Defamer
Fox has yet to officially release its Fall schedule, but we feel confident that nothing they're going to reveal tomorrow can possibly change our opinion about what will be our favorite new show come September: Kid Nation, the bold social experiment in which CBS abandons 40 children in a New Mexico ghost town for 40 days, leaving them to form their own civilization without the interference of adults.
At their upfront presentation today, the network took pains to avoid the inevitably dark Lord of the Flies comparisons ("It's an unbelievable community of respect, and you watch them build society," said president Nina Tassler), but after watching the extended trailer posted on the CBS website, we know they're just trying not to scare off an overly sensitive public before the show airs. Above, we've taken a screenshot of the preview's most harrowing moment, where the child clearly cast in the Piggy role admits homesickness and shows a sign of weakness by crying at a "town meeting," then is immediately beset by a pack of stronger boys, who strip him of his clothes, smash his glasses, and drive him out into the desert, all the while chanting, "Sucks to your ass-mar!" in response to his wheezy pleas for mercy.
CBS has a huge hit on its hands, we can feel it.
- Kid Nation [CBS.com]
- Previously: CBS Puts Vampires, Swingers, Exciting Social Experiments Involving Schoolchildren On The Fall Schedule [Defamer]
Comments
It's not Lord of the Flies. It's fucking Deadwood!
It's "Lord of the Flies" meets Deadwood.
And it is fucking spectacular.
It's Lord of the Flies meets Deadwood meets The Terror of Tiny Town.
We should start a pool on how many of the girls get knocked up by the season finale.
Who can now dispute the genius of our Les?
Sure they can build a society, Nina, but just wait until they get their hands on your Spring line-up.
That is hands-down the best SNL Digital Short yet. Congrats to the Lonely Island crew.
I had to watch again:
1. Let's get those girls cooking at a young age. Yeah!!!
2. I am personally gonna run out of town any asshat who votes for a library over a video arcade.
Workers of the town unite! Down with the elite! Up with M&Ms and delicious, affordable root beer!
"This hunk of gold will pay for your college - it's worth $20,000." Yes, they're totally set... if these kids' idea of college is an Associate's 2 year KidPix diploma from the University of Phoenix.
That video makes me want to get raped, just so I can confirm my suspicion that that video was worse.
What the hell's with the fucking adult hosting? Couldn't they at least get Emmanuel Lewis?
And: $20,000 is the prize? "That'll pay for a lot of college"? A lot of community college? Jeez, CBS, can you afford it?
Waiting for the severed horse's head to appear in the snitch's bed. (Network)
Or is it the severed snitch's head appearing in the horse's bed? (Cable)
The best CBS idea since "Survivor: Eugenics Edition".
"What is this, some sort of Lord of the Flies preschool?" - Hook (1991)
"We'll have rules! Lots and lots of rules!" - LOTF (1963)
Don't get me wrong; I'll most likely sample the show and maybe my oldest kid will add it to her reality line-up, but as someone who is living in NM, I had to do a little websurfing for background.
According to ghosttowns.com, there's not much left of Bonanza City except for foundation outlines and though I can't see any exact matches, the set looks suspiciously like the town on the Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch.
Of course, the host doesn't say anything blatantly untrue and it is a television program, but in his intro, I don't hear him mention that terraserver puts the location of Bonanza City at 21 miles south of Santa Fe and that the movie ranch says they're eight from town.
I mean, there's a lot of real ghost towns in New Mexico and there's plenty of places, where you could be over a hundred miles from a paved road; Maybe it's just me, but I'd halfway rather they be someplace, where there might be a chance, the kids would eat the crew.
Well, yeah, looks fun. Actually looks more PBS than CBS, which is nice for a change.
But, um... isn't the idea supposed to be kids forming their own government, their own rules, their own society? Because the trailer kind of makes it look like all that stuff has already been set up for them... by adults, presumably. (Inasmuch as you can call the CBS Alternative Programming department "adults.")
@nick_r: Not only that, but I'm guessing the camera crew aren't kids and that host that was interacting with them sure isn't... and wouldn't it be illegal to leave an eight-year-old kid without adult supervision? Good thing TV never lies.
So ABC got the GEICO commercial turned sit-com. Isn't this basically Survivor meets a collection of Precious Moments statues?
@nick_r:
The kids are forming their own rules and society.
Darwin's rules and society - Survival of the fittest. Which one is Lenin?
(Dear God, Please let it be true.)
More like, "Which one is the CEO of Kid Walmart?", Scout, because as we history buffs with no lives know, social darwinism was used as a justification of extreme capitalism, and not communism.
*curls into fetal position waiting for the beatings*
No parental supervision ... except for the buzzards.
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