Need $20,000? Wanted: CZ Family!
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 7th, 2006
Are you a cryptozoologically-involved family and interested in being on ABC-TV’s program “Wife Swap”? I’m serious. An ABC producer just contacted me and wants help in finding such a family.
Here’s some info the producer sent along:
In case you are not familiar with the show, the premise of “Wife Swap” is simple: for two weeks, two wives from two different families exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover what it’s like to live a different woman’s life. The show airs on ABC on Monday nights at 8pm Eastern – family hour! It offers a positive experience for people not only to teach, but to learn about different family values.
I am currently casting for Season 3 of our show, and I am hoping to cast a family who is involved in cryptozoology on an upcoming episode. I have been doing some research and it sounds like a very interesting hobby that I think people would like to learn more about! I thought that if we featured a family where either or both parents and/or the kids were involved in cryptid research, we might be able to teach another family (and the rest of the country!) more about this unique and exciting pastime.
Here’s what they are looking for:
-Fun, outgoing and dynamic families
-Two parents that live together (but they don’t have to be married!)
-At least one child between the ages of 5-17 that lives full time in the home
Families who participate in the show receive $20,000.
If you are serious about applying, contact me, with the subject line “ATTN: Loren” via [email protected] – and I will pass on your contact info to the producer at the show.
Bigfoot families (as in real Sasquatch family groups) need not apply. Sorry. Human families that do investigate Bigfoot may apply.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
How cool is this?!
I just hope they choose someone who is serious and not a hoaxer.
This show is really pretty good at times. If they choose the families wisely the cryptozoology episode could be one of those good ones.
Whatever!
Get Autumn to be on the show!
Interesting yes as long as they don’t paint the family as lunatics. I know reality TV very well as I have done a couple pilots and my partner has a series on the tube right now and it’s never what you expect. They set it up they way THEY want to and edit it accordingly to make you look they way THEY want. For 20K it may well be worth it but I will tell you the odds of getting a Loren Coleman type vs a Eric Beckjord type are not good. Did I spell his name correctly? Anyway, level headed doesn’t sell reality, goof balls do.
I just talked myself into it. Can I apply?
Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!
Having seen this programme (and it’s seedier Fox clone “Trading Spouses”) I can all but guarantee that no matter what the producers say, it’s all about the exploitation factor –period. It’d be a real shame to see some our preferred field of interest be given the short shrift for the sake of “good TV” just so the lowest common denominator of viewership can ogle some “weirdos”. Just say no.
Bad idea for serious cryptos.
On a brighter note it does seem that there is ever more interest in this topic.
Yep – always interesting to see how producers seduce folks into these things..
To find out why they really want to involve cz, we’ll have to see the sort of family they consider perfect to swap the wife into; perhaps staid hardcore rationalists (ie. they think of cz as a pseudoscience)?
Who do readers think would stir up most trouble (Cos trouble’s what they want, not letting people know about our ‘very interesting hobby’..)?
This show involves contrasting two very different lifestyles and having a person from each try to adapt to the other. It is not high art, but it is often interesting and thought-provoking.
If they choose a family in which serveral people are serious about cryptozoology, even if they do the show “tongue-in-cheek”, it will expose millions of people, some of whom have never heard of cryptozoology, to the possibility of the existence of cryptids. You never know what might spark interest in someone. After all, SOMEONE had to have been interested in cryptids, for them even to have thought of this idea.
Sure, there will be a lot of scoffers, and a lot of people who think the whole idea of cryptozoology is ridiculous. Aren’t there always? But someone who is watching the show, and who becomes seriously interested as a result, may be the very person who finally gets conclusive evidence of some cryptid’s existence.
Besides, the person from the “skeptic” family may come away with a new awareness.
I’ll apply. Anyone want to pretend to be my wife and kids?
I don’t like the way they dismissed Cryptozoology as an interesting “hobby” and “pastime”. This is not knitting or something. I don’t think this is a “hobby” for people like Loren or Craig. Sounds like a compelling premise for a show, but I just feel that having a family that is interested in cryptozoology on there is setting them up for ridicule or at the very least a little ribbing. You might even get people claiming to be interested in cryptozoology just to get on the show, and then make a fool out of serious cryptozoologists. I hope I’m wrong.
Don’t trust television producers, they’ll manipulate you into appearing like they want you to appear. And I agree that in this case it sounds like they’re looking for a weirdo.
Did anyone happen to notice the word “hobby” in the description? Could be a little Freudian slip o’ the tongue meaning this will in no way be taken seriously.
Call me Mr Cynical, but if this is anything like the UK version, the main aim is to manufacture a good row between two incompatible sets of people and make at least one group look stupid/sleazy/contemptible.
Wife Swap’s goal is to set up conflict between the families. If you go into this, be aware that the other family is likely to be fundamentalist Christians who think evolution is evil, and consider cryptozoologists to be hunting for the missing link. Or something else equally as difficult to deal with. The show can be mildly interesting (I’ve seen it only once all the way through), but it’s cringeworthy at its best.
This won’t end well…
Nice!
Hope this works out for them, and I am hoping it is a bigfoot family!
While cryptozoology is a profession for some, the vast majority of us are “armchair cryptozoologists”. That fits the definition of “hobby”. Perhaps the term “avocation” would be less offensive than “hobby”? Either way the fact remains that cryptozoology is not the primary occupation for most of us here.
The producers are trying to appeal to a wide audience. The word “hobby” is instantly recognizable and universally understood. I don’t care if they call it a cryptozoology hobby; on the contrary, I think it would be nice if more families become aware that cryptozoology CAN be a great family activity. What starts as a hobby often ends by becoming a profession.
Let’s not get on too high of a horse here. This show may turn out to be nonsense, but it may not, and it will expose new people to cryptid possibilities. Some of those people will take up this “hobby”. Of those some may continue on to become serious amateur cryptozoologists, or maybe even professionals.
Even in such mainstream scientific professions as astronomy, some of the most important discoveries are made by amateurs. I think that the fact that these people approached Loren shows that they at least recognize his importance as someone taken seriously in cryptozoological circles. So I for one am willing to give it a chance.
I don’t think the contrasting family will necessarily be fundamentalist Christians. More likely will be some hyper-skeptical biologist or anthropologist and their family. Or someone from the skeptical journalist pool. Either way it will make people think.
Anything that presents cryptozoology to the public as a family activity can’t be all bad.
Some more thoughts. Will this “help” the field?
Of course, I really don’t know. I guess it all depends on one’s definition of “help.” For one family, it might help them. And who knows what broader understandings or harm it could have? I don’t know.
I merely wanted to pass it along to anyone who wished to look into it, per two weeks = $20,000. Many people go onward in their lives, beyond these reality shows, to take advantage of the moments of fame to obtain remarkable kick-starts to what they really wish to do into their futures. Sort of pearls from…., well, you know what I mean.
One can make anything they wish of the possibilities presented to them.
Considering that when I got into this field in 1960, no one even used the word “cryptozoology,” I felt this ABC producer’s request, at least, spoke to the popular cultural impact cryptozoology has had.
lotsa black squirrels at Haverford college, Haverford, PA -in fact the mascot is the “black squirrel.”