Blind Date

When the creators of Blind Date hatched their ingenious idea and convinced Universal they could produce it as a twice a night strip, that was the first victory. The second one was combining it with written comedy. Introducing a pure reality date with no pop-ups would have grown weary by the end of the 1st season, but, right from the first day of shooting the pilot, surely the producers discussed their vision and agreed they needed to give the public a double dose of fun. I never miss an episode this show sucks you in and never lets you go.

I watch too many of these dating shows; it creates images in my head that many people are going through life partly unaware of the impression they make, and are slightly clueless as to how they related to others. I need to remind myself that TV isn't true reality, since there can be much tinkering behind the scenes.

If we think of the contestants of this show being awful, what do we consider the ones on other shows ( where some feature more than two people leading to competition, extra insults/tension, bickering ).

Roger Lodge is a very good host. Many people on television ( not just dating shows ) just try too hard; they chatter a bit too much and use forced humor ( example: Jillian Barbarie of Ex-treme Dating ). Lodge tries go with the flow and does not force himself on the audience.

I have noticed contestants on dating shows who appear on more than one of them. It's a small, tiny, strange trend of current reality TV. Are these people obsessed with trying to be on these shows? Are they appearing simply because the producers of shows know each other and suggest contestants to each other? Who knows....

I wish it was on more. The "thought bubbles" are ingenious. hysterical! Who ever you have writing for your show I wish was my best friend. Without the thought bubbles the show would not be bearable to watch. I even purchased the "Blind Date Uncensored" video and i never buy videos I like the show that much. A fine collection of LA's best oafs, morons and Village idiots. Sometimes the dates work out and thats nice. But its amazing to see how many people will act like an ass on national television. Roger Lodge, keep up the good work! OK, I do have to ask one more favor from my room mate..., bring back the lesbian episodes they were great!

A simple premise: a man and a woman talk to a camera and state the kind of partner they are looking for and add their likes, dislikes in and out of bed. Then they meet, and either have the best date of their lives and even open the door for a second date (which often ends up in some heavy action), or have some of the most dysfunctional, hilariously bad dates that the camera has ever seen, and those predictably end up inches away from a fist-fight... or in one audacious scene, the woman literally leaping from her date (which was on a boat) and swimming to shore, effectively calling it a day. While it is occasionally nice to see a date that doesn't go outrageously bad, it pays to see people make fools of themselves by putting themselves in the most embarrassing of situations while carrying out their quasi-date, and hearing Roger Lodge's wry observations at the beginning or end of these skits, and of course, the stars of the show are the often spot-on bubbles that "describe" what the daters might actually be thinking, especially in scenes of escalating awkwardness.

The premise is simple: the applicants create a video description of themselves, and the Blind Date team hooks them up. They choose from a list of "activities", then drive a special camera equipped vehicle to their date. After the activity is dinner, then a camera equipped cab ride to a bar, then a cab ride home.

The entire time, we are watching the couple interact. In post-production, they add in thought balloons and clever comments. When I first watched this show, I thought it looked stupid, but a girlfriend convinced me to watch. Now I'm hooked!

The best part of "Blind Date"? I'm not sure there is one. Sometimes you know they hooked up incompatible people, but in general I think they choose couples that look good on paper.

The very few of these dates that work, work well. You can visibly see the connection as it's made. But the majority don't work.

And why don't they work? Many reasons. Is it really true that most guys are so incredibly "on the make"? Some of these guys are absolutely pathetic in their attempts to get their "prize". Laughable.

And some of these women are shallower than a rain puddle. Several times I've seen some really nice, sincere guy getting totally sneered at by his "date" because he isn't wealthy or "attractive" enough.

I would say that this series says more about PEOPLE than any other "reality show". Instead of fake and contrived situations, this is just a low budget documentation of things that people DO in real life.

Seriously, there is no other "reality" program than can even come close to real life as Blind Date does. It's worth watching, it's even worth watching repeats to get details and nuances you may have missed the first time.