the hand of prod

When Utopia started, one of its big selling points was "no production interference." People who have complained for years about production interference on Big Brother were so excited and jumped over hoping to find their own personal Utopia of livefeeds. Somehow they believed that this lack of interference, coupled with the other promise of true 24x7 access, would solve everything everyone has ever complained about.

As the show had progressed two things have become apparent: first, many people don't seem to differentiate between production interference and production involvement, and second, some viewers honestly want a little bit of production interference.

It legitimately baffles me when people are surprised and upset that production is involved in Utopia. Of course they're involved - it's their show. The producers actually have a lot more riding on this than the Utopians. They want it to be successful, and they understand that it is, above all, a TV show. If the show is boring or unpleasant no one is going to watch. So yes, they talk to the Utopians, they give them resources, and support ideas that will lead to interesting storylines. When Rob wanted to get married on the show (and I believe this was *his* idea) production was naturally going to jump all over that, and provide whatever support they could to make it happen. If that meant supplementing the budget, or making various arrangements, who cares? Well, apparently a lot of people do, because there was a tremendous amount of screaming about production interference.

But interference is something different. It means changing the outcome or the course of the behavior. Suggesting to the UTs that they nominate or vote off certain people, or guiding them toward certain forms of government, would be interference. But is simply suggesting that they consider a particular option interference? A few days ago, after having been found guilty of making a threat, Aaron was "sentenced" to till in the garden for an hour or two. There was some discussion at the time of making sure it wasn't in the heat of the day (I heard 10AM) but somehow he ended up out in the field with a pick ax at around 3PM. Mike made a comment about how bad it looked for an African American man to be out tilling in the fields. Shortly after that the whole group sat down to have a discussion about "race issues" and there was strong suspicion out here that production had suggested they talk about it.

Who knows? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But one thing I'm pretty sure about, no one told Mike to make the comment and no one told any of the Utopians what to say during the conversation. It was awkward and uncomfortable, as any conversation about race relations generally is. However, it was made even more awkward by the fact that it didn't seem organic. Instead of just talking about it, they were all sitting in a circle taking turns. Who does that in real life?

This is not the first time they've had what seemed to be a suggested conversation. Though those conversations always seem incredibly awkward on the feeds, and sometimes we even hear from the UTs how they don't want to do this but they're being forced to, a few pearls do often come out of them. And even more often, it is those conversations that end up on the show. That's not to say that the natural conversations don't also end up on the show, but let's face it - if production suggested they talk about something, there probably was a reason. But is that interference, or just enough involvement to make a TV show?

The flip side of the people who get so upset about any production involvement is the people who yell about the opposite. Why aren't they putting a stop to the plots to bully/rattle Bella or Nikki? Why aren't they making sure there are no flies on the wedding cake? Why aren't they telling the UTs how much we hate some of them and making sure those people are voted out? Why aren't they setting the punishments for rule breaking?

To which I reply, "really? come on." I've seen this for years on BB. We overlook production manipulation if it gets us what we want. If it saves someone we like, or gets rid of someone we hate then okay. But that doesn't make it right. And this is even more true in Utopia. If we really want to see the social experiment that we were promised, then we have to take the good with the bad. Put a group of people together and ask them to figure out how to have a society and some are going to rise to the occasion. But others will be mean and nasty, incompetent or just plain boring. The question is, given time, and left to their own devices, which type will win out. Personally, I'd like to believe that the good in people will triumph, but I can't actually say that I know that's true.

One area that I didn't mention though there's been a lot of discussion about it, is the care of the animals. I do believe that production does (and should) keep a close eye on that, along with the physical safety of the Utopians, and will always step in to protect those areas. Though they want us to believe that the UTs are fully responsible for the animals, it's pretty clear that's not true. They weren't allowed to get rid of the cows when they wanted to, and I thoroughly believe all the animals are monitored by professionals to ensure they're getting proper care. The same is true for the humans...production is not going to have anyone get sick or die if they can help it. Though I did hear that Bri stepped on and killed the baby chick. I guess there was nothing they could do about that. [Update: I'm now told this was just a vicious rumour....at least the fact that chick is dead is rumour. When asked about it, the veterinarians responded that the "chick is not dead, and is not in Bri's care." Which actually just proves my point. People are looking out for the animals of Utopia, human, bovine and foul alike.]

So, what's the bottom line? In the end, I think that we, the livefeeders, are as diverse as the Utopians. Some like to complain, and will always find fault with what production is doing. Many are convinced that they could do better (despite probably knowing absolutely nothing about how to produce a TV show). Some are convinced that if inside Utopia, we would be embracing the concept, working hard, and building the ideal society. Others would probably admit that they'd be eating donuts and getting out of work wherever possible. But I'd like to think that if everyone took a step back and gave an honest look at things we would all agree on this: Utopia production is giving us what they promised. We do have nearly uninterrupted 24x7 livefeeds (whether that's a good thing or not is a topic for a future MyUtopiaPOV) and there is little production interference. They are letting the concept play out on its own as much as possible. At the same time, they have a job to do and they're doing it. And from my point-of-view, they're doing it very well.