Its popularity began with "The Real World." Then "Survivor," "The Bachelor" and "The Osbournes" came along. And now, reality television is being invaded by the Amish.

"Amish in the City" became the biggest hit for UPN on Wednesday nights. It averaged 4.7 million viewers each week making it the third most viewed show on UPN in the 2003-2004 season.

But when UPN announced their new reality series, people cringed at the idea of taking poor Amish kids and exposing them to a world far from home.

According to "The Christian Science Monitor," the announcement of the show earlier this year drew howls of protest from critics, the U.S. Congress and TV affiliates.

Before seeing the show, U.S. representative, Joseph Pitts, R-Pennsylvania, said the show was "grossly distorting Amish belief and culture."

That was the biggest concern for Marc Marriott when he signed on to be one of the three field producers for "Amish in the City."

"When I first heard about the project, I looked up some of the articles about it, and it was a pretty controversial show," said Marriott, a BYU graduate in film. "There were letters from Congress wanting to stop the show. The Amish community was saying 'please don't do this show.' Everyone was worried that it was going to be a show that made fun of the Amish."

Then Marriott's interview for the job presented him a different purpose for the show.

"When I went in to interview for the show, I wanted to be really clear about what kind of show we were making," Marriott said. "They assured me that the show they wanted to make was not the show I had been reading about."

At the same time, it was the controversy that sparked an interest in viewers to watch the show.

"I read an article in Newsweek about it, and it intrigued me," said Shanda Nelson, a sophomore from Pocatello, Idaho, majoring in international relations and economics.

The producers of "Amish in the City" wanted a show that talked about complex subjects such as people's beliefs and personal journeys.

With Marriott's personal conservative background and experience producing other television shows, such as "Junkyard Mega Wars," the staff of "Amish in the City" thought he would be a person who could relate to the Amish cast.

The idea for the show came from a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival called "The Devil's Playground" that explored the world of rumspringa.

Rumspringa is a term for the Amish rite of passage. It is a time for Amish youth ages 16 and older to experience the outside world before making the decision to get baptized into the Amish church or live in a modern society.

So "Amish in the City" took five Amish teens and put them in a house with six young adults from the city with different backgrounds and religious beliefs.

"The idea of this whole show was not to expose these kids to the darker side," Marriott said, "but to give them an opportunity to see the good things that are outside of their community that they grew up in."

Mixing the Amish with a vegan, a fashion stylist with tattoos and piercing, a "colorful and extremely extroverted" guy, a black college student who lost her boyfriend to an unsolved drive-by shooting, a flirty guy who loves the nightlife and a guy from Las Vegas didn't quite bring happiness in the home.

"Amish in the City" started out with a twist when the producers purposely didn't tell the city cast members that they were coming on a reality show to live with Amish people.

"We wanted to see their [the city people's] reaction when they met their Amish counterparts," Marriott said. "It was pretty dramatic. Here are the city kids who thought they were going to be on the 'Real World' and partying for 10 weeks."

The city kids learned a lesson on tolerance after revolting against living with the Amish. At first the city kids were rude to the Amish.

"It was kind of sad," Marriott said. "Especially when the city kids talked about how it is important to be accepted for who you are and being tolerant of other people. Then the Amish people show up and they were intolerant."

While working on the show, Marriott had the opportunity to take the Amish kids and some city kids to a Young Single Adult ward and the visitor center of an LDS temple.

"The Amish kids were really impressed with the Mormon Church, really felt a kinship to it and felt the spirit," Marriott said.

Through the trials and challenges the city and Amish kids run into while living together, the show became a success since the first day it aired. About 5.4 million viewers tuned in on the premiere night and it is the No. 1 show in many major markets such as Los Angeles and New York City.

"I was impressed with how they didn't choose the really rebellious Amish kids for the show," Nelson said. "One of the kids came on the show to let people know that the Amish are not really weird."

In the end, the Amish cast felt it was a positive experience. They all had positive comments to made about their experiences.

"Amish in the City" is a 10-part series that began broadcasting in the summer season. The show is on UPN 9 p.m. ET/PT Wednesdays. The final episode will air Sept. 22.



Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Sep 2004