6 year old boy trapped aboard helium filled "experimental aircraft"

[WilliamWeird1313]

This whole thing reminds me of the "he was hiding in a barn" thing from 12 Monkeys. Maybe its an omen? Maybe the apocalypse is on the way. Maybe we're all gonna DIE!!!


That, or two d-bags decided to do something d-baggy. Either one.

Or possibly both.

[BTM]

The husband and wife are both terrible parents IMO and maybe even abusive. Making these kids lie on tv, dragging them from one interview to another when the child was obviously ill..

What's even worse is I don't know if the kid was ill because was sick (as in, had a cold or something) or if he was just so nervous from all the lies he had to tell (and I wouldn't put it past the dad to threaten the poor guy) and he just couldn't keep anything down in his stomach.

[meQal]

The husband and wife are both terrible parents IMO and maybe even abusive. Making these kids lie on tv, dragging them from one interview to another when the child was obviously ill..

What chaps my butt is one lame show my wife watches called "The Insider" is trying to put it all on the father and make the mother sound like a martyr. Each day they have some lame story about how evil the father is and what a victim the mother is. Sorry but I am not buying that load of horses**t. She is just as guilty and just as wrong as the father. Sure he's a douchebag but she is one as well. And it's apparent that the kids are allowed to do what they want. I saw a clip where the kid, Falcon asked, "Who the hell is Wolfe?" when the family was on CNN being interviewed by Wolfe Blitzer.

[Mr. DS]

Word to what 3mnkids said.  My big question is why the hell do people take any kind of interest in shows like John an Kate Plus Eight?  Its a show...about a family...doing...well...nothing much.  Even if Balloon Boy's family got a show and did things like storm chasing and balloon launching I really wouldn't give two sh!ts.  Nothing a "real life" family can do will entertain me and quite frankly you have to have low entertainment standards to enjoy shows like this.  I have my own family to watch thank you.

[JaseSF]

Well I have to admit Wife Swap is a guilty pleasure of mine although I greatly prefer the Brit version of the show.

[Mr. DS]

Well I have to admit Wife Swap is a guilty pleasure of mine although I greatly prefer the Brit version of the show.

Wife Swap is interesting because its a social experiment.  All shows like John And Kate Plus Eight are is voyeurism into another person's boring every day life. 

[Doggett]

Well I have to admit Wife Swap is a guilty pleasure of mine although I greatly prefer the Brit version of the show.

Why ?



I'm a Brit and I prefer the American version.

[AndyC]

Word to what 3mnkids said.  My big question is why the hell do people take any kind of interest in shows like John an Kate Plus Eight?  Its a show...about a family...doing...well...nothing much.  Even if Balloon Boy's family got a show and did things like storm chasing and balloon launching I really wouldn't give two sh!ts.  Nothing a "real life" family can do will entertain me and quite frankly you have to have low entertainment standards to enjoy shows like this.  I have my own family to watch thank you.

I can understand if they're storm chasing and balloon launching. At least they'd be doing something interesting. That's why I liked American Chopper - The Teutuls are a funny, eccentric bunch, and they seem like nice people, but the show was about building motorcycles. The Teutuls' antics were icing on the cake. But it succumbed to the same reality show syndrome as the others.

Gradually, they started deliberately showing off for the cameras, which was still good, and still secondary. Then the producers got the idea of sticking these guys in various situations and filming what they do, which was still OK. Then the bike builds got less elaborate and the family stuff started taking over. And as OCC expanded, we got more of the "business" end of the operation (Paul Sr. yelling on the phone, yay). We got muli-part episodes that were essentially the Teutuls on vacation. And the builds went from an hour of design and fabrication plus an hour of paint, assembly and unveiling to a single hour that barely gets into anything once you factor in the family soap opera and the other fluff.

And if that's not bad enough, the people who held the show together all started leaving. Last time I checked it out, it was as much a voyeuristic family peep show as any of the others. I think it must be some law of reality shows that they all eventually decay into overdramatised heaps of everyday crap.

What the hell happened to TLC? It used to have good stuff. Connections with James Burke, The Secret Life of Machines, Furniture on the Mend, a bunch of DIY and science shows. Now it's people having babies in the daytime, and dysfunctional families in primetime. Sure, Discovery still has the science/technology/documentary shows, but it's slipping as well. Quite a few of those sensationalised tabloid "documentaries" showing up on there, and their reality shows could just as easily turn. American Chopper started there, after all.

Thankfully, I've managed to avoid all the wife-swapping, bratty kid, family freakshow programs. Honestly, I can't watch them. I see a few seconds of Supernanny with kids freaking out, and I can feel myself tense up. These shows are stressful to me. I don't need that when I'm trying to unwind.

[InformationGeek]

The only real reality shows I watch any more are The Amazing Race (Still is fun to learn about different cultures and see different places I would never normally see) and most police video shows.

Personally, I have no interest in watching or hearing about other families in reality shows.  I have my own reality to live, so why should I watch other people?

[Mr. DS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxtFXtiUbbw
Ready say it with me...one, two, three...
@SSHOLE!!

[AndyC]

You know, I hadn't considered until now just what a monumentally scummy thing this guy did. I mean, this was not a case of telling the kid to lie so they could get away with something in the short term and move on. That's bad enough. But if they were planning to launch a reality show, with this as a way to grab the spotlight, it's a long-term commitment. You have to think the father would be hoping they could all get rich and famous off this plan. So, "Balloon Boy" would go through life with a gigantic fraud at the heart of his future success. That's a hell of a thing to put on a kid. Even worse than naming him Falcon.

[JaseSF]

I prefer the British one because the people seem more real to me. There seems to be more working class folks who get switched with rich wives, who suddenly have to get their precious hands dirty. I don't know, I seem to get some perverse pleasure out of that. Some of the stuff on there though is just plain gross...like times when people are forced to kill animals to feed exotic pets or people are digging through dumpsters or living like hippies and conserving urine for fertilizer 

[3mnkids]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxtFXtiUbbw
Ready say it with me...one, two, three...
@SSHOLE!!

HE"S Appalled? I just want to smack the crap out of him. He is appalled, he is a sick SOB is what he is. He thought his son had fallen out? uh huh.. People like this make me sooo angry. especially today. He was worried about his son? You know, in the news now is a story about a little 7 yr old in FL that went missing while walking home from school with her twin and some friends( home is a mile from school).. They found her, dead, thrown in landfill like a piece of garbage. The mother was on tv (before they found her)saying..  "I cant remember if I told her I loved her".. This is a women who did nothing wrong and has lost her child. I cant imagine what she is going through right now but it makes me sick thinking about it. And this waste of skin is going on and on about how afraid he was for his kid. disgusting!

Because of this mans actions who knows what will happen when a child really is in a dangerous situation? will they take it seriously? He has done more than just damage his children.

[Javakoala]

The only real reality shows I watch any more are The Amazing Race (Still is fun to learn about different cultures and see different places I would never normally see) and most police video shows.

Personally, I have no interest in watching or hearing about other families in reality shows.  I have my own reality to live, so why should I watch other people?

I'd think you could learn more about different cultures by watching a documentary than by watching a show whose underlying hook is "Who are they gonna get rid of this week?".  Not doubting your intentions, but the show is just a variation on "Survivor" and that show was, is and always will be rubbish.  "Biggest Loser" is the same thing. I don't buy it when people say they watch it for inspiration. How is it inspiration to see people's desire for money and fame crushed, and when they go back to the unhealthy eating habits that landed them on the show, they say they just couldn't face life after losing in the public eye? It's all some ghoulish fascination with seeing others fail, which, I guess, is supposed to make us feel better about ourselves, but how can you feel better about yourself with your butt plopped in front of one of these shows instead of connecting with human beings or, better yet, actively studying a foreign culture, in the case of "The Amazing Race".

But that's just my opinion.