Mad Mad House

Most everyone knows that reality TV isn't exactly "reality". Producers chop, edit, and manipulate footage to make scenes and conversations more dramatic than they actually were.

What really surprised me were the number of negative comments regarding my personal mentor, Fiona Horne. The way she was portrayed by the editing is a gross misrepresentation of the person I have known and learned from over the last several years.

She is NOT a failed actress, nor is she spiteful, jealous, or unkind. She is the very opposite of ALL those things. She became my teacher and mentor, not even knowing me. She was actually the lead singer of a very popular band in Australia, has written SEVERAL popular books (including some for young adults interested in Wicca), and is now a pilot, who flies medicine and vaccines to countries in desperate need.

I think it's a bit unfair to pass judgment on someone you only know from an edited television show....as someone who knows her personally... She got screwed by the edit.

I enjoyed every episode of Mad Mad House. It was the only reality show I ever was interested in. I am glad I watched it because I learned about Avocado, the raw food nutritionalist. He helped me discover walnut burgers...mmmm....My friend and I had a raw food night where we made walnut burgers and a bunch of other stuff we found from recipes off of Shazzie.com. I'm thinking of buying Avocado's book "Eating for beauty." I want to learn how to have a healthy lifestyle by using some of his techniques. He, to me, seemed very cool and smart. I especially liked Art too, because he is so spiritual, loves life, and avoids anger. He's an inspiration. I do believe everything on this show is real. The alts certainly are because if you do a background check on them all you'll find they've made books and have personal sites and a hell of a lot of background information. The only trouble with the show I had was Kelly. I hated her SO much...it nearly made me sick because she's an actual person...that girl has mental problems. I hope she realizes this and can take care of herself before she hurts herself or someone else. Anywho, the show was highly enjoyable and I was inspired. It certainly had lessons to give to narrow minded folks. No other reality show has any lessons at all. My parents were saying the people on there were evil or messed up...if they ever watched it they'd realize the meaning of it all. But, they're close-minded, and I can only wish they'd open up sometime and accept and learn. Anyway, I'll end this. I'm sure I sound lame, but it's what I was thinking and wanted to say.

"Mad Mad House" is typical Sci-Fi programming: low budget, bad theme, and very laughable. Everything comes off as scripted and acted out, and it's the sort of thing you'd expect to be a prank on a hidden camera show. I don't know if the "alts" practice off camera what they do on the show, but I simply cannot take any of them seriously. The contestants--who seem to be acting rather than genuinely participating in a contest--live together and are given tests and competitions each week, eventually leading to them being eliminated one by one. The winning contestant gets a large sum of cash. "Mad Mad House" is merely entertainment and should be viewed as such, and one can easily be sucked into the absurdity if they forget it's on the same network that brings us syndicated classics such as "Crossing Over with John Edward." Unless you're a die-hard Sci-Fi fan or have a desire to watch people bob for bat-shaped sheet metal in a pool of fake blood, you'd be better off skipping this show.

The Sci-Fi Channel's attempt to attract higher ratings with a "reality TV" show was a decent one. Other reality shows have been boring and mostly unimaginative. Manufacturing the next pop sensation, eating gross thing after gross thing, and competing for some random guy or girl just doesn't intrigue me. The Sci-Fi Channel knows its viewers don't want that invading their sanctuary from popular TV programming, so they add an appealing spin to the idea.

The best aspect of the show is that it takes the guests out of their comfortable, familiar lives and puts them in an environment where they have to experience the lifestyles and values of five "freaks". Challenging what the contestants might think and then using their responses and openness as criteria for elimination was a nice break from the fastest, strongest, and most popular advancing.

But of course, it is a reality show. Drama, plotting, unusual situations, and a big prize are part of it. Putting people through all of that just for the sake of viewers' twisted amusement and no other purpose gets kinda boring. At least find a real (or an almost real) reason to have guests drink blood and stand waist-deep in unpleasant stuff. Sci-Fi did well enough with that. My biggest qualm is that the prize details should have been played down to the guests or even kept secret until the end.

Despite my qualms with the show I enjoyed it. Unlike some, I don't feel the need to discredit and trash the Alts. I still think they are genuine people after watching . Anyway, people really do live those sorts of lifestyles. It's nice to be able to get a glimpse into them. Sci-Fi scored points with a lot of disappointed viewers who have been waiting a while for something decent to watch.

In an attempt to create a Science-Fiction'esque reality show, Sci-Fi has come up with a brand new ground breaking series called "Mad Mad House". This series places 10 total strangers in a house with a vampire, a witch, a modern primitive, a voodoo priestess , and a naturist. All of the "alts" as they call them all are really what they claim to be, they are in no way actors, even the vampire. The alts control what happens in the house, and who gets to stay, and who goes home. There are trials in which the guests do things ranging from stripping down totally naked, to drinking blood. Although plenty of the ideas in the show may be borrowed from other reality series, the show really is extremely different from a lot of the other reality series out there, and deserves a chance.