VH1’s new reality show, CONFESSIONS OF A TEEN IDOL, is sort of a cross between CELEBRITY REHAB and THE SURREAL LIFE. You get a house full of former stars and, rather than treating them for addiction to drugs, you rehabilitate their career.
From the opening episode, the show has a lot of potential.
The stars are a mixed bag. Of the cast, two, Christopher Atkins (THE BLUE LAGOON) and Adrian Zmed (of The Moviezzz Blog favorite GREASE 2), I would legitimately like to see back in the spotlight. The rest of them, Jamie Walters (90210), Billy Hufsey (FAME), David Chokachi and Jeremy Jackson (both of BAYWATCH) I knew by name but can’t say I followed their work.
Eric Nies of THE REAL WORLD and THE GRIND is also in the cast, which I don’t know if I would agree with as, even though I liked the guy, reality TV fame isn’t quite the same as say Atkins who starred in countless films in the 1980’s. But with his raw food diet and guru like interaction with the rest of the cast, he could become the Gary Busey of the show.
The host of the show is Scott Baio, along with Jason Hervey (Wayne from THE WONDER YEARS, he now produces many reality shows).
The opening episode had them all moving in together. Each week, they will meet with a psychologist and talk about their career. I guess she will be the Dr. Drew of the show. Promos for future episodes (which made up 10 minutes of the premiere) had them taking acting classes and showing focus groups watching their work.
One interesting note in the credits, one of the producers and developers of the program is Michael Swerdlick. Swerdlick wrote one of the most important films of the 1980’s, CAN’T BUY ME LOVE. If they had a female version of this series, I can think of one person I would love to see on it (who incidentally starred with Christopher Atkins in two different films).
Rather than a train wreck, VH1 has the ability, with shows like this and CELEBRITY REHAB, to take these people we really didn’t know about and actually make us care about them, rather than laugh at them.
Will this season be a success? Stay tuned.
CONFESSIONS OF A TEEN IDOL airs on VH1. New episodes premiere on Sunday and air throughout the week.
