevitably comes to mind is what in the world was rejected for this network?
Well, the answer to that question was unearthed by Wink Martindale's crew on his
YouTube channel. Amidst all the rarities and gems on his channel, there is this
unholy pilot. So, let's talk about the 2003/4 Truth or Consequences Pilot.
Let's do a brief history about Truth or Consequences. Starting off as a
radio program hosted by Ralph Edwards in the 40s, it would find its way onto TV
in the 50s with Ralph hosting on CBS. It would move to NBC with Jack Bailey as
host and in 1957, he would leave the show and Bob Barker would take over the
mantle as host until the show left the air in 1975. The setup for the show is as
follows, the contestant would be asked a ridiculous question and Beulah the
Buzzer would sound. Afterwards, they'd perform some wacky stunt to win a prize.
Simplistic in nature, it created lots of laughs for everyone.
One of my favorite setups was with this Dunk Tank consequence from 1973. One
unsuspecting soul was put into a dunk tank and two others in the group would try
to hit a target to put him in. The twist is that one of the two throwers was a
professional pitcher for the California Angels. So as suspected, the poor man
went into the dunk tank and everyone laughed. To make it even better when the
second man was in the tank, the woman who the producers didn't think would hit
the target actually did hit the target. That's just funny stuff and made a funny
moment even better. It's stuff like that is harmless fun and is enjoyable for
all. Ralph Edwards said that naturally about the show that the contestants "were
good sports in nature" and it worked that way. The show was rebooted a couple
times after 1975, but never caught on due to a mix of Bob not hosting it or the
times having passed the show by or it just was up against a slew of other
competition for timeslots. The 1987 version with Larry Anderson would be the
biggest victim as the 1987-1988 syndication season had it going up against
returning shows in Wheel, Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, The $100,000 Pyramid and
newcomers in Win, Lose or Draw and a reboot of High Rollers as it would be gone
really quick.
Before I talk too much about the unsold FOX pilot, I want
to preface this induction with a whole bunch of warnings. The pilot features
scenes and moments that made me feel uncomfortable as all hell. There are
moments of spousal abuse, animal cruelty, lack of safety precautions for various
stunts, and everything else that makes me thankful that stuff like that isn't on
any shows currently airing. It pushes every envelope and will make you very
uncomfortable, even by 2003-2004 standards. I'm going to try my best to limit
photos that would trigger people but I will go into detail on why these stunts
were offensive and bad.
You have been warned.
The host of the pilot was Chris Rose. During this time, he was working for
Fox Sports, mainly on Best Damn Sports Show Period. He was likeable there and
despite all of the ugliness around him, he did a good job here. At the very
least, he went in full steam ahead with some of the stunts and all of that.
There is an occasion where he comes off as skeezy, but it was part of the bit
and at least he gave it his all. He didn't half-ass it or go over the top with
it. He did his job and did it well. Sadly, that is one of only two bits of good
that I will give for this show. Remember the trigger warnings that I gave in the
4th paragraph? Well, here's where they come in. It's not pretty.
The intro of the show is an immediate turnoff by showing the three teams
drowning one partner for as long as they can. The team that lasts the shortest
amount of time is eliminated. That's a great way to start a show: open with a
stunt where a contestant must hold their loved one down for an extended period
of time and potentially suffer life-changing damage to their lungs and brain all
for the chance at $50,000. It's just gross and we're not even 1 minute into this
show.
After the opening, we immediately cut to Chris Rose bringing a person
wearing lots of padding down to the stage area. There isn't really a stage as
this show's set is essentially a dark underground warehouse looking set. I think
it's the same staging area that had that awful Face Your Fears special with
Jerry Springer from the same time period. The question becomes why is he wearing
all of this padding and what is his stunt that he has to do?
He has to enter this makeshift boxing ring with a kangaroo in it. He has 60
seconds to grab 5 flags that are on the kangaroo's collar. While this is
happening, the kangaroo does what we expect kangaroos to do: punch him and go
into complete defensive mode. This is supposed to be entertainment? At best it's
animal cruelty. At worst, it's intentionally putting someone in harms way, in
which they could seriously get hurt. Not even Fear Factor had stunts like this.
Those stunts did have a fear element, but they had loads and loads of stunt
coordinators and people with decades of experience to make sure those events
were done safely. Remember the Vegas episode and sliding down the glass pyramid?
That had loads of safety precautions baked into it. A kangaroo with a knockout
punch at the ready doesn't.
Next up is a guessing game between the two couples who thought drowning
their partners for two minutes was a good idea. A bunch of bugs are dumped on
top of their heads and they have to ask yes or no questions to deduce which bug
was dumped on their loved ones head. The team that does this the fastest wins
the opportunity to go for $50,000. Out of all that we've seen so far, it's
average. At the very least it's not offensive like the rest of the stunts were,
so that's something.
I refuse to do a picture for the next item on the
show as it involves Chris Rose asking old ladies if they'd be willing to flash
"unsuspecting people" for money. It's just gross and unneeded and almost borders
on elder abuse. What also doesn't help this part out is the obviously
staged "unsuspecting people" otherwise known as staffers getting a terrible
reaction shot out of it.
Immediately afterwards, we see 5 people lined up to take on a sumo wrestler.
Here, the people must last 30 seconds with him in the ring and completing it
without being knocked down or pushed out of the ring wins a prize. Tame, but
once again safety concerns are thrown out the window. First thing I want people
to notice in this picture is that the stage is concrete. Also, the ring looks to
be very thin. So when someone can get pushed down it's conceivable that they can
go splat and that's not a pretty sight. My fears are realized when someone lands
awkwardly during the parade and you see a really obvious jump-cut. That tells me
something went sideways and he got knocked for a loop and they had to brush him
off and make sure that he was coherent.
Another thing before we move on
is that everything has been going on in a break-neck pace in that nothing is
allowed to breathe or settle in. It's showing off moment after moment after
moment with little to no setup explained whatsoever. They could have cut that
granny flashing thing or the kangaroo thing to better explain everything else.
It's the game show version of the Crash TV philosophy. You just show one thing
after the other to the point where people can't take their eyes off of it. While
it's fine in small doses, it wore out its welcome really sharpish. Most notably
during Vince Russo's tenures running WWF and WCW creative. After the Monday
Night Wars ended between WCW and WWF. That style was immediately ended and
things were allowed to breathe again.
Next up we have 3 people: two females and one male being asked by Chris to
strip naked on TV. They would be getting undressed behind closed doors in
something akin to a shower stall like you'd see in a park or public pool and
throw the clothes in or near a hamper a few feet away. Once they have completely
disrobed and gotten out of the stalls, they would get $1,000. Unlike previous
stunts, this one had some planning to it. Here, two stagehands would take the
place of the two women and they would throw clothes identical to the ones the
women were wearing. So when the big reveal came, everyone was clothed safe for
the unsuspecting guy. Out of every little bit of disgustingness and
haphazardness this show had so far, this one was the closest you would get to
the spirit of the original show. This was a harmless prank that ended with
people laughing and a payout at the end. I point out this about the original and
this stunt: The stunts weren't meant to harm anybody, including animals. This is
the only stunt that managed that. But now we have to throw this all away for one
of the most disgusting things I've seen in a game show pilot.
The winning couple from earlier has one final challenge in front of them.
While the wife is hanging around on the beam, the husband has to climb a cable
ladder to a manual elevator. There he must pull himself up to the beam and get
on without falling. When he is on the beam, it's the wives job to stand up on
the beam and meet in the middle. Lastly, the wife hands the husband 3 envelopes
containing an action. He must pick one and do said action without telling his
wife what action he must perform. Once the action is performed, they win
$50,000. All of this sounds fine. It sounds like an ok Fear Factor stunt. But
when the action gets revealed...
it becomes too much. Just what America would have wanted to see: Domestic
Violence or something similar to it. Not only that, with this couple, you could
add some really nasty racial overtones to this. Look at the couple again. A big
black man doing that to an average white woman. To compound this, you could
clearly hear when the husband got close and tried to push her the first time,
she said "Don't Push Me." That should have immediately stopped the game right
then and there and another out should have been provided. There are so many
layers of wrong to this that it'll take a college thesis to get to the bottom of
it. It was that moment that I realized that this is the absolute worst thing
that I watched for review purposes or for fun or for Game Show Garbage/Gumbo.
There's Something About Miriam may have been offensive, but that show was
offensive on one front. This show has many layers of offensiveness that I
immediately hit the bottle after watching it a second time. That's something
that I haven't done to any game show.
I urge everyone, don't seek out
this pilot. Let it linger and just watch other good things like Cat videos or
what I've been doing, watching the Street Smarts YouTube channel. Do that
instead. You'll thank me later.
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