Running Man, Here We Come

Running Man, Here We Come by Roxanne McDonald

Make a Wish Foundation meets Oprah’s Angel Network in this new interactive reality show intended to make one contestant’s dream come true—and unintentionally bringing us one step closer to crowd-controlled fate.

If who is producing “The Great American Dream Vote” is any indication of the potential for success (brought to us by the producers of “The Bachelor” series, then this new interactive game show should do quite well.

But then again, any reality TV environment where the people get to decide the fate of the contestants is also the latest in popular trends. There’s my issue, concerned (or even worried) as I am that we are hurtling at cyberspeed toward the day when the only kind of reality competition

entertainment to satisfy our hungers will be that which satisfies, too, our bloodlust, our mass mentality, and our need for scapegoats.

If you think I’m kidding, rambling, or out of my mind, just rent a copy of The Running Man. Look at what happens when they run out of TV show ideas, contestants, and rewards of any value.

So far, “The Great American Dream Vote” (after only one episode, of course) has no issues with people being dissatisfied with the prizes.

Six contestants stand before the people, the audience, and pitch their cases for their great American dreams:

Man wants to be an NFL rookie (despite being in his forties)
Man wants to compete in “one of the most elite races in the world,”
Woman wants to create a business empire based on doggie clothing line called Paws Up!
Woman wants to start a bikini business
Woman wants to get her twenty-six-year-old slacker son out of her house
Woman wants to get her twenty-something slacker daughter out of the house
Man wants to move his family out of his in-laws’ house
Woman is a stay-at-home mother who wants her own home
Person wants to establish a Bassett Hound senior center
Persons want a dream wedding
Person wants own chicken-petting zoo
Persons want (need) to save family business

Hosted by the still pretty dreamy Donny Osmond, who is the poster child for American dreams come true, I suppose,

“Great American Dream Vote” aired Wednesday night, March 28th, on ABC. The winner will be revealed next week.

The six contestants posed their proposals; the audience narrowed down the numbers, choosing one of each of the three competing pairs (or maybe it’s two people out of the six); and the TV-viewing audience voted on the one individual who will be granted his/her great American dream come true.

Provided that dream does not get morphed in with the goals of futurism in game show broadcasting, and turn them not into happy lottery winners but random targets for running a do-or-die (or to-the-death) gauntlet, it will remain a “great American dream,” and will make for a decent American show.

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