Farrah Fawcett stars in new reality show

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http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNe...rticleid=74474



Fallen Angel: Farrah Fawcett returns to TV with inane reality show
By Sarah Rodman
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - Updated: 11:16 AM EST

The Gastineau Girls and Ozzy Osbourne better make room on the crazy train because a new passenger is ready to board.

Unlike the gold-digging dimwits and the drug-addled rocker, however, Farrah Fawcett has decided to skip her bizarrely fascinating phase with her new reality show, ``Chasing Farrah.''

Instead, the former pinup and Charlie's most famous ``Angel'' takes the viewer directly to the ``Why am I watching this?'' stage in this tedious six-episode series from TV Land.

In the premiere, airing tomorrow at 10 p.m., TV Land executives talk about how landing Fawcett is the ``holy grail'' for reality television producers. Why anyone would be that interested in Fawcett isn't clear.

It's perplexing to watch the executives desperately pitch her a series as if there were a nation of ``Burning Bed'' devotees demanding to watch Fawcett put on makeup, shop, eat dinner and play Frisbee with former love Ryan O'Neal and say such things as ``I would never smoke crack or bungee jump'' as she does in the first two episodes.

Three elements of ``Chasing Farrah'' do initially pique interest. First is Fawcett's decree that actual reality means acknowledging the camera crew - who can be seen on her own ``Farrah-cam.'' Second, she refuses to do anything scripted, which, you guessed it, is a big yawn. There's a reason such shows as ``Survivor'' and ``The Osbournes'' have setups: People doing things is more interesting than people sitting around talking about how it's weird that they're being filmed.

Third, everyone who is not Farrah is comically dismissed with such onscreen titles as ``network guy'' and ``Farrah's manager's cousin.''

This bit of humor doesn't go far, but ``Farrah's hair and makeup artist'' is a tart ``Rhoda''-type who is the only one with the temerity to call Fawcett on her dazed and confused ways. Fawcett, who seems sweet enough, hilariously states at the outset, ``I promise you I won't be Anna Nicole Smith.''

Perhaps because we've already been exposed to so much pointless has-been ``celebreality,'' my tolerance is low for following the mind-numbingly dull moves of someone who is negligibly gifted and is best known for acting bizarrely on the David Letterman show

But the creators of ``Chasing Farrah'' don't hold up their end of the bargain, either. Instead of giving us a look at the ``real'' person behind the famous poster, the rocking bod and the botched nose job, the show ends up being exactly what the title promises, all pursuit and no payoff.

If this is the real Farrah Fawcett, she's got bigger problems than fans stopping her on the streets.