'Super Size Me' Spurlock has new TV show on FX - "30 Days"

[donsu]

30 days living on min. wage

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0506150138jun15.story


Social critic Spurlock is a good ol' subversive

-snip-

Following somewhat eerily in the footsteps of Moore, who also undertook a summer TV series after his first film, "Roger & Me," Spurlock is hosting "30 Days" (9 p.m. Wednesday on FX), a weekly program that will draw attention to various issues. Each effort will involve a 30-day stunt similar to that in "Super Size Me," in which Spurlock ate nothing but food from McDonald's for an entire month. In the first installment, he and his fiance, Alex Jamieson, the vegetarian chef we first met in "Super Size Me," move to Columbus, Ohio, and take minimum-wage jobs. For 30 days, they'll spend only what they earn through their salaries: no credit cards and no help from friends or family.

The only apartment they can afford is in a rundown building recently occupied by drug addicts. Though their adventure takes place in the winter, they have inadequate heat. Unable at first to afford furniture, they eat sitting on the floor, until they learn there are services that provide the poor with furniture free of charge. He gets up at dawn to take the bus; she walks to work.

When Jamieson comes down with a bladderinfection, they're forced to rely on emergency room care, and what little is left of their balanced budget soon evaporates. Spurlock takes a second job to get them through Jamieson's illness. Her birthday arrives as a sad affair, the couple forced to choose between dinner out and a visit to the public conservatory.

Spurlock makes the case that the minimum wage is too minimal and that health care for the poor in our country is in a deep crisis. His approach is good at drawing attention to the pain of social problems, without necessarily pointing to solutions. But he's an engaging on-screen personality, and it's easy to muster sympathy for him and (by extension) anyone caught in the poverty plight. He and Jamieson's cozy relationship soon deteriorates into petulance and angst.

Other topics include "Anti-Aging" June 22, a look at the use of growth hormone therapy; and "Muslims and America" June 29, which will implant a West Virginia Christian into the home of a Muslim family in Dearborn, Mich.
-snip-
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[Wickerman]

1. Heard a good review of it on MPR the other night

sounds like good stuff. Supposed to be a very entertaining and informative project. Looking for to it.

[donsu]

3. me too - looking forward to seeing this reality show

nt

[fob]

2. It was on last night at 10 pm, past my bedtime, so I missed it. Do

they go through the entire 30 day exercise in ONE 1-hour show?

[NYCGirl]

5. They're rerunning it a number of times.

I can't answer your second question, because I haven't seen it yet, but my TiVo is going to record the showing on Sunday evening. Check your local listings, as they say, for rebroadcasts.

[Kraklen]

6. Yes, the entire 30 days in one hour.

Sounds like a lot, but it worked out pretty well.

[fob]

15. Actually, now that I think about it, Super Size Me was only about 80

minutes and that was a 30 day deal too. Cool, I'll have to check it out then.

Thanks!

[Kraklen]

4. It was pretty good.

Aside from overplaying his movie during the first bit (He must have mentioned Super-size Me a dozen times in two minutes), it was a very good show.

I'm looking forward to the episode where a Christian has to live like a muslim for thirty days.

That said, I don't know how long it will last. It reminds me of TV Nation, a high quality show too liberal to be televised.

[NYCGirl]

7. The "first season" is six episodes, and he's already been signed for a

second season.

[Kraklen]

8. I'm glad they've signed to make twelve (?) episodes...

but I really don't think that means much.

[NYCGirl]

9. Here's a good interview about the show with Spurlock from salon:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2005/06/15/spurlock/index.html

[gorbal]

18. I can't wait to see the "Dancing Rabbit" Episode.

I can't wait to see the episode that takes place on "Dancing Rabbit" Farm"

http://www.ishcon.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=302

You can read more about the farm and view pictures and the newsletter here.

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

I don't live there, I just googled it when I saw the Ish.com info.

[Melodybe]

10. Damn it I missed it!!!

Stupid me forgetting to Tivo!

This article seem a bit off, did Spurlock use to work for Moore? Why do they mention Roger and Me?

Anyway, this show is a keeper, so watch if you get a chance.

[Kraklen]

14. Spurlock has no problem admitting he's a liberal.

In the opening scene, he gives up his credit cards and petty cash, leaving only his driver's license and his ACLU membership card, which he proudly flashes at the camera. There's also a scene in clear support for Ted Kennedy's attempts to raise minimum wage and a goofy cartoon mocking Republicans who vote against it.

There's a number of connections between Moore and Spurlock, I'm sure Republicans will try to derail his raise to stardom.

[Stuckinthebush]

11. It was excellent!

He and his girlfriend lived on minimum wage for 30 days to see what it was like. The only things he kept from his wallet were his driver's license and his ACLU card!

I love that guy.

[gorbal]

16. Nice to hear some reviews from people I trust

I was googling for reviews but all I could find was obvious right wing panning.

[gorbal]

20. Replying to self

Did another google and found TONS of good reviews:)

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. What a concept!

A reality show that actually shows reality!

[AlCzervik]

13. Thats a reality show about actual reality. Can't wait to see it.

[graywarrior]

17. His little cartoon slams against congress were great.

Something to look forward to on tv for a while.

[1932]

19. Another interview with Spurlock:

He says that poverty is tough on relationships -- after coming home from work, he was too tired to do anything but eat and sleep. He also said that if it weren't for his fiance being a good cook, he would have eaten shit for dinner. All the food they hand out at the pantries are full of crap and sugar.



CP: What surprised you the most as you were filming 30 Days?

MS: For me there were a lot of things that were surprising. One is just how difficult it is, how stressful it is to live check to check. It was an incredible strain on my relationship with Alex. Suddenly we were exhausted when we were around each other. We had no energy to really give to one another. We were so tired at the end of the day. We ate dinner together, and then we were just done. You know, you see how the quality of your life devoted to relationships can really deteriorate quickly. One thing we talk about on the show is that it’s no surprise that families that making less than $25,000 a year are twice as likely to get divorced as a family that makes $50,000 a year.

...

Luckily, Alex is a great cook, and Alex is just really talented and sensible. We were living on about $35 a week for groceries but she was cooking very healthily, a lot of fruit and vegetables and rice and beans. You know, the only food that we ate out of boxes, like prepared food loaded with preservatives and sugar and stuff, was food we got from the food pantry. So, the free food that they give people was the unhealthiest food we got. I went to a few different food pantries – every time I went to a food pantry, they gave me a whole cake. I got a full-on cake! I got boxes of sugary cereal, and candy and all this stuff, the quality was unbelievably bad.

...

CP: Clearly, the show resonates with folks working on living wage and minimum wage issues. Where do you want to take this living wage debate?

MS: It really has to hit home with the people making those salaries, and it has to hit home with the people who are paying those people these salaries. For me it just seems like the debate is falling short in the federal government. I’ve been really surprised to see state legislatures really taking it upon themselves to change their own state minimum wages, like what just happened in Florida in the last election. I think that you have to focus state-wide, because I think that the federal is just never gonna happen.

...

It seems to me like the partisan divide is much more about the people who are pro-business vs. people who are pro-citizen. And the long line of Republican stances have been pro-corporate. And that’s what you’re seeing – that’s where the divide is. This is the longest the country has ever gone without raising the minimum wage. The question is, are we going to see a change during this presidency? It would be great if we did, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.

http://www.campusprogress.org/features/336/five-minutes-with-morgan-spurlock

[gorbal]

21. Great interview!

Spurlock is a pretty darn intelligent man. He and Michael Moore just must have a coffee one day:)

[1932]

23. Spurlock and Moore differ on one major count: Spurlock says "vote Dem"

I like Moore a great deal. I think Bowling for Columbine is a fantastic documentary. I think the argument it makes is very smart. I think F911 is a good documentary (however, I think that I would have made a different documentary in 2004 if my goal were to defeat Bush).

But I have a problem with Moore's documentary, The Big One, in which he goes around America and tries to convince voters that there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans and that they should sit out the 1996 election.

Spurlock seems to take the 180 degree opposite approach, at least implicitly. He says the solutions are political, explicitly. And I believe in that interview, if not in his films, he makes it clear that there's one party trying to do the right thing and there's another party trying to stop them.

[Scout]

22. Barbara Ehrenreich already did this....

for her book Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America.

She did a great job ... she just didn't get a tv show to do it.

[formernaderite]

24. It should have been renamed How to live stupidly on min wage.

I worked for min wage before and after college. ALthough I'd like to see it raised, not for the reasons given in the 30 days. My first girlfriend and I both earned min when we graduated college( and it was really low then). We couldn't afford an apartment right away, so we looked for roomate situation which cost about half the price of an efficiency apartment. Later when we wanted a little more privacy, we rented out a basement in someones house. Although we never got married, I have some of the sweetest and most stress free memories of those days. Most of my friends lived at home earning min wage, and saved until they had enough for an apartment. By that time, they all had raises anyway. What I find, is that America has turned into a "I want it NOW" society. It really bugs me. I live very simply now, and have little sympathy for the wastefulness I see around me.