'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Comedienne's Second TV Show Canceled This Year
TLC Renews 'The Little Couple,' Their Best "Little" Show
by Joel Keller, posted Feb 23rd 2010 3:02PM
A couple of weeks ago, I joked that Discovery Networks seems to have every little person in America under contract for a reality show. They do seem to be fascinated with the lives of people with dwarfism, aren't they?The company's various channels have explored primordial dwarfism, followed a little couple as they adopted an Eastern European baby with dwarfism, and followed a third little couple during the wife's pregnancy. They've also decided to build a series around a little couple who own a chocolate shop in Salt Lake City ('The Little Chocolatiers') and a little person who rescues pit bulls ('Pit Boss'). And the family who started TLC down this road, the Roloffs, are still cranking out episodes of 'Little People, Big World.'
Of all these shows, I've always liked 'The Little Couple' the best. I'm not sure if it's because it's so unrelentingly normal or that Bill Klein and Jen Arnold make such a charming couple. Either way, it's good to hear that TLC has renewed the show for a third season.
Of all the shows in Discovery's "little people" arsenal, this one seems to have the most respect for its participants. In a lot of the shows, at least one of the participants is edited into looking like the bumbling comic relief. In 'Little Chocolatiers,' Steve Hatch looks like he leaves his wife Katie to do all the work while he goes out to schmooze new clients. In 'Pit Boss,' Shorty's assistants, Ronald and Sebastian, take the boss' abuse on a daily basis. And anyone who's watched 'Little People, Big Wold' knows about the misadventures of Matt Roloff (though a lot of that image he may be earning without the help of creative editing).
But 'The Little Couple' is different. Many of the episodes contain extended segments that follow Arnold to the neonatal unit of Texas Children's hospital, where she takes care of premature babies and soothes their parents. They also devoted a number of segments to the simulation center she was in charge of getting off the ground.
On the couple front, the two of them seem so normal its ridiculous. Bill doesn't like shopping and wants to watch sports, but loves spending time with Jen. Jen's indecisive, not a great driver, and has some great powers of persuasion over her husband. Especially during the show's second season, we saw both of the stars' flaws and attributes, neither falling into the traps of "idiot husband" and "long-suffering wife."
Between this and the hospital scenes, it makes me wonder if the media-savvy couple struck some deals with the producers before they even filmed their first special for the network. I can see Arnold not agreeing to do the show unless the work she was doing at Texas Children's was heavily promoted, and I can see Bill not wanting to ruin his business by looking like a dope on national TV.
Now, being respectful of your participants doesn't necessarily translate into good TV. But somehow this show manages to be both classy and entertaining, something I can't really say about most of what's on TLC.
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