On Tuesday’s Dark Side of the 2000s, former producers of The Bachelor got here clear on the numerous ways the franchise has used to create extra drama for the cameras.
The ViceTV docuseries, which every week focuses on completely different elements of popular culture from the 2000s, explored the historical past of — and secrets and techniques behind — probably the most in style and profitable actuality courting exhibits in the historical past of tv.
Much of the episode revolved round Mike Fleiss, who was the creator/producer of Who Wants to Marry a Multi-millionaire earlier than later reimagining a brand new model of that present, known as The Bachelor. And one matter of debate on Tuesday was the method they’d undergo to decide on ladies for the present, as instructed by Marki Costello, the casting director for the primary season of The Bachelor.
“Mike Fleiss loved beautiful blondes,” she stated. “We were looking for women that were smart, beautiful, educated, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. They don’t want fat, they don’t want ugly, they don’t want pimples. They want someone that is visually appealing.”
Michael Carroll, a producer on the present in the course of the 2000s, additionally described how they’d attempt to solid sure roles for the present, like a villain.
“We needed a bimbo. We needed a ho. We needed a ditzy girl that everyone could make fun of,” Carroll stated.
From there it was a matter of studying easy methods to higher produce every contestant by determining what their tendencies could be whereas on the present.
“We would create boards that had a little backstory and a picture,” Costello stated. “‘She just went through a breakup, she just got over anorexia, she has been a bridesmaid 15 times but never a bride. She’s gonna f*** somebody on day one. She’s a virgin and she’s never gonna f***. That’s the reality. They want to know what’s gonna happen in that house.”
And as soon as they had been in the home, creating extra drama was a continuing problem for producers, who discovered that probably the greatest methods to do this was to get a lady to cry on digital camera. Carroll defined how that was achieved.
“You had to go for their hot buttons. Their dad left them when they were 8-years-old. They were left at the altar. And that’s how it is if you want to be on The Bachelor: You’re gonna cry right here, and if you don’t cry enough, we’re going to find a way to get you out, and then we’re gonna make you cry when you leave because you didn’t get the bachelor. So… you better cry.”
And so producers would take the knowledge they acquired in the course of the screening course of and wield it like a weapon to get what they needed.
“Bringing up things that don’t need to be brought up and just, you know, wrecking them psychologically,” Carroll stated.
Another main device used by producers to create extra drama and ship the outcomes they needed was supplying alcohol. Carroll remembered an occasion early on when the crew was organising for the primary episode of the season and the women needed to simply wait it out.
“They’re just sitting in the limo, drinking champagne until they’re blotto,” he said. “There’s nowhere for them to go to the bathroom, so all the beautiful girls, 25, have to get out of the car and pee on the side of the road. Fantastic.”
A former lady in the home, Trish Schneider from season 5, stated that she was positive that producers purposely tried to get contestants drunk.
“It’s like a truth serum in a situation like The Bachelor. So yes, of course, I think alcohol played a part in some people either being more comfortable in front of the camera or willing to share more,” Schneider stated.
And Carroll went on to say that alcohol was at all times offered and out there behind the scenes for the crew as properly, as Fleiss and fellow govt producer Lisa Levinson would allegedly drink overtly whereas watching the displays.
And talking of Fleiss and Levinson, it was revealed Tuesday that they’d go even additional past the ways already talked about to get their desired outcomes for the present. As in, taking the fact out of the fact competitors.
“Every rose ceremony, there was an argument between Mike Fleiss and Lisa Levinson and ABC the network about which chicks, which girls, should get roses and which should go home,” Carroll stated.
The Bachelor has finished huge scores via the years and expanded with a full-on franchise that’s nonetheless going robust at present. Fleiss was ultimately pressured out over allegations of bullying and racism.
Dark Side of the 2000s airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ViceTV.
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