Amish in the City
 

TWO-HOUR PREMIERE EPISODE
Wednesday, July 28, 8PM ET/PT

AMISH IN THE CITY, a new reality series, will provide a unique look into the Amish journey of discovery, known as rumspringa, through a group of young adults who have left their spiritually devout, rural communities to experience life in the big city, with six roommates from various metropolitan areas.

http://wwwimage.upn.com/shows/amish_...ges/header.jpg

I read a book on the Amish once. It was really interesting learning about this "closed community" and the different problems that go on and ways the community deals with them. I remember frequent trips to Amish country as a little girl. My mom still loves to go there with her retired friends to hit up the outlets.

I wonder how the Amish community feels about those who are doing this - will they still be part of the community when it's all over?

I suppose if you're going to break out of the traditions, might as well do it in front of a national audience and make some money off of it.

Good question. Will they want to be a part of the community when its over,lol

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe there is a time when amish teenagers are encouraged to go out into the "real world" and experience it for themselves. they are not truly amish until they come back and give their devotion to being amish. i believe that if they decide to stay in the "real world" they are basically excommunicated from the community forever.

so this must be their exploration time for these teens.

the question is are these people really amish??

i saw the preview for this yesterday. in the end they were crying so i am guessing that they want to stay in the city.

You are right. That's what the Amish on this show are doing.

I'm with you on this - and I don't think they really are Amish.

Rumspringa is a trial period for Amish youth, anywhere from teenagers to twenty-somethings who have their faith tested for a certain length of time...sometimes it's as simple as being allowed to stay in town for a few weeks, watching TV and hanging out with local kids...but on some rare occasions, they go into the city and live there for weeks and try to make a living...the community has actually experienced some hardships when kids out on rumspringa bring back drugs and 'worldly temptations' and habits, like drinking, innapropriate dancing and pre-marital sex and it permeates the community.

It's not about being 'truly Amish,' it's more like adult baptism for Baptists. They have to be fully aware of what they're giving up/ taking on before they can become full members of the church. And depending on the strictness of the community, sometimes they are excommunicated, but other times they are just asked not to live in the community - they can visit with their families and live outside of town. Sometimes they even convert and be Mennonites or another less-strict sect.

P.S. you were right about these kids not being Amish, a lot of them just come from Amish background i heard. One of the guys has already been on his rumspringa and another of the girls doesn't even call herself Amish. It's all a bunch of :p if you ask me.

Here is some more info on the show:

http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/28170.htm

The non-Amish kids seem like the real freaks on the show. I'm going to at least check out the first episode.

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True but I dont thing they actually go somewhere like NY. I get the impression it is more of a at home go crazy period where they do drugs, drink and . They are all named Abner Stoltzfus.

To counter, we should put some city people in Amish country...

Didn't PBS do a show similar to that??

Oh yeah,

I stand corrected.

I couldn't do it. I watched one episode and that was enough. Much respect to the ancestors!

this is funny - I just watched a documentary on rumspriga last night called Devil's Playground.

These kids go off and get into some shit! The thing is, they are given the kind of freedom at 16 that most of us don't have until our first year of college. And this is after a lifetime of restriction and "shunning the outside world." So they go absolutely nuts. Binge drinking, drug dealing, jail. They basically know that no matter what they do during this time doesn't matter as long as they come back and "join the Church."

I don't know about this series but I would recomend the documentary to anyone who is interested.

I am curious to watch this because when I was in high school I did a research paper on the Amish and spent the evening with an Amish Family. I have also heard that there are some affiliates that are braodcasting it tonight. They are planning and waiting to see how it goes over in other communities and if it isn't a problem that will allow the rerun on Friday to go as planned.

anyone watching?

OMG I'm watching it now and one of these chicks is sooooo stuck up. LOL.

It's like Real World with more than 7 house mates.

Ariel is one of the city dwellers, not Amish.

I missed this tonight! Anyone catch it? Are they going to rerun it?

sister havana,

caught that. I thought I saw her on ABC this morning, but I think it was someone else.

I remember one of the girls was talking about how she wore a bikini for the first time and she thought it was incredibly weird.

This show reminds me of a (very) short-run drama in 1988 called "Aaron's Way", about an Amish family that was forced to move in w/ city-dwelling relatives due to a family emergency.

http://www.innermind.com/myguides/guides/aaronsw.htm

It stood out in my mind because they didn't go out of their way to make the Amish look like kooks.

--add

I remember that show very well for some reason.

OKAY I watched most of it in between other things last night and needless to say I was NOT impressed. I think some of the Amish characters are not really Amish but that is just my opinion. Especially that girl Myriam. My boyfriend and I were also annoyed with that guy Reese, the club promoter guy who started lots of trouble in the house. And vegan girl seemed really wierd too.

Vegan girl was obnoxious. When she was out food shopping, she told the two Amish people she was with that eggs were "chicken abortions". That is one of the DUMBEST comments I have EVER heard. And she really was not trying to buy any meat, cheese, etc. for any of the house mates. If she wants to be vegan, fine, but don't go trying to impose it on everyone else.

Reese was sooo dumb. First he was saying that he was going to have a very hard time in the house because he was SOOOO attracted to Kevan, and he said he didn't think Kevan was gay, but did think he was curious. UMMM, newsflash REESE, just cause YOU like him doesn't make him curious. Kevan did not give ONE signal that he might be curious. Then Reese starts harassing Kevan, picking on him, and making fun of him in a very obnoxious way to get attention, and then SMACKS HIM IN THE FACE WITH HIS SOCK!!!!!!!! I was mad when the roommates broke up the pseudo-fight because Reese deserved to be thrown in the pool.

And the boston guy just got on my nerves. He was really loud and obnoxious and talking about the Amish people like they weren't in the room (example: "No, there is no way we are living with Amish people" as if they are not even there), and talking about them like they are Aliens or something. GET OVER IT!!!

I think in the end there will be more drama from the city-folk than anything else.

I SCREAMED when she said that! WHAT? HELLO? Cows are from outer space? All the problems in the world are a direct result of meat? Lord, where did they find her?

I think the city kids are way too over the top. With the exception of Whitney who seems to be the most normal of the bunch. I was embarrassed by their rude reactions when the Amish got to the door.

In the end, I think Ruth & all of the boys will go back to being Amish. Miriam, I'm not so sure. I thought Jonas might be leaning toward staying away, but he is getting disillusioned by the ugliness the city kids were displaying by then end of the show. The other boys will go back, b/c Mose is truly committed to it, and Randy likes being waited on by the women....

Interesting show, though.

I think Whitney is the only person I liked on the show as well outside of the Amish. And I really don't know what it is about Myriam but she rubs me the wrong way. I bet she will hook up and be wild with some of the "City Kids".

we dont get UPN here :(

is it true once they are out on this trial period to see if they are to devote themselves to either way of life if they choose to stay in our our way they cut themselves off from family and all amish ppl?

Pretty much, yes. Some of the orders may not be as strict as others.

i was appalled at the city kids. i think they were specifically chosen because each of them seems to have an issue that makes them a "minority" in some sense.

reese--gay
ariel--vegan
whitney--african american
nick--asshole, doesn't seem too educated
the blonde--haven't figured out her issue yet
i can't remember the 6th...

it amazes me how they treat the amish once they all become the "majority" even though individually, they are all a minority of some sense.

what is up with randy's voice? is he a woman or a man?

these city kids really should be ashamed when they watch themselves on tv.

I thought I was the only one freaked out by Randy's voice. He has this buff masculine body and then this super girly voice. It's weird.

The city kids have the most onoxious annoying personalities. The only semi-normal one is Kevan. But even he was talking about the Amish kids behind their backs.

DH said he was like the Amish Mike Tyson.

I haven't seen the show, but these are definately the prettiest Amish people I have ever seen, and I'm from Amish Country, USA!

Does anyone remember that Judging Amy with the Amish girl who goes to Ramspringa and gets preggers with an "English" guy's (that's what they call us folk) baby? It was a pretty good episode.

I don't think that Miriam is actually Amish. She doesn't seem surprised by anything in the "outside world," unlike Ruth or Moses.

That Ariel chick is irritating as all hell. I think I would have to pin her down and eat a large hamburger while sitting on top of her if I had to live with her.

The only people I like so far are the blond-city-girl-who-is-not-Ariel, Moses, and Ruth.

I watched it last night and liked it.
Damn Jonas has a bod on him! Yowza. I like Whitney, Ruth, Mose, and the blonde girl (not the weird Vegan)
Kevan was not too bad

Reese was just totally obnoxious

Actually that sounds like a novel called "Plain Truth". Very good.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=tube&s=siegel080204

DOWN THE TUBE
Amish Country
by Lee Siegel

Only at TNR Online
Post date: 08.02.04
UPN's new reality series, "Amish in the City," has been called a cross between Witness, the Harrison Ford movie of a few years back, and MTV's "Real World," one of the original reality shows, which is about daily life among a group of teens and twentysomethings. But Witness told the story of a big-city police detective who takes refuge in an Amish community from some murderous corrupt colleagues. The cop, with his foul language, and his violence, and his gun, is the outsider in a society bound together by piety and humility. In the end it is his natural decency, as well as his willingness to sacrifice himself for the community's safety, that binds Ford's character to those who have taken him in. "Amish in the City" is quite a different story.

CBS, which owns UPN, had originally wanted to produce a reality show that involved taking people from rural Appalachia, setting them down in Beverly Hills, and letting the fun begin. A roar of protest put a stop to that. Some groups and one Republican Congressman also protested the network's plans to transport some Amish kids to L.A. and match them up in a house with cool, non-Amish city-dwellers, but, as CBS/Viacom's chairman Leslie Moonves boasted, "The Amish don't have a lobby group." (But neither do the Hasidim! Leslie, listen to this: Moishe, Shmuel, a seafood shack in Maine! We can call it "Oyster"!) Still, Moonves was so anxious that he had UPN sneakily pretend that it had dropped the show almost up until its debut last Wednesday. He needn't have worried. Republican and religious opposition to the show, and especially the official uproar over Janet Jackson and her (CBS-broadcast) breast, almost ensured a positive response from critics.

One critic for a major newspaper patiently explained to readers that the show's three Amish young men and two young women were on a rumspringa ("running wild"). This, she instructed, is an Amish rite that allows people, once they reach the age of sixteen, to go live in the world outside their community and decide if they want to return to the fold, be baptized as Amish, and dwell among their co-religionists for the rest of their lives. (The experience, which sometimes leads to various kinds of excess, such as drugs, and even crime, was explored in a New Yorker article some years back, and also in a 2002 documentary called The Devil's Playground.) The series, this critic assured everybody is "high-minded" and "refreshingly kind-hearted." How nice and contrarian. But what she didn't mention was that the show, like every reality show, is carefully staged, edited, and scored, and its participants closely guided, coached, and protected. She wrote about this encounter between hip Angelenos and sheltered Amish as if it actually were a rumspringa, the raw experience of an alien life undergone without family or friends to depend on, during which the adventurous Amish have to find their own income and shelter. She actually wrote about the Amish in "Amish in the City" as if they were living spontaneously, away from camera crews, chauffeured limousines, and a luxurious house--as if the show didn't consist of spliced-in interviews with the producers, neat narrative lines and predictable conflicts. She actually wrote about this slickly produced reality-show as if it were ... reality.

At the beginning of Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man, a private club consisting of prominent and powerful white men somewhere in a Southern town assemble a group of black boys in a room, throw coins down on an electrified rug, and force the boys to fight each other for the money. At the end of this depraved contest, Ellison's hero gets the wickedly ironic gift of a scholarship to a state school for blacks; he goes home to bed and has a nightmare in which he unrolls a diploma and reads the words: "To Whom it May Concern. Keep This Nigger Boy Running." Under the guise of "kind-hearted" respect toward its marginal subjects, "Amish in the City" is a kind of gladiatorial combat, dispelling its false harmonies--people are just people--with a steady rhythm of conflict between its two groups. Though the city kids sometimes say rude things, and though the Amish sometimes have the last word, it's the Amish who have come to the city-people in L.A. to be transformed, not the other way around. And being the butt of rudeness cuts both ways. You can laugh at the Amish and pity them all at the same time.

The show makes sure to subtly affirm the city-kids' contempt, now and then. Ariel, a slinky blonde, says, "I think I was more willing to accept these people when they got out of the Amish clothes." By the end of the first special two-hour episode, the Amish are indeed dutifully dressing like the cool Angelenos. They're also talking like them, and eating like them. Maybe they haven't been made the subject of a perverse battle royal à la Ellison, but they've been thoroughly deconstructed. In a gesture toward even-handedness, the producers instruct the non-Amish to put on traditional Amish garments and drive around L.A. But the guys wear the hats askew with dark glasses, and their shirts out of their pants; the girl pull the heavy skirts up over their thighs when they sit down. I'll bet even money that Barney's does an Amish window in the fall.

Such careful handling of the Amish as we do get treats them like invalids. Mose, seemingly the most religious and mature of the Amish, an inventor and a teacher, goes to the ocean for the first time and plunges in. Within seconds, the reality-music gets dark and foreboding. Mose, we are told by voiceovers as he is in the water, almost drowns! He comes out of the water and throws himself down on the blanket, wiping tears from his eyes. In fact, he was only a few feet from the shore, and he wasn't fighting the waves or sinking beneath the surface at all, except for one pathetic moment when he deliberately puts his head in the water and the music takes its darkest, loudest turn. It would be hard to drown anyway, when a cameraman--or maybe two--is happily recording your desperate attempts to stay alive.

The miracle of Tivo's rewind and slow-motion-replay, frame by frame, even reveals, I am sad to report, a smile flickering across the dying man's mouth. Well, he is religious. It also reveals that he wasn't crying when he seemed to be, and that the Amish woman who said her first sight of the ocean made her weep--she should have expected it; the episode had been carefully constructing that "surprise" for the previous fifteen minutes--didn't have a tear on her face. Mose himself is a very resourceful fellow, despite his problems with wading. Later, he tells us in a voiceover that he fell into a state of spiritual despair over his moment of near-death--we see him reading the Bible (spiritual) and putting his head in his hands a lot (despair). Minutes later, he's running around, speaking in silly voices and making everyone laugh. And there is a funny thing about Mose. As he tells us at the beginning of the series, he's already been baptized. He was "forced" to be baptized when he was seventeen, he says, which means that he's not on a rumspringa, like the other Amish on the show; he tells us that he's already taken his own rumspringa. Maybe we shouldn't worry about this Amish guy. He's as sneaky as UPN.

As if "Amish in the City" had cleared its conscience by contriving the appearance of "kind-heartedness" toward the Amish--by doing what? by not going after them with cattle prods?--it acts without restraint toward its other participants. This is the most homophobic show I've ever seen on television. By means of very quick cutaways and manipulative interviewing, it presents Reese, a gay club promoter who came to L.A. from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as hysterical, effeminate, mincing, mean-spirited. He is very open about his attraction to a straight guy named Kevan--so open, in fact, that it's hard to believe he's decided to approach Kevan so blatantly without a little behind-the-scenes encouragement. At one point, he playfully slaps Kevan's face with a sock, and Kevan springs at Reese, calling him a "fag" and knocking him out of his chair. The group roundly agrees that Reese had it coming to him.

Read the rest at the link above.

-Rudey

I saw it, and I think it is an interesting show. Definately will see it again next week.