Reality TV could use a blast of genuine Arizona heat
We’re remembering Clay Thompson with some of our favorite columns.
This one ran July 13, 2000:
What with the popularity of all these new reality game shows like “Survivor” and “Big Brother” and the like, I’m thinking it’s time I cashed in with some ideas high-concept sort of stuff of my own.
I mean, if millions of viewers will tune in to watch a bunch of people locked in a house, why wouldn’t they tune in for these:
Beeline! Competing families with no fewer than three children under 10 and at least one 15-year-old and one dog spend five days in an overcrowded campground on the Rim. They are then given six-year-old minivans equipped with creaky air-conditioning and outfitted with video cameras and told to drive from Payson to Glendale at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The first family to arrive in Glendale, burn all their camping gear on the lawn and stomp into the house without speaking to one another wins. Missing Supplied only with The Arizona Republic’s weather page, contestants try to guess the previous day’s temperatures in Buckeye. Extra points for finding Bellemont on the map.
Soaked in the City Tales of everyday people who live in a city where for months on end the monotony of unrelenting heat is broken only by blowing dust, short, vicious thunderstorms and power outages.
On second thought, that one might
be too weird. No one would believe it. But this one could be a huge adventure, drama and hours of laughs for the whole family.
Escape! Four of my masters are placed in the bed of a pickup truck with the tailgate locked. The truck is parked at Paradise Valley Mall. Each contestant is given a bottle of water, a Swiss Army knife, a cell phone and a $10 bill. The winner is the first one to figure out how to get out of the truck, walk into the mall and buy an Orange Julius.
I’m thinking of that one as at least a six-hour mini-series.