At least once while watching “The Great American Road Trip,” I found myself wondering what the Founding Fathers would make of all this. It happened in the Philadelphia episode, after Transportation Secretary and “Real World: Boston” alumnus Sean Duffy herded his family past the Liberty Bell, but just before he took them into the National Constitution Center.

Before going inside, Duffy pauses to hype up his brood by sharing that none other than Ken Griffin bought one of the original copies of the Constitution to put on public display. “And I think it’s so cool because we have American patriots who love the country, who love history, that are willing to invest their money to buy these copies and not hide them away,” he said.

Duffy’s wife, Fox News personality Rachel Campos-Duffy, along with a few of his nine kids who fit into the shot, listen attentively as he says this, ostensibly appreciating the sacrificial solemnity of a billionaire financier’s highly publicized $43.2 million transaction.

As for me, I had to wonder why Duffy felt the need to drop the name of a man whose net worth exceeds $52 billion in proximity to those of the Continental Congress members who walked the floorboards of Independence Hall.

Our Founders were not poor men, but they weren’t Griffin-rich by a long shot – that’s British monarchy levels of money. What would they have thought about an American government official being hailing a hedge fund manager as a “patriot,” simply for buying one of the few remaining copies of the foundational document they painstakingly crafted and generously making it available for the Great Unwashed to gawk at? Didn’t they circulate scores of drafts for everyone to see?

And just as importantly – how many people, let alone children, know or care who Ken Griffin is? Who, exactly, is “The Great American Road Trip” for?

Asking that means I’m overthinking it, which is the opposite of what it takes to appreciate this . . . whatever this is.

“The Great American Road Trip” was conceived as a travelogue, after a fashion, celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. The six-episode series caught flak from the moment its first trailer was released in May, more than two months after President Donald Trump launched his wildly unpopular war with Iran. By then, a gallon of gas averaged around $4.50, according to AAA.

Now that I’ve seen the show – me, and the few thousand other unfortunates rubbernecking at this terrible accident – I’m here to assure you that this was never about us. It’s about the Duffys fulfilling their prescribed content creation roles in Trump’s reality TV cabinet.

Wring your hands, if you must, over the impropriety of the U.S. Department of Transportation attaching itself to a series paid for by companies it regulates, including United Airlines, Chase Travel, Toyota, Boeing and Royal Caribbean.

Not to worry, though, since those corporations and others funneled their contributions into Great American Road Trip, Inc, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization that hasn’t yet appeared in the usual IRS search engine people employ to find information on such entities.

In May, Politico obtained the GART pitch deck listing proposed sponsorship levels for the series ranging from $100,000 to $1 million. But that’s all totally fine, America. “No taxpayer dollars were spent for the participation of Secretary Duffy’s family,” an opening title card assures us. Except for Duffy’s paycheck, but it’s not as if that’s worth mentioning.

Another widely discussed subplot is tied to where Paloma Duffy should attend college. She wants to go to Harvard University, about which Duffy claims, “[T]hey have professionalized figuring out how they can take good young girls like you and, I think, corrupt their minds.” He also voices his fear that Harvard perverts and contorts young minds.

If this administration weren’t chockablock with ethical violations and other morally repugnant horrors, the thought of a government official claiming that a private Ivy League university older than the country, in a series sponsored by a governmental department, should be horrifying.

Then again, look around.  

“The Great American Road Trip” is what happens when a president is more concerned with creating memes and spinning a version of America that is free of conflict, devoutly Christian, and cheerily patriarchal, rather than traveling with its historical complexity in all its fullness.

The Duffys may line dance through Texas, but you will learn more about that state’s history and culture by watching “Landman” or “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.”

They spend plenty of time visiting the “Real World: Boston” house where Duffy reconnects with his erstwhile housemate, Montana McGlynn, and next to none discussing Boston’s pivotal role in igniting the American Revolution.

The great state of Arizona is home to the Grand Canyon and hundreds of Waymo autonomous cars (made by Google, another proud sponsor of this American adventure!), but it’s also where Grandpa lives.  Charlotte, S.C., is home to the restaurant of one of Campos-Duffy’s oldest friends, who happens to be the kind of smoke show Trump would wife if she only had an Eastern European accent. 

The Duffys also visit the Free States of Taylor Sheridania, aka Wyoming and Montana, in an episode where their young son, Patrick, is taken to the hospital after suffering abdominal pain. What appears to be appendicitis turns out to be severe constipation, a public announcement I’m sure his schoolmates will handle with grace and maturity. And since things take a turn for the medical, Duffy’s oldest daughter, Evita, and her husband, Wisconsin Republican congressional candidate Michael Alfonso, enlist an ultrasound tech to reveal their unborn child’s gender.  

In addition to their Grand Canyon visit, the Duffys swing by Yellowstone National Park, rounding out their looks at two of the most photographed destinations in existence. There is no mention of the Trump administration’s defunding of our National Parks system, including siphoning some $90 million from visitor entry fees to places like, hello, Yellowstone, toward preparations for the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations, including relining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Money well spent!

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Even if you don’t try to wrap your brain around the moral dissonance of this project, there’s no getting around the disservice it does to our national image.  “The Great American Road Trip” is Acceptably American Content, promoting America as an ahistorical nation full of fun stops for the kids and nice hotels. The Duffys would like us to believe that America belongs to wealthy white people who outfit their lives in neutral colors and pray that their daughters will be spared from liberal perversion. Worst of all, it makes the United States look boring.

The fact that it came out following scores of delightful social media posts made by awestruck international visitors who crisscrossed the country to enjoy the World Cup doesn’t help. On YouTube, the very same platform hosting Duffy’s vapid post-vacation slideshow, content abounds showing soccer lovers’ appreciation for our fast-food joints, rowdy dance clubs and ranch dressing. These videos depict a fun-loving land that welcomes foreigners and embraces friends at 250 years old despite all the advertised assaults on its social fabric. Those are the stories sustaining our joy during America’s anniversary. The rest, we can dump at one of our many overflowing roadside rest stops.

The post Sean Duffy’s Great American Road Grift appeared first on Salon.com.

At one point, there was no limit to what networks would do to create the next great reality show that would bring them viewership. MTV and VH1 were notorious for this, creating shows like Room Raiders, Flavor of Love, and Next. Some ideas were so insane that if they were pitched in the 2020s, they’d never see the light of day.

In January of 2005 Fox premiered Who’s Your Daddy? a series that would take an adopted person and present them with several men that could be their biological father. Amongst a sea of paid actors was the person’s real relative. The contestant’s job was to suss him out and win $100,000.

If they failed to, the imposter would win the cash prize instead.

Intense Backlash got this Fox show canned

It’s a sensitive topic that really shouldn’t be reduced to reality television, but that was the early aughts for ya. The show immediately drew backlash from various groups, including Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (National Center on Adoption and Permanency).

“The very idea of taking such a deeply personal, complex situation and turning it into a money-grubbing game show is perverse, destructive and insensitive to others,” Pertman penned in a scathing letter to Fox.

The immediate backlash led Fox to canceling it after just one episode. However, the tasteless exploitation of an individual trying to find her birth parents was already done.

While Fox never issued a formal apology, the show’s executive producers—Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey—offered an explanation in a 2005 interview. “I can understand the reservations,” said Healey. “But the people came to it with great excitement and a willingness to play the game. It’s a fun and healthy way to get to know this person that they’ve never met.”

They both emphasized that they didn’t surprise anyone with the concept, and they worked with a company that specializes in helping adopted children find their biological parents.

It wasn’t Fox’s first foray into the tasteless side of television, either. They aired The Swan, where contestants were “beautified” with cosmetic surgery, and The Littlest Groom, a play on The Bachelor featuring a little person. While looking back on it is tough, it’s important to see how much reality television has evolved.

The post 21 Years Ago, This Reality Show Was So Controversial It Was Canceled After One Episode appeared first on VICE.

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MTV’s The Hills is one of the most unforgettable reality shows of the early aughts. A bunch of people in their mid-20s trying to figure it all out (and eventually having that mid-20s crash out), the cinematic soap opera-style editing; it’s peak millennial culture.

Initially centering around Laguna Beach standout Lauren Conrad and her Hollywood friends and frenemies, it followed the group around the city of angels. The Hills exploded in popularity, averaging over 2 million viewers per episode. During the height of Conrad’s ongoing feud with Heidi Montag, the show peaked at over 4 million viewers.

However, as the seasons went on, fans began to question what was real and what wasn’t. By the series finale, The Hills cast and crew decided to play into the long-standing rumors about the show. The rest wasn’t unwritten after all…

Reliving ‘The Hills’ Meta Ending 15 Years Later

Conrad departed The Hills in Season 5, making Kristin Cavallari the new standout. At the time, she was “dating” Brody Jenner, but the finale brought everything fans thought they knew into question. The group is ready to move on to their next stage of life. Lo and Scott move in together, Audrina has decided to buy a gorgeous beachfront property, Jenner is doing the usual nepo baby bachelor things.

As for Cavallari… she’s moving to Europe? As she heads to the airport after saying goodbye to her on-again-off-again fling, Jenner, the camera pans to show they’re on a studio set. The backdrop of the Hollywood sign is just a screen.

”The ending was genius,” Cavallari admitted in a recent episode of her podcast, Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari. “This ending to me is one of the cooler endings to any show.”

Cavallari acknowledges why it was very controversial at the time, particularly for fans who bought into the show.

“It was mixed feelings on that ending, and I get that. For those hard fans who really also thought everything was real, I can get why that kind of rocked your world,” she said. “I think for me, not only did I think it was so creative, but I also think it was nice for me as someone who really felt like I was acting in a lot of ways or doing improv. I think for me it was nice to be like, ‘thank you,’ because this sort of tips our hat at the fact that not everything was real.”

The post How The ‘Hills’ Finale Pulled Back the Curtain on Reality TV’s Fakest Era appeared first on VICE.

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