And All I Gotta Do Is, Act Naturally

[reader99]

I just got an email from TLC wanting to talk with me about being on Extreme Cheapskates next season. They've been reading my blog. My first instinct is 'no' because they kind of make people look like crazy idiots. OTOH, it would be a way to promote my book. What do you all think?

[Selah]

Do it! If I had something worth promoting, and got offered the opportunity to get massive free promotion for it, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Toughen up thine skin, though...publicity isn't always easy to handle, from what I've read and surmised. But definitely explore the opportunity with them!

[Miss Cellane]

I've never seen the show. So the first thing I'd suggest is watching several episodes and look closely at how they present the various people on the show. Do they treat them with dignity? Do they make fun, even subtly, of them? Is the show designed to educate viewers about frugality or just to showcase what the producers see as "oddballs?"

Second, I would find out if they would even allow you to promote your book on the show. And I wouldn't take someone's word for it--I'd make sure I got it in writing. That's the kind of thing that could easily end up on the cutting room floor. If the main reason you would go on the show is to promote the book, you need to make sure that you will be allowed to do so. Just because they film you talking about the book does not mean that the final footage that airs will have a single syllable about the book.

Then I'd see if there are any reports available from people who were actually on the show. Sometimes they post their experiences on the internet. See what they have to say.

And read the contract. I don't think you get paid anything for being on the show. But look closely at how much control you would have over what they are filming and what will be in the final show. My feeling, and it is just my personal opinion, is that this type of show goes for the shock value, and will edit things to get that shock value even if the actual footage isn't quite so shocking.

In other words, I think you need to do quite a bit of research before agreeing to do this.

[danna]

Agree with Miss Cellane....Watch the show...it doesn't show frugality in a good light.

The ones I saw almost looked like they where sets and not real. They people had large beautiful homes
but, they seemed to only being extreme on certain fronts. Like bad food, bad maintenance of home/ themselves
and just generally not nice to other people or their families.
See for yourself before you sign anything.

[danna]

Marie
I just went in and looked at your blog.....it looks really good. I will read more later.

It does not look to me like you would be a good fit for this show....you have too much class
I think it would spoil your very good message!

[reader99]

I've seen the show and they do make the people seem insane and they do seem to go for shock value. OTOH, I've also gleaned some useful ideas from the shows. As Miss Cellane says, I'd have to be sure the promotion of my book would actually happen, otherwise it wouldn't be worth it to me.

[catherine]

I've seen the show. They've featured notable cheapskates like Jeff Yeager, as well as less-famous ones.

My thought is that they will probably want to find at least one thing that you do that they can expand that will make other people go "eewwww"--after all, it is TV, and they're not trying to teach people to be frugal, they are trying to promote the entertainment/shock value side of frugality.

To this point, have you seen the following shows?

A guy would go up to people who were ready to leave a restaurant and ask if he could take the stuff they didn't eat. His wife was always mortified and begged him not to do it when he took her to a cheap restaurant for their anniversary. He did it anyway.

A woman who refused to flush her toilet to save water, so she peed into a bucket, and she make her boyfriend do the same. (Not sure why she didn't just buy a composting toilet--makes me think that maybe she just doesn't flush all the time and the producers expanded on the story)

A woman who had people over and got her whole meal from dumpster diving in NYC. Of course there were PLENTY of reaction shots from the guests, and one guest had to go to the bathroom to gag once she found out where the food came from. The same frugal woman had the landlord shut off her gas to save money and she uses her stove and storage. She proudly showed a pair of shorts that she's owned for 10 years--the elastic had gotten dried out and stretched out, so she still wore them and used a binder clip to make them fit. Again, she could probably find FREE shorts or close to it, but the producers I'm SURE played that up.

A woman who fed her family foraged dandelion and other herbacious stuff on the side of the road and bought expired food from a food liquidation place.

When Jeff Yeager was on, they made a point of showing how he collects loose change from phone booths, to the extent where he'll take a pen knife and run it between the curb and the grass to see if any slipped down there. Also in restaurants--they showed him sitting in booths and running his hands in the cushions. They also made a big deal of his cooking and eating a sheep's head because it's cheap protein. Again, he could have shown them a lentil soup as an example of cheap eating, but who gets excited about lentils?


So, as you rightly point out, just know that the producers of that show will be looking to see what little thing you already do that they can magnify and exploit.

If it were me, it might be kind of fun if the pay was right, but on the other hand, you're going to wind up with a reputation for some things that may not accurately represent your frugal life.

[oldhat]

I haven't seen the show, but I'd be very wary, for all the reasons already given. From what little I have seen of "reality" TV, it looks like the producers are much more interested in humiliating and ridiculing their subjects than they are in imparting anything genuinely useful to their viewers.