Anyone watching Wife Swap?

[Miss Mary]

Just when I announced I would not take on any new shows this Fall, we stumbled upon Wife Swap the other night. Now we've watched two episodes! There goes another hour or two of my week.....LOL

When I first heard about this show, I thought oh how strange....come on, wive swap. But get your mind out of the gutter, the wife swapper sleeps in a spare bedroom. LOL First week she has to follow the other wife's schedule and the second week, she's allowed to impose her own rule changes.

First ep involved a stay at home mom who cleaned 5 hours a day! The other wife had a pigsty house, no order to it whatsoever, 3 kids with absolutely no bedtimes, no rules, family didn't even eat together, 25 pets. Promo's for that ep hooked me. It was a good episode.

Last night involved an heiress from Manhatten, 3 kids, 4 nannies, a maid, chauffuer and she spent 1 hour tops a day with her kids. The rest of the time involved 'me' time - shopping, lunching, hair/nail appts., work outs at the gym, etc. The other wife worked 2 jobs, rising at 5:30 everyday. She worked her tail off and was a real nice mom/wife!

Well, anyways.....my family got hooked on this show. Just wondered if anyone else is watching. As my husband was falling asleep he muttered - think we should do a wife shap? I wanted to slug him.

If you watched, I'd like to read your comments!

Mary

[GalvestonDuck]

I got a bit of a dose of "Trading Spouses" when it aired. Apparently, "Wife Swap" was the original but ABC (I think) got wind of the premise and created their own version and got it airing first. If I get a chance to see WS, I'll let you know how they compare IMO.

[OklahomaWeather]

I saw the first Wife Swap, but not that second one. For some reason, it just captures my husband and me. We just sit there with nothing better to do! haha.

We COULD NOT believe that lady who cleaned her house 5 hours a day let the cat stay at her house! They even showed a shot of her with the cat in her bed! I'd say that's a big change for her.

[Miss Mary]

Oklahomawx - I thought that was a positive change for the cleanaholic lady! Cats are very clean creatures, so the pigsty lady picked a good pet (although the teanage son asked for a kitten) to impose upon that tidy household!

I found a write-up about last night's show, at TV Guide (my TV source these days!)

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http://www.tvguide.com/tv/watercooler/

Wife Swap
With all the yammering about Fox's Trading Spouses being a huge rip-off of this Brit-inspired series, I imagined more ugly flash and maybe some infidelity. Instead, I got welled up as backwoodsy Lynn figured out that uppity heiress Jodi lived in a world where kids come last. What the hell is "me time"? I'm sorry, but growing up, my mom was all about being around for her boys, not leaving us to three nannies so we didn't get in the way of her blow-outs, day spas and pilates. God bless Lynn for showing those Spolansky kids what a real mother is. The only example they had until now was pops and then we're talking about a totally different sort of mutha, you know?

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And another review for the "clean 5 hours a day wife" vs the "pisgsty mom":

http://www.tvguide.com/tv/watercooler/040927.asp


Wife Swap
What a great reality show. At the beginning of this sneak preview, I was torn by which family would drive me the most crazy — the super-organized, poorly communicating Policchios or the aptly named slobs, the Pitts. The quietness of the neat freaks (five hours of cleaning a day?) was daunting, but the kangaroo, ferret, rat and 22 other freely defecating pets was something else. (To be honest, the bigger question is how in the world did those producers persuade the Policchio mother to try something like this in the first place?) Nevertheless, it seems that both Caprice the list-maker and Bambi the pet-gatherer brought some much needed order and chaos to their temporary abodes. And the best part had to be the dramatic voice-over at the end that intoned, "And what happened to Nugget?" Turns out that the cute little kitten wasn't returned and now has a new, permanent (and very tidy) home.

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[vbhoutex]

Well, to be honest, neither my wife or I wanted to watch it. Just don't lilke the premise, not that it was made out to be sexual or anything, just did not like the premise of the show. Now that I have read these I may take a peek.

[chicagopizza]

I had aboslutely no intention of getting hooked and now both my husband and I are. Ihave seen both episodes and last night really fascinated me. It reminded me of the movie "The Family Man".

I have to say,though,that Ilked the heiress, but her husband was a piece of work. She seemed to change for the better, but he got on my last nerve.

I am a person who tries to put myself in the other person's shoes. He was right about work. There re times when it is impossible to get home at 6:30. And there are many good dads that would not do well if left to manage their 3 kids for the 1st time. But calling that sweet woman a "hillbilly" and sticking his nose up at a home cooked meal-out of line.

On a side note, what did you all think about that adorable three legged dog? I just wanted to scoop him up in my arms and take him home!!!

[Miss Mary]

David - you need to take another look. Absolutely nothing sexual about it. I too thought that at first. I was wrong!

Chicagopizza - I loved that three legged pooch and wanted to scoop him up! Oh yeah. And as for that rich husband - ha! We thought he was deplorable. The rich wife at the end finally realized hearing her kids call Mom instead of the nanny's first name in the morning was a welcome change. But he didn't see the need to eat with the kids, spend time with them and decided that working out at the gym was a far better choice of time than reading to his kids at bedtime. If I were that wife, I'd be taking a very hard look at the man I married after this episode aired. She has promise. He has none IMHO. The clincher for me was him trying to explain to Lynn how tempting it is when a nanny has her arms out when you have a crying baby in your arms - that's 'priceless' he said. OMG, I wanted to wring his neck. And wanted to hug the 'hillybilly' mom for cooking home cooked meals and giving the FOUR nannies a week off. When she dismissed them I said halleluiah!!!

Mary

[stormie_skies]

Yeah, that rich fella was a piece of work. People like him shouldnt have children at all IMO - it was clear that he preferred his busy upscale lifestyle to raising children anyways. Trophy children make me so sad. His wife did seem to come around a bit, though .... glad to see that.

[chicagopizza]

I agree. Working out vs spending time with the kids is pretty harsh. Why have them if you aren't going to spend time with them? From what I've witnessed, you can get a great workout by playing with 3 kids!!!

[Miss Mary]

You have to wonder if this guy is catching a lot of criticism today. He came off as not really wanting to be a father. And we learned his wife has all the money so honestly, what is in it for him? This was supposed to be a show about two very different wives but within 15 minutes, I kept focusing on the rich dad. I could not get past the fact that he clearly did not want to be with his kids. When the nannies were dismissed for a week, he joked - can you take the kids?

I think this show should do follow ups. 6 months later to see how the two households are functioning. I'd like to see this dad 'wake up' but more likely I suspect we'd see the wife kick him out!

Mary

[chicagopizza]

I would love if they did a follow up on every one of these families.

Here's an extra idea. After the follow up, if the rich dad is still whining about the kids in his fancy penthouse, do a husband swap and send him to the boonies with a new tough "wife" and six kids that won't tolerate his behavior. Since he likes everything so perfect, I would make sure that the "new" family had a puppy that hasn't been housebroken.

Now, that wold be amusing.

[Miss Mary]

chicagopizza - now you're talking!!! Get busy writiing the network!!! I wonder how many other people were annoyed by him. The show was supposed to show how insenstitive his wife was but I could see real promise in her at the end. I told my girls - she was raised this way. They all said - well duh! I said no, not with just a staff available to do everything but possibly her parents were absent this much too. Which is even sadder if you think about it - she quite possibly never had a 'real' mom before. If she hadn't cried at the end, I would have been very worried for those 3 kids. But she seemed very sincere.

And what about Lynn's hubby? He was too good to be true. Trying to be the perfect husband....that was a stretch but his heart was in the right place. The other guy doesn't even seem to have a heart!

Mary

PS - I should add before closing, to avoid another response on my own topic, that each episode is self contained and wraps up within 60 minutes. So if you miss an episode or decide to check out this show, you're not missing anything. Unlike Survivor.

[chicagopizza]

You are right. People are products of their environment.

As for Lynn's hubby, I was very surprised at the end. I almost cried-he just seems to love her more than life itself. Then again, I can cry at a dog food commercial!

I can't wait to see the next two families!!!

[CajunMama]

What a turnaround for Lynn's husband. I thought he was the biggest male chauvinist pig when the show first started. Glad to see he started helping Lynn with the chores and her work.

I liked Lynn. Very down to earth and so used to working that I don't think she knew what to do with time off.

I actually liked the Heiress. I don't think she realized that how she lived her life isn't how the other 99% live. I would think she was raised the same way she was raising her children.

As for her husband? I wouldn't trust him with a 10 foot pole. Way too slick for me and a slimeball to boot! The heiress is way too good for him.

[chicagopizza]

Well, I just wrote the network explaining that a "group" of people would like to see "middle class revenge" on "Mr. Manhatan" and follow up episodes on each of the families.

I suggested they swap him with a guy who puts his family and unhousebroken dog as a big priority in his life in a small Indiana town or something similar. Just a one time "husband" swap for sweeps.

We'll see if they listen.

[stormie_skies]

I think they have done husband swaps before, actually ....unless that was the "other" network...

[GalvestonDuck]

Yup, "Trading Spouses" did a hubby swap once. Didn't see it, just remember the promos for it.

[streetsoldier]

"Take my wife...PLEASE!"

[GalvestonDuck]

Okay, so I had a chance to see an encore of the heiress/hillbilly swap. I missed the first ten or so minutes, but I got to see the best part of the show.

OMG! That rich husband...what an arkhole! Why wasn't there some time of penalty of not obeying the rules? The host specifically said that the spouses had to live by the new rules laid out by the swapped spouse. He didn't, but then there was no punishment (or did I miss something?). You know, if he'd had a meeting at work or something critical came up and he couldn't be home by 6:30, fine. But he even admitted on camera "I can go for another hour" when he was working out at the gym as a way to avoid going home. What a wuss! It was for...what...two weeks? Two weeks with this other wife? And he works during the day so he only had to really experience living with her in the evenings and on weekends? Come on! That's sad. What he did was major avoidance behavior. I felt bad for his kids. And he was a total snob and a jerk.

I wasn't really hooked by this episode but that's not to say I won't watch again, unless it competes with something on NBC.

[Miss Mary]

"Take my wife...PLEASE!"

Bill - be careful of what you wish for! LOL You may just want Debi back.......

Shawn - the first ep of Wifeswap was better - pigsty house vs cleanaholic wife. I liked that one better but of all 4 wives we've met for 2 episodes, I liked Lynn (the Jersey wife who worked 2 jobs) the best. She seemed the most 'real' of all of them. And the rich husband - we're STILL talking about him! What a piece of work he was.....

Mary