Reality
check
BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette
(Originally
published Monday, July 28, 2003)
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Paradise Hotel, the Fox network's latest entry in the increasingly crowded reality-TV sweepstakes, has attracted no small amount of virulent criticism, with many calling it a new low in reality programming. Not surprisingly, Arthur Smith, the former Montrealer who's the executive producer of Paradise Hotel, feels the show is getting a bum rap from its critics. Typical is a review on the Web site AllYourTV.com, where Paradise Hotel is called a sign that the end of civilization is near: |
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"The premise is depressingly straightforward," writes Rick Ellis. "Degrade yourself enough, sleep with anyone, do things that would make the average spring-break participant blush, and we'll keep the cameras rolling."
On Paradise Hotel, a group of buff young guys and gals hang out without all that much clothing on at a luxury hotel. The object of the exercise is to stay at Paradise Hotel and, to do so, you have to hook up with a member of the opposite sex. Members voted off are replaced by viewers from the studio audience.
Still, Smith, whose L.A.-based company, A. Smith & Co., produces Paradise Hotel, defends it. "There's very little sex on the show," he said, in a phone interview from his Los Angeles office. "The show is provocative, but it's about people trying to get along at this hotel, trying to survive at this hotel. There's a lot of strategy and stuff like that. It is what it is. People are trying to survive by pairing up. It's young people having a good time. Also, (viewers) have options."
| He adds, "Hey, we're in the entertainment business and I certainly think there's a place for us. If you want to watch sex, there's sexier stuff on television. This is a soap opera." |  |
Smith's company, which he formed three years ago with partner Kent Weed, specializes in nonscripted fare, and it has benefited in a big way from the reality-TV boom. A. Smith & Co. recently announced three new nonfiction series it is producing. They include American Racer, a show about F1 racing for Spike TV; Mad Mad House, a show for the U.S. SciFi Channel that Smith calls a reality version of The Addams Family; and the much more serious Come Home Alive, a History Channel documentary series about people in dangerous situations overseas.
Almost from the moment Survivor shook up the traditional TV world, many have been predicting the imminent end of the reality trend. But it's still here a few years later, and Smith believes the genre has legs.
"I feel strongly that nonscripted programming is here to stay," he said. "It's just going to keep changing. People will get tired of the same thing and it'll have to go to another level. What's interesting is that the shows that are working are twists on classic reality shows. Joe Millionaire, for example. It felt a lot like The Bachelor, but it actually turned The Bachelor upside-down and people loved that."
Smith, who grew up in Hampstead, has a remarkably action-packed curriculum vitae for a guy who's only 43. After graduating from Cegep Vanier College, he left Montreal to study radio and television at Ryerson Polytechnic in Toronto and began his rapid rise up the show-biz ladder by landing a job as a producer at CBC Sports in Toronto at the age of 22. He then went from directing Hockey Night in Canada to executive-producing CBC's coverage of several Olympic games, earning him a couple of Gemini Awards along the way. At 28, he was head of CBC Sports, the youngest division boss at the network at the time.
That's when Dick Clark called, and soon enough Smith relocated to Los Angeles to produce shows for Dick Clark Productions. Next up was a stint as a senior television executive at Universal. Then Fox came courting and Smith agreed to manage the start-up of, and to run, Fox Sports Net, which was in 16 million homes when it went on air in 1996 and was up to 70 million homes when Smith left in 2000 to start his production company.
Asked how Montreal shaped him, Smith says his parents, who still live here, have been the biggest influence on his life and career. "It's more how I was brought up than anything else. My parents are everything to me. I call them after every single show. They've been so supportive of my career."
Though Paradise Hotel is too obsessed with sex for some, Smith says his mom doesn't object to the show.
"My mother loves Paradise Hotel. She watches every episode and gives me her comments about the characters."
Paradise Hotel airs on CH, cable 14, and WFFF-44 on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m.