You have an unlimited budget to make a reality show. What do you create?

Give homeless people a hundred thousand dollars and see what happens.

Who wants to be an Astronaut?

METAPHORE THEME PARK

Make someone find a needle in a haystack, opening cans of worms and barrels of monkeys, trying to shoot the broad side of a barn.
Make them nail jello to a wall.
Maybe try and fight fire with fire…
Figure out how loose a goose really is.
Find things as light as a feather.
See how loud church mice really are.
(edited to add more)

Build a contraption to help a pig fly.
Shut a pie hole.
Get someone’s goat.
Look gift horses in the mouth.
Record expressions while eating sour grapes.
Cut mustard.
Try and freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
Maybe make the cats pajamas?

This idea is one my dad and I joke about a lot. The original ones were the barn, nail jello, needles in haystacks, throwing stones in glass houses, cleaning someone’s clock, etc.

@delirium:
Watch the cows come home
see how messy a pig’s sty is
watch dogs pee on brick walls and bears shit in the woods?
slip into the seventh circle of hell?

YES! Hahahaha. Measure the speed of molasses.
Get up really early and try and catch worms.

The best are the direct illogical metaphors.

I would personally pay to get all the Flutherites in a room together, and watch what happens. Especially some of the more ahem questionable personalities.

Kill two birds with one stone.
Catch a bull by the horns, or a tiger by the tail.
Jump through hoops!

What qualifies as questionable?

also… metaphor is spelled wrong in my original post and it’s really bothering me.

@poof: Yeah, what qualifies as questionable? I think we’re all questionable. :P

Drive up a wall

Running with fireside’s idea, I’d like to do a remake of the fairly low-budget Space Cadets which was shown in the UK in ‘05. An elaborate hoax to make a group of people think they’re going into space but they never leave the ground… It kinda worked at the time, but with a big budget it could have been really great.

I’m talking, delirium and Drastic, about the “shit-stirrers” of the group. The ones notorious for trying to wind people up for the sake of entertainment.

If anyone has seen Be Kind, Rewind… sending people out to make one in a day or so with very limited resources. I, at least, know that I would utterly beast that show. There are few things i’m better at doing than being creative with limited resources. Experience as a set designer with no budget does that.

The contestants on this show would be everything from kids to businessmen to teenage punks. Steer through cliche social groups and see what they create. Maybe make a contest of it at the end… show the best one?

To help whoever doesn’t know what i’m talking about… here’s ghost busters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXxWhzMvUXI
(To make night they used the invert button on the tape recorder but needed their faces to not be inverted, so they photocopied their faces and wore those.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lywyCbx3Tg This is a random person who sweded men in black quite well indeed.

(Sweded is the word for it.)

My favorite metaphor my dad use to use is ” slap a turd out of you the length of a well rope”.

“Ambulance Chasers”

Like Cops, only with EMT’s. Has it already been done?

I have the ideas if you have the cash. :)

My idea for a reality show: set people up with 24 hours to acquire as much $ as possible. People would get very creative.

@Del, those are hilarious.
@Poof, we are ALL “questionable”: able at asking questions.

Trusting, that leaves two options… thievery or prostitution.

I’m not sure if that answer is tongue-in-cheek.
We could add the rule that people can’t break any laws.

With that rule, we’d see how creative people would get.
Without that rule, we’d see how far people will go to make money, and to win.

It wasn’t tongue in cheek. It was just immediately what came to mind.

Sounds like The Apprentice.

I would make a show that links with the charity Heifer International. Each show we would find a third world village, show how their standards of life are, and meet some of the villagers. Then we’d give them the animals, and watch them over the first week as they get used to the new additions. Finally we’d come back a year later and see how they are doing. This would be one episode. The intent would be to raise awareness of not only the organization, but the many villages who do not live as we do, and to encourage donations from the public (but not in an annoying way).

that’s a great idea

Education Unlimited.

We would surprise honor students that can’t afford to go abroad with homestay trips to small villages to experience another culture. Like Exiled, but with people who deserve and would appreciate the trips. The show would be them getting surprised, going on the trip and meeting the family they stay with. Some of their surprising chores and tender moments. Then like a week later any complaints. Then a month later. Then a recap from at home, perhaps even a year later, to see how the trip changed them (if at all).

We’d have some ridiculous contests too, along the way. All the “rewards” would be things the village/family needs. Like a new well or a cow or whatever. Then, in the end, the student would be given a choice between like three prizes, one of them would benefit them, one would benefit them and their homestay, and one would only benefit the homestay. If they chose to benefit their adopted family, they would also get something that benefited them.

I’m trying to think of cool ways to incorporate a few ideas: 1. other cultures are amazing and interesting, not punishments (Exiled reallllllly annoys me), 2. working to benefit others is important, 3. often in life we are rewarded for helping others, and 4. education is important.

We’d team up with dynamicduo’s show every so often. :)

I will further note that this is in no way meant to exploit the villagers nor their way of life. The show would be a respectful, drama-free production.

Great idea EmpressPixie! For sure, we can and should be using TV in a way that gets more value out of it, compared to a lot of what’s shown today.

both are fantastic ideas for building towards global harmony and understanding
sort of like Extreme Global Makeover

Have you seen or read the recaps of Exiled? It is exactly the wrong kind of thing. The princesses from My Super Sweet 16 are told by their parents that because they are brats, they need to go live in remote villages for a week. They cry and scream and say they don’t understand why their parents would do this to them. Then they go and are bratty to the villagers.

Haven’t seen it and I’m glad. Sounds disgusting. I don’t watch TV, other than DVDs of great series, and that sure ain’t one of em.

sounds like paris hilton wanna-bes. how sad

I haven’t actually seen it either. I’ve seen the recaps on Jezebel. I don’t think I’d be able to watch without turning into a raging thing.

How about a “My Super Sweet 16” version of Battle Royale, then.

YES!

Something to do with random acts of kindness.

I love the education unlimited idea:)

You have to break the most world records in 3 months.