"The 70s House"
MTV
WHEN DOES IT AIR?

Time-travel reality is the New Comedy. (OK, not if you include Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," but anyway.) Most recently, PBS's numerous high brow time-travel reality series, such as Manor House and Colonial House, became quite popular among the NPR set. After watching these Public Broadcast sleeper hits receive critical acclaim, it seems MTV got hungry to send their hip and cool twenty-somethings back in time as well. The result? "The 70's House."

The brilliance of "The 70's House" lies in its effort to engage us in tchotchke country. What the other producer-lemmings of reality shows have not realized, and what the producers of "The 70's House" have(WHO ARE THE PRODUCERS? DO THEY HAVE A BACK STORY? OTHER SHOWS THEY'VE DONE?) , is that heightened drama is, ultimately, moronic.

Nobody really cares that (LINK?)"Average Joe" had to endure pained chest-waxing, or that Janice Dickinson(WHO IS SHE, FROM WHAT SHOW? LINK?) will drink and hump more than the entire population of Las Vegas. Audiences are clamoring for a more sophisticated understanding of the reality genre; we know it's staged, so let's make fun of it now.

In consequence, we (I DONT LIKE USING 'WE' HERE; IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO PHRASE ALL THIS?) are very ready to watch twelve devastatingly attractive youngsters, in snug polyester, boogy their way into heart of MTvs reality sit-com. Each episode features a series of "70's" era challenges, including everything from a marathon sexy car wash to a "Catch that Vibe" astrology contest. Contestants, poured into seventies clothing, look authentically groovy, and the daffy hostess "Dawn" keeps the show delightfully off-center. (Her syrup-slow voice and booty shorts are the exemplar of the era, an example to be followed by the rest of the cast if they want to win the game.)

Gripping drama in this house stretch the range (THIS PHRASE IS VERY AWKWARD, CAN YOU CLARIFY IT?) from ill-fitting pants to understanding rotary phones. While some of the boys on the show look like they were born in a flower scarf, Linda, one of the remaining (REMAING AT WHAT POINT? COULD WE SAY "FINAL FIVE"?)five, asserts her contentions with the high pants. "I don't understand why I always get the high pants." The producer follows her complaint and cleverly runs a montages of her peachy little butt cinched into progressively higher pants until, at long last, we get Linda in a sailor uniform.

(A TRANSITION HERE?) The most ingeniously malicious and funny part of the show is the Hustle. Whenever "The Hustle" is balefully whistling, the kids gather Von Trapp-style to laboriously dance whenever the song is playing (even if it be at , at 3 in the morning. "Do the Hustle" has never seemed so imperious.

Of course, what makes "The 70's House" most easy to enjoy is its complete divorce from the politics of the era. There are no hairy feminist, racists, or drug-addled 'Nam vets. It's easy to criticize how the producers of "The 70's House" have simplified an entire era into a flared-pants-dance combo, it's much more difficult to admit that you enjoy the show because of this. But, like any interesting time capsule, this one is orchestrated to entertain, not to educate. And MTv, never afraid to tread where PBS wont dare, is surely reaping the monetary benefits.