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Showtime Announces "The Real L Word: Los Angeles" Reality Series
Showtime has greenlit nine episodes of a reality TV version of their hit lesbian drama The L Word. Led by L Word creator Ilene Chaiken and reality producers Magical Elves, the new reality series will follow six lesbians in Los Angeles as they go about their lives. Showtime's pick-up of the series is contingent on the casting, which has not yet been completed. "Even though we concluded our sixth season of The L Word on Showtime this past March," Chaiken explained to Variety, "I believe we are not nearly finished telling our L Word stories." Many L Word fans, some of the actresses, and two of the show's co-creators were angered or disappointed by the murder-mystery focus of the last season, the finale in March, and some of the bizarre information revealed about the characters in the post-finale online "interrogation tapes." In July, Chaiken revealed at a conference on blogging that she is writing a script for an L Word feature film that will address some of these issues, and alluded to other projects in the works. Her initial L Word spin-off idea — a women-in-prison drama called The Farm — was passed on by Showtime earlier this year. Chaiken will executive produce The Real L Word: Los Angeles along with Magical Elves' Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth. Magical Elves has produced episodes for several other reality series, including Project Runway, Top Chef: Masters, and Treasure Hunters. "We love to tell authentic stories about complex characters and feel like this is an area that has yet to be explored in reality television," said Lipsitz about Magical Elves' involvement in the The Real L Word: Los Angeles. The reality series is slated to debut sometime in 2010. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
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yes yes so happy
Really?
I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm terribly critical of reality shows generally.
Message to Mama Chaiken: Since you're going to do this no matter what we say, try to get it right this time, please.
_____________
Life of an Indian genderqueer butch teenager:
The Freezing Flames
Tweet away @FireboltX
Reality Shows
Yeah, I don't feel too
PS. Does anyone know where i can find these ''post-finale online "interrogation tapes''?? :/
Re: Post-finale
I know they are availible
I know they are availible for free on itunes. Just search for the L word.
Without deviation, progress is not possible. -F. Zappa
really really
Oh No. Not again
What?!
Well this just sent a shiver down my spine.
All for Lesbian stories on TV but I prefer it when it's not reality or an overly used storyline i.e. the lesbian couple trying to have a baby or in the case of cop shows, the lesbian being the killer or just plain nuts.
Showtime could do better than reality
I couldn't agree more. Well
I absolutely would not like
The frak?
ilene needs to move on. its
ilene needs to move on. its getting even more embarassing than it already was. as if the last season wasn't bad enough she has to stoop to reality tv depths. very sad. i think ilene really just wants to be the star of her own show.
In Response to the Above Comment
Ilene Needs To Move On
Grandma, I 'm with you on this one. I see this L Word reality show as nothing but a potential train wreck, and even more so if one Ms. Chaiken is involved. The woman has to be the most supreme megolamaniac ever.
very true, tlk about
very true, tlk about flogging a dead horse, let alone digging a hole...
Oh, God Bless You Grandma.
That Ilene... Lordy-Lou. If she only knew.
The best reality shows are Lawn Dart Tournaments, Dialing for Dollars, and Dog and Pony Shows... (For the millinery, of course.)
Can I get you a nice slice of bundt cake?
but we already have this
:/
Ditto.
We're all gonna be
Please no!
Don't be like Gimme Sugar. What a trainwreak that show is. I had hopes for the Miami version but it was interesting to see the girls get handed their hat by Allison Burgos. Talk about not doing one's research!
Ilene should cast herself and her friends on this show. I might tune in for that!
I prefer to see Laurel
I prefer to see Laurel Holloman and Jennifer Beals back soon.
I am really hoping for a good L- Word movie...
------------------------------------
*The Hunter and the hunted*
Agreed!!!!! I mean, I'll
I Question How Diverse the Cast Will Be
For crying out loud, TLW wasn't good! So-so writing and so-so acting do not a spin-off-worthy series make.
Besides, I suspect the show will largely focus on the lives of monied, "fashionable," 30-something, white femmes. I endured six long, mediocre seasons of that. I want to see the diversity of our culture, including a real, live BUTCH/STUD, for goodness' sake!
Ilene Chaiken has exhausted her lesbian project. It's time for a new generation to take the torch -- by force, if necessary.
Either way, count me out for Ilene's latest masturbatory opus.
1st of April?
I just read this elsewhere and checked if that was "The Onion".
Then I checked the date.
Please tell me, that in the US the 1st of September is celebrated like the first of April?
Who greenlighted this?
Were people at Showtime on Crack?
Or maybe you can milk the Lesbian audience for ratings and Dollars with a low cost reality project.
Ungh.
Ilene Chaiken needs to go away already.
If contestants want to be taken seriously
they should arrive at the auditions with their own wigs and spandex.
Reality show ladies tend to catagorize as whores, exhibitionists, or foils for the whores and exhibitionists. How could this possibly go wrong.
This I can not wait to see.
yay another lesbian show !
should I belive this.... btw ?
IC looks like a little elf herself in that pic . haha.
Thanks IC for making something else for us.
Come on guys, cheer up . at least we have another show... and Magical-Elves made Project Runway and Top Chef .... so how bad can it be?! : Not that bad
=)
Titanic? Hindenburg?
If you weren't alive to see those tragedies, well, now we bring you 'The L Word: Los Angeles'!
Oh! The humanity!
Like we need another reality show.
I foresee.....
An epic FAIL.
I will probably watch the first couple of episodes to see the, "What else could this idiot fuck up?"
I cannot stand Reality TV. This means IC ran out of ways to screw everything up in a scripted way, so now she'll take a hatchett to the quasi-scripted lives of REAL (and I question that) Lesbians.
"If you're not on the rocket, you're just sittin' on the fence." - Suzi Quatro Back to the Drive
Will there be merkins?
I know I'm not alone on this site when I say that I sorta kinda resent the fact that Chaiken is the one with her finger on the button here.
But, I actually don't think it's an awful idea. If it were done with sensitivity and if it fairly represented our community without sensationalizing it, then I'd watch it. The producers of Top Chef being involved gives me a bit of hope. Chaiken's involvement, not so much.
But who knows, maybe she's looking for redemption and will really turn this one out?
Just please oh please oh please...look for real people with real lives for this and not just a bunch of fame-hungry idiots that will do anything for the love of the camera. I know it will be difficult to find such folks in LA, but it can be done.
Think less 'Fox' television more HBO documentary...
Why?
Why can't IC just give up? Is she so set on disappointing the few lesbians out there who haven't seen the L-Word finale or heard about it?
This is all going to go horribly wrong.... and I'm going to watch every second of it :D What can I say, it's like a truck heading for a cliff. You can't stop it, so you might as well watch.
can't wait
Ilene Chaiken is becomming...
That friend everyone has that just doesnt know when to shut up/leave.
She is seriously __ <-- that close to becomming this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeS-Xb5u4-U
Linked because i cant embed video...
This is just a bad idea.
HAHAHA
Needs some hotties to work
I hope they pick actresses at least half as hot as the ones in the L word...
Shame it wont reach a wider audience like if it aired with 'Real housewives' on bravo, but i'm a little psyched for some actual lesbian content on a show regardless.----------------------------------------------------
Sig: My DA; http://skullbie.deviantart.com
Nonononono..
I am sorry for raging..but does IC have some strange Confundus charm?
Ladies and Ladies, like PLEASE, there ARE Lesbian characters on reality shows out there.
There are other Lesbian shows out there.
I really don't know why so many people are happy to put up with Chaiken crap, saying that it's "the only thing out there".
It is not!
Maybe it is better advertised and more high gloss, but it's not the only stuff out there, and if you have ever turned on a TV, ever watched a TV show, you must realize how "In your face" deprecating "The L Word" was.
Sell out on ALL levels.
I simply do not understand how anyone could be happy about that waggon full of manure.
And there you have people flocking in droves to the masturbatory opuses (I betcha 50 bucks, that Chaiken will appear in this one..) while shows like 3way, Angela Robinson's babies, Fletcher, exes and Ohs, and soon even Venice will be out there, struggling for survival.
I know you can't argue about taste, but don't act like "Oh yeah"! finally a lesbian reality show..
And honestly, I'd rather have NO Lesbian reality show, instead of one, where we will be portrayed as sex crazed pretty kittens for the male eye again.
When there's no PbP announcements..
I'm not gonna watch a minute of it.I still haven't watched the last ep of The L Word, because I couldn't stand it anymore..
Insulting, that's what it is.
My two cents, sorry for raging..
I KNOW! It's astoundingly PATHETIC!
These lesbians should go to film school or get into screenwriting or something, because this isn't brain surgery and yet many are behaving as if only Ilene is capable of creating a lesbian product and as we have already seen she isn't. Good Lord have some dignity!
Technology Will Lead To The Demise Of Civilization As We Know It.
Tips from the casting couch:
Hmm
Usually I have my opinions early on these kinds of things and vociferously express them.
However, in this case, and perhaps because Tibette-going-at it-in-an-elevator memories are currently clouding my judgment, I think I'll wait until I at least see a promo before I condemn.
Very wise decision. :)
A reality show semi-spin
NO!!
The Real (L) World?
All of you who have such strong opinions are rediculous
This show is not even out yet. How can you be completely for OR against this if you haven't even seen an episode?! Chaiken has had both positive and negative feedback about The L Word and will no doubt use that to attempt to improve and build on her previous project.
I think it's rediculous that so many of you are condemning or applauding her on a project that hasn't even done its casting yet, let alone that you have any idea on the themes it will address.
Don't be so judging.
Agree
Hurricane on the Horizon
It's like weather forecasting. Meteorologists aren't psychic, they can't tell the future of weather with 100% clarity. But they can look at the radars, compare them to past events, and give a pretty accurate prediction based on those things to determine whether or not a hurricane is going to hit a certain place.
In this case, we're the meteorologists of television. We see Hurricane Chaiken on the horizon. Is it going to hit Awesometown, or Sucksville? Well, going by past events (The L Word, and every reality show ever) we can conclude that there is a very high chance of this storm hitting Sucksville, while Awesometown will likely only get cloudy skies with light precipitation.
Besides, the whole POINT of AfterEllen is to critique lesbian entertainment, and yes, that can come off as judging. But if we stopped offering opinions on lesbian representation in the media, this site would go away.
Meteorologist DO know that...
The SAME weather patterns endlessly circle the earth and if it's a devastating STORM the only thing one cannot predict is the level of devastation the storm will leave.
Given that premise we already know that Ilene does nothing but damage, only thing left to find out is how severe that damage will be. I'm boarding up the cottage and leaving town for this one cause it smells like Katrina to me.
Technology Will Lead To The Demise Of Civilization As We Know It.
Just to continue your little metaphor...
Consider the L word to have been lots of storms wth lots of sunshine in between. I admit that there were a lot of things wrong with that show. However, you have to credit the incredible increase in lesbian visibility that the show has garnered. It helped me come out to myself when I had nobody in my immediate surroundings to turn to, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one on whom this show had that effect. It was absolutely the first show of its kind and while nobody gets it right on their first try, it definitely gave hope to struggling young lesbians that they can have successfull careers and start a family et al.
As I said in my first post, hopefully Chaiken can take those good things with her but leave behind the bad stuff (which I'm sure she's aware of given all the criticism the show has received), and make a fresh start with this show.
I'm not going to critique her upcoming show just because of the past; everybody deserves a second chance, and since I haven't yet seen her repeat any of her mistakes I'm not going to lose hope that perhaps, in the end this type of lesbian visibility will help out lots of people stuck in the closet and raise our visibility in our communities.