My All in One Reality TV/Dating Show
Reality TV is either the best thing to happen to television or the cheapest thing. Either way, its apparent that its not going anywhere anytime soon and this morning, as I was getting in a little workout I came up with what I think might be a pretty decent concept for a new Reality show.

It combines Survivor (s) with the Bachelor (b) with Mr. Personality (p) with Extreme Makeover (em) with Blind Date (bd). And though I know that explanation's plenty enough to get a sense of the show, I'll go an extra step or two and explain it out a little better (and if some producer takes the idea and runs with it then let me know and I'll send you my address so you can send me a big fat check). The letters in parantheses are going to be used to indicate where a particular part of the show comes from in the description below.l

But here goes: the premise is two groups of men and women (s), all of them in need of some "work" to blossom into the hottie within (em) but, since they're all wearing masks (p), its hard to tell what they look like. Competition ensues to whittle the group down to a winner set (s), maybe two couples. Each couple reveals to each other what they look like. The couple that can successfully sustain a relationship with the masks off (as voted by the viewing public) gets the Extreme Makeover treatment (em) and then they are followed for another period of time to watch what being newly beautiful does to their relationship.
The show could incorporate all kinds of extra ideas, like workout programs to get bodies in shape as well as the lipo. Nutritional segments to show the newly sucked clean people how to maintain their new look by not stuffing their faces full of cheetos and ho-ho's. And how to act like a lady and how to act like a gentleman, oh yeah, finishing lessons so that it'll be harder to tell they live in a double wide.

But there you go. It would be compelling for a number of reasons. Starting out with unattractive people in masks means that they must connect based on personality alone and that means there's a real chance of them finding real love. But then the twist at the end of making them beautiful opens up a whole new world (you did know that pretty people don't have to pay for anything, didn't you? and hot women can get pretty much anything they want from men) and makes for compelling viewing. I'd also like to get some form of physical contest in there as well, maybe make part of the competition something chivalry based like jousting or sword fighting.

And it would have to have a good name like Prince Charming (the frog into the prince concept) or True Love or something like that. Just an idea but it's not like its all that far off from what's on the box these days anyway.

And Wisdom from Monster Garage
Monster Garage is a great show, or used to be a great show since they seem to be running short on good ideas for vehicular conversions. The last one actually pissed Jesse James off, making a PT Cruiser into a chipper. Which sounds like a good idea but really is pretty lame in practice, especially since they canned the idea of twin exhaust chutes for the shredder to spew stuff out of. It was going to spray to each side but they changed that to one straight up that would just spread crap all over the place instead of shooting it out off to each side. Bad idea and it made the end product look kind of stupid.

Anyway, Jesse said something a few shows ago that I'm going to apply to my present work situation (see a few posts previous to this one). He was talking about not liking someone and said, "You know what I say to people I don't like?" and his answer, "Nothing at all, I just won't talk to you anymore if I don't like you." Instead of raging and screaming and whatever, take the path of least resistance, elevate above the irritation and go about your life as if the other person no longer exists in your world. And that's exactly what I'm going to do here. Anything business based or professional will be dealt with in a crisp and timely manner, anything beyond that, any personal questions, any lunches out with the crew from work, anything at all that involves this walking waste of space will be met with blank stares, a shrug and I'll move on to whatever I was doing or saying before.

In my best Don Corleone voice, "You are dead to me, I look at you and see the wall behind you. You are dead to me."
So what will I say to you if I don't like you? Nothing at all.

And it feels like I've already taken the high road above the muck.