Reality TV revives the family dinner
There’s something magical about sitting down around a big table, sharing a meal, sharing stories, maybe having an argument or two, but experiencing a rare solidarity that’s hard to achieve in other settings.
For many families where members are scattered at dinnertime, or for families separated by circumstances, the family dinner may not happen every night, but only on Sunday or a holiday or other special occasion.
And for some folks, friends make up the fellowship of the dinner table.
For all these realities, there’s reality TV there to reflect them.
Returning on Wednesday, July 17, for its second season, TLC’s “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” features child beauty pageant participant Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson and her family in rural Georgia. In between pageants, Honey Boo Boo and her family – parents June (“Mama”) and Mike (“Sugar Bear”), and her three older sisters – sit down to family dinners on a weekly family food budget of $80.
So along with the help of coupons and other strategies, June’s thrifty meals often feature “roadkill” – free venison from deer killed by cars. Or if there isn’t any roadkill, Mama may make “sketti,” the family word for spaghetti, served with meat and an unusual sauce made from microwaved tub margarine and ketchup.