Dating Shows



February 10, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: One television genre where you're sure to find all the sexual content you can handle is The Dating Show, although it wasn't always like that. When The Dating Game started in the 60s there was a pretty girl choosing among 3 guys who might have been hoping for a good night kiss, and they exchanged a little but if innocuous innuendo. A generation later when Fox launched its program Studs, the innuendo was in your face. Looking ahead to Valentine's Day we asked On the Media's Alicia Zuckerman to see how far Studs has taken us. [DATING GAME MUSIC]
WOMAN: Ultimately it was the early 90s Fox TV show Studs that led us to where we are today. Two men went on dates with 3 women. The men had to guess which women said what about them, all for the honor of having little beanbag hearts slapped on their legs. The guy with the most beanbags won. The big question was always did they or didn't they, where before even if the question crossed our minds we thought -- nah. Now we wonder! --well maybe. In the opinion of relationship expert Dr. Drew Pinsky who became famous as the giver of sage advice on MTV's Loveline and on Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, even Studs didn't come close to what's on TV now.
MAN: Dating games were sort of cute to begin with and they were fun, but now they've become exploitative and abusive--
WOMAN: Universal Television's Blind Date is one of today's most popular dating shows. Described as a multi-layered dating experience, the show follows a questionably matched couple on a 10 hour date and then edits it down to about 6 or 7 minutes. In addition to straying from the usual in-studio format that had come to define dating shows, the producers add their own thoughts -pop up video style. But as co-creator Thomas Klein explains, the idea for the subtitles didn't come from the VH1 show.
MAN: Part of our inspiration came from the great Woody Allen movie Annie Hall, that wonderful sequence between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton where the, where they meet on, you know on his balcony in his apartment in New York and they're chit-chatting with each other, but he subtitles what they're really thinking and really feeling. This is what I think really happens all the time.
WOMAN: What would Blind Date have said about Woody Allen? The show can get pretty harsh. On a recent episode when one woman repeatedly tells her date how much she distrusts men--
WOMAN: I don't know why I attract those guys - do I have a sign right here on my forehead? Does it say all lying, cheating, stealing...
WOMAN: -- the show stamped a graphic reading Damaged Goods on her forehead. Producer Thomas Klein.
MAN: Sometimes the truth hurts. You know -there's - there's a lot of truth in humor, and, and what we do when we - when we write these dates is we actually look at the relationship and the dynamic that's happening and sometimes people are just mean to each other!
WOMAN: Dr. Drew is concerned about shows like Blind Date.
MAN: I am really disturbed by the kind of abusive, exploitative quality the shows have taken on, and I, I, I think the producers need to search their souls a little bit.
WOMAN: He's also offended by shows like Change of Heart. That shows sets supposedly committed couples up on dates with someone new to help them decide if they want to stay together or have a change of heart.
MAN: You had a usual complaint about Chris's hygiene; in fact why don't you share that with everybody please.
WOMAN: He doesn't wear underwear-- [GASPS AND SHOUTS FROM AUDIENCE]
MAN: It's like Temptation Island! It's cruel! It's cruel. I, I, I'd rather watch gladiator fights.
WOMAN: Again, Dr. Drew.
MAN: Frankly, because at least then peop-- everyone knows what they're in the game for and-- the pain ends swift--swiftly. In this case these are people that have, you know, interpersonal dynamic issues; they're sometimes quite serious, and they're being exploited!
WOMAN: It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to subject themselves to such potential humiliation on national TV. Blind Date producer Thomas Klein.
MAN: Most people are, are, are probably - that come on the show - are probably gamblers. You know? They go what the heck - I'm in no worse situation than if I didn't go on the date anyway. Maybe - just maybe I'll end up meeting somebody that I might connect to and have a relationship with.
WOMAN: In Dr. Drew's opinion the reason is entirely different.
MAN: They actually believe it's going to create a television career, and it's, it's that narcissistic society that we're in where celebrity is sort of the ultimate goal and these people want to find any way to have a crack at it.
WOMAN: There does seem to be a disproportionate number of people who define themselves as actors and musicians on these shows, but when Michelle, who didn't want us to use her last name, went on MTV's Singled Out in 1996 as a 20 year old Rutgers University student she says it was just to have fun.
MAN: Michelle, say hello to the guys.
WOMAN: Hey, guys!
MAN: Say hi to Michelle. [SHOUTS OF HELLO TO MICHELLE]
WOMAN: The mid-90s dating show Singled Out was hosted by one-time Studs contestant Chris Hardwick and first by a Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy. Later by Carmen Electra. These shows want people who look good on TV. Michelle is tall and shapely with wavy brown hair and great bone structure. The casting director told her she had what they were looking for.
WOMAN: I learned later that they had gone to a lot of clubs in, in New York to try to find attractive people and picked them out and asked them if they wanted to audition.
WOMAN: On these shows image is everything. Singled Out wasn't about to let Michelle go on cold.
WOMAN: They have writers that help you. The questions are supplied, but some of the answers you make up on your won and it was an interesting experience because they wanted to make sure that you, you know, didn't stutter or have nothing to say, so you had to let them know what your answers were going to be ahead of time.
WOMAN: In that sense, not much has changed since the 60s when former homecoming queen Kathy Beeban was plucked off of UCLA's sorority row to be on the Dating Game.
WOMAN: They told me that I wouldn't know anything about them and that I would be in a soundproof booth. But the booth was not soundproof, and so I could hear them introducing the guys!
WOMAN: Neither Kathy Beeban nor Michelle ever ended up actually going out on a date with the guys they picked. Occasionally though a couple does click. Blind Date says 25 percent of their matches are successful and Love Connection resulted in 35 marriages. Meanwhile, one dating show begets another. The people from Blind Date are producing two of four new dating shows for the fall lineup, each one pushing the boundaries of propriety a little further. Dr. Drew.
MAN: That reality component, that exploitative, voyeuristic element garners ratings! And so they're just going for it! We've, we've sort of not crossed that line until this point, and now here we are.
WOMAN: But maybe there is a line that the American public still won't cross. Who Wants to Date a Hooters Girl is limping along in a few markets but has yet to make it with a national audience. For On the Media in New York, I'm Alicia Zuckerman. [MUSIC]