What do you get when you take 40 kids, ages 8 to 15, and leave them in the middle of the desert to explore? The answer, of course, is the 2007 CBS show Children's Nation. In reality television, there has never been a series like the original, where ten-year-old pioneers left to make a successful community on the set of the Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch, Cassidy button and The Lonesome Dove a shooting location built on the site of a real-estate ghost Bonanza City. The building, no doubt of it, was extremely powerful King of Flies, with a cast divided into groups and fighting for power.
Canceled after one limited time period, the series was plagued by controversy before it even existed. A it's five minutes left encouraged CBS calls to be pulled Children's Nation from its fall program and viewers to block the show of blurring the lines between "entertainment and exploitation. ”Reviews were generally incorrect, since The Chicago Tribune to call Children's Nation "Be quiet, if not weird" Boston GlobeS he says: "It's just weird and able to see kids being sent to reality TV, the kind we all do with conflict, tears, humiliation and spectacle."
And sure enough, the tears have been a big part Children's Nation, with a different baby crying in the air almost every week. But according to residents of Bonanza City, that's not all bad.
"My experience in the show is the best experience of my life," Laurel McGoff recently told me A.V. The club. "It was one of the most memorable moments of my childhood."
McGoff, who was 12 at the time, was a member of the original "Town Council", a group of four children selected by the producers to make important decisions. At the end of each week, the City Council will be charged with removing one "fixed star" worth $ 20,000. Finally, groups were organized, with each member of the city council having their own "district," divided into colors: blue, red, green and yellow. The challenge or competition is weekly, with regions divided into social classes. First place was the upper class, followed by the vendors, and then the cooks, finally, the workers. The senior class paid too much and had to do no work, while the workers were paid very little and were put to work such as cleaning toilets. The “money” they received from Bonanza City could not be used for goods and products in the city store.
Although the show made it look like kids alone – save for the camera crew and the housekeeper – and find themselves in the middle of nowhere, in reality it wasn't quite that far.
McGoff said: "I can only say that for every occasion used, there were 200 adults at once" – including camera workers, producers, psychologists, student counselors and doctors. “Of all five children, they had one counselor [I call] a counselor [children] who could report to them if they had a problem or problem. It's CBS. They do not register if that child's liability will be damaged or something happens. ”
Not that everything went well. In one sad, unwanted incident, dozens of children he accidentally drank bleach, the most publicized of him was DK, 14 years old.
"They had this phone there," said Anjay Ajodha, a former Cape Town leader who works for Microsoft in Seattle. “And there was seltzer water, and there was a scent you could use to make sodas, and the lemon flavor looked too much it's like chlorine bleach when it comes out of a bottle, and from what I understand, [DK] holds the wrong glass. "
DK was examined by doctors and returned safely and "in good spirits," according to Ajodha, but it was not the only incident of child neglect in the program. In one episode, Ajodha said, "I was dehydrated from the city and I had to go to EMS because I was determined." Ajodha explained how the emergency works for the air: “There is actually a scene where three other council members meet, and they ask where Anjay is, and he decides to sleep. It was because I was lazy. ”By contrast, a 12-year-old was still recovering.
"We were tortured," Ajodha said. “We have never been harmed in any way. But in fact it was more abusive than I can remember ever going on. The thing is, we were a perfectly formed human being. We were children. ”
At one moment in a series of lawsuits, two older children, Greg, 15, and Blaine, 14, received blue spray paint and began marking the city, leaving the word “GOOD” everywhere because of their loyalty to Blue District. According to Ajodha, spray paint was given to Greg and Blaine by the manufacturers, who gave the idea first.
"Things like this were shown, and things were arranged to play certain events that I didn't think were happening during the film," said Ajodha. "So you learn how your words can be cut, misused, reused, and altered to make a story you never thought possible."
To re-watch the show, various archetypes emerge: a hero, a genius, a sensation, a giant, a brave rich girl, a peace hippie, etc. this case originated in young children. Ajodha, who was cast in the show because she was the youngest person ever to compete in the National Spelling Bee, said, "I'm pretty sure there was something & # 39; Oh my God, we got a brown nerd. We could put him on TV and hit him hard. & # 39; I mean, I've had bowls and trimmings. I haven't had a chance to write it down. ”
What Children's Nation co-host Michael Thot has done Reddit AMA In 2014, he expressed similar sentiments:
They connected with the Seattle music camp I was staying in [I went] in an effort to get a hippie-from-the-[Northwest] kid with hair. I think I fit the role well. I've always told them that I don't care if I get to a show, and they should give it to someone who cares a lot, but they say that attitude is their choice.
With those stock characters in place, viewers found the sides to choose and the figures to take to the screen. The show is completely set for the audience hate other children, such as Taylor, the 10-year-old beauty queen who refused to do the dishes, or Olivia Cloer, who ran against Anjay in the City Council election and accused her of doing bad work in their district. Viewers had to constantly remind themselves that these children, their voices and actions were changed to appear in a certain way on television.
Responding to a few questions via email, Cloer said, "Surprisingly, I was so bullied before I started going to the show, so the fact that this show presents me as a bully shocked me as a child. The viewers believed in you. They wanted to make me a member, so they show all my worst moments and very few of my good ones. when she appeared on the show with her younger sister Mallory, who spent most of the series taking care of and trying to protect.
"I actually went back and looked at how people lived [as] the series went on," Ajodha said. "There has been an update on how things are going and things, and what people are going to say about children just physical."
Or Children's Nation they threw Ajodha and Cloer at each other – when the producers fueled the fire of their feud – the two of them remained friends. "We started contacting a few months after the show was released," Ajodha said. "We've been talking ever since, coming in, I said here and there."
"[Anjay] is my closest friend to the show," wrote Cloer, "which is strange because so many fans think we hate each other. But we've been friends for almost 13 years."
McGoff, in turn, said he made contact with others from the show, followed each other on social media and made updates on their lives. “Anjay and I have actually developed good friendships over the years,” she said. “If I ever get married, I'll invite some of them. You can't break a bond like this. ”
One of the most notable Children's Nation engage in difficult conversations that producers put into the series. In each case, the City Council read from a “newspaper,” apparently written in the 1800s, introducing a new topic of discussion or debate in the city. In one episode, the children discussed religion and the religious service, some children no doubt voiced their parents' words and refused to completely learn about other religions, while other children showed an open mind. According to McGoff, there is also the whole unwanted episode, which is considered very controversial, when children discuss politics.
"It was very high for the Bush administration, the Iraq War," McGoff said. "Obama was just starting to make his speeches, and everybody had all these different ideas, and religion was playing a big part in it, and there were some real conflicts."
In many ways, Children's Nation it was a microcosm of the United States: a small capitalist society with all the inequalities, chaos, and political divisions of the real world. According to Thot & # 39; s Reddit AMA, there were even "hook-ups," because some of the kids were girls. In fact, it was a social experiment with children, housed in a television network.
The show might be interesting Children's Nation arrested in 2020? Twelve The broadcast times have elapsed since the series introduced itself to a reunion program for undocumented children, however Kids Say The Most Elegant Things: Tiffany Haddish's previous take on the classic Art Linkletter hit, as well Giants either Baby Genius. But in time MasterChef the kitchen and Project Runway the operating room can be small hands with the growing capabilities of a car, it is impossible to see anything about the number of bills and potential liability arising. Children's Nation. As Olivia Cloer, who is now writing a book about her experiences, says: "I can't believe they ever got the show."
One Wonder of the Season, Weirdo, or Wannabe? Absolutely amazing.
