Because Sarah Palin is an executive producer of her new TLC reality show, 'Sarah Palin's Alaska,' viewers had to know going in that she was going to have editorial control of what we saw of her home and family life. What did that mean? No salaciousness, no controversies, and likely no sight of Levi Johnston.

No, what we were going to mostly see were cute vignettes of life in the Palin household interspersed with the former governor and her family "discovering" the natural wonders of their home state, complete with sweeping vistas and shots of the Palins saying "wow" a lot.

That's pretty much what we got with last night's premiere episode of the show, which runs for 8 weeks. The problem is that the show really is neither fish nor fowl, pun intended: it's a boring reality show that's not spectacular enough as a nature show to make up the difference.

If you've ever looked at the descriptions of TLC's reality show episodes on your on-screen guide, you've likely noticed that most of them are pretty mundane. "Jen searches websites for a playmate for her dog while Bill does chores around rhe house" was the description for a recent episode of 'The Little Couple,' for instance.

Mundane situations for these shows are fine, because the curiosity is in how the show's subjects live their everyday lives: how does the Cake Boss manage to build a football stadium cake, how do the Sister Wives deal with a birthday party, how does Kate deal with bringing her kids to the zoo while wearing a halter top, and so on.

But we know too much about the Palins, as it were. There's the Bristol / Levi saga and the constant stories that Todd and Sarah aren't the happy couple they project to be, not to mention the general divisiveness the former vice presidential candidate generates. We don't care to see them make dinner or see Todd and Sarah shoot a segment for 'The O'Reilly Factor' or do the same mundane things their fellow TLC schedule-mates do.

Sure, it's cute to see nine year-old Piper get her mother's attention by calling her "Sarah," and you let out a knowing chuckle when Sarah bans 16 year-old Willow's guy friend from going up to her room (a rule they may not have had with Levi and Bristol). And it's not like viewers are looking for 'Real Housewives'-level conflict. But a little more honesty and reality about what's really going on in the Palins' lives would make for a more interesting show.

The episode does delve into a little bit of the hubbub that constantly swirls around the Palins, in the blurred-out and unnamed presence of Joe McGinniss. He's the writer who, while working on a book about the Palins, decided to rent the house next to them for the summer. Sarah and the family point to his presence out on his balcony more than once, where we see McGinniss out on his deck, reading the same paper on two different occasions. A little bit of creative editing? Perhaps. But I'd probably be a little concerned about his presence, too, if I thought he was writing a "hit piece" about my family, as Sarah puts it.

So, 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' isn't going to be salacious. That would be fine if the nature part was more interesting. With Mark Burnett of 'Survivor' fame as Palin's fellow executive producer, you expect that the visuals are going to be better than your average reality show, and they are.

But if a viewer wants to get lingering hi-def shots of the Alaskan wilderness, and examine what happens when a mama brown bear defends her cubs, they can watch any number of specials on PBS, Discovery, or Nat Geo. Watching the suspiciously coiffed and made-up Sarah Palin reacting to the bear fight, or making sure she doesn't fall down a crevasse in a glacier might be interesting in episode one, but will probably get old by episode eight.

Perhaps the action will ratchet up a bit as we go along. Next week's episode promises a scene where Bristol asks her mother to take her "prom hair" and go away. But because Palin's in the driver's seat for this show, it'll probably be what the first episode was: inoffensive and mildly entertaining. That's fine if they were little people making chocolate, but not so fine for the Palins.

What did you think of the premiere of 'Sarah Palin's Alaska?'

'Sara Palin's Alaska' airs Sundays at 9PM ET on TLC.

(Follow @joelkeller on Twitter.)