Skip to main content

Hotel Impossible has its Amy's Baking episode: post-Sandy help yields death threats

Hotel Impossible broke the fourth wall repeatedly last night as Anthony Melchiorri worked on the Hurricane Sandy-destroyed Thunderbird Motel in Seaside Heights, N.J., and eventually walked off the job because of horrific behavior from the family that owned it. He’d actually found a hotel that it was impossible to help, kind of like the now-famous Amy’s Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

The two-part episode is coming near the end of the show’s third season (it’s been renewed for a fourth), and was framed as an uplifting post-Sandy makeover, but the hotel turned out to be not exactly worthy of the show’s time, effort, or resources. It was an unexpected twist, because I thought it would be two episodes of devastation and sympathy.

Part one ended with a cast member talking off-camera but still on mic about wanting footage to be deleted, and included repeated death threats, like “if you screw with my family, you won’t make it home,” which the family’s patriarch said to a producer, along with, “You wanna see my style? Buy life insurance.” Of Anthony, he said, “Let’s chop his [fucking] head off.” Upon learning that the family owned millions of dollars of other properties, Anthony told them, “You’re trying to play me” and the crew—which was on-camera a lot as the fourth wall was broken—packed up and left.

Perhaps most interesting to me was a conversation Anthony had with one of the two adult children. “That’s what happens. This is not a fake show,” he said. “You got my brother extremely upset to do yesterday’s skit,” she said, although the audio changed in the middle and we didn’t say her see the last part, so perhaps that audio came from another moment (there’s some irony). Anthony said, “This is a real show. We don’t have skits.”

I believe him, and despite the sketchy editing—which I’m sure thrilled the family since just the normal editing included their behind-closed-door complaining was still captured on their mics—think what the show presents is legitimate, though compressed for time and all that, of course.

There seem to be an increasing number of people on various shows who are legitimately surprised when a show isn’t fake or contrived by producers, a direct result of all the faking that is going on now. Genuine shows are becoming the exception, which is tragic.

The Travel Channel show has been a mild-mannered version of the format originated by Gordon Ramsay in the UK. But because Kitchen Nightmares became a nightmare when Fox adapted it for the United States, stripping out all that was great from the UK version, there’s a lot of room for shows to fill in that gap, and both Bar Rescue, Restaurant Impossible, Tabatha Takes Over, and Hotel Impossible do that for me.

But the first three seem to increasingly be headed into Ramsay territory; even if they’re honest, they’re edited to focus on screaming and crazy drama, with only minimal attention to the actual business makeover; right now, Hotel Impossible is still doing the reverse, which makes it really entertaining.


View the original article here

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

<b>Reality TV</b> gets its own Comic-Con with Audrina Patridge, Nick <b>...</b>

Reality TV gets its own Comic-Con with Audrina Patridge, Nick Cannon and more | Show Tracker | Los Angeles Timesbody {background-color:#ffffff !important;}ul#root li.navLink a {padding-top:17px; padding-right:4px; padding-bottom:16px; padding-left: 5px;} Subscribe/Manage Account Place An Ad LAT Store Jobs Cars Real Estate Rentals More Classifieds Custom Publishing Entertainment HOME LOCAL L.A. Now Politics Crime Education O.C. Westside Neighborhoods Environment Obituaries Findlocal U.S. Politics Now Top of the Ticket Science & Environment Obituaries Religion WORLD Afghanistan & Pakistan Africa Asia Europe Iran Iraq Latin America Mexico Under Siege Middle East Business Money & Co. Technology Personal Finance Small Business Company Town Jobs Real Estate Autos SPORTS Lakers Clippers Dodgers Angels USC UCLA Kings Ducks Soccer High Schools Bleacher Report ENTERTA...

Kourtney Kardashian Announces New Clothing Line

« Kanye West Wears Kim Kardashian Nude Pic Over His Heart | Home | Kelly Clarkson And Brandon Blackstock Got Married This Weekend » October 21, 2013 02:07 PM by Stephanie Gustafson Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian are well known for starring in today’s hottest reality show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. But the three sisters are intent on expanding their reach beyond the realm of entertainment. They’ve already made headway with the Kardashian Kollection and now, are continuing to take on the fashion world with a brand new clothing line. Kardashian fans across the nation love donning the creations of their idols, Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian. The sisters have continually impressed with the recessionista outfits made possible through the popular Kardashian Kollection. Now, though, the trio have set their sites on high-end fashion, which is why they’re excited to announce the debut of a new collaboration with Lipsy. During a recent chat with Hello Magazine, Kourtney Kardashi...

Midwife Linda Abbott returns to Leeds General in tonight’s One Born Every Minute

Home > Factual > Midwife Linda Abbott returns to Leeds General in tonight’s One Born Every Minute January 30th, 2013 by Lisa McGarry. One Born Every Minute returns to Channel 4 tonight for the fifth episode of it’s current season and this evening’s instalment sees the return of a familiar face. Midwife Linda Abbott is back in Leeds General, after retiring only twelve months ago. The seasoned practitioner realised that she wasn’t ready to put the world of work and child bearing behind her and it was lucky she did, as the staff and patients at the hospital certainly missed her presence. She describes herself as an ‘old bird’ her years of experience are just whats needed, especially in two of tonight’s cases. The episode focuses on two fathers with very different bedside manners and approaches to their partners and expanding families. Joel could not be more attentive to his wife Rachel and is keen that it is just him and her alone when their baby is delivered.. Rachel and Joel’s...