Do we even begin to suspect that this rehab stunt is the opening act of an actual tv reality show? Doug dreamed up Cut the Waist, could this be his next opus - Can the Booze (and Stuff)? Daily physicals with Ben, pep talks from Cherry, drug lectures from that Trailer Park Boy, weekly progress report with Jimmy.
I actually found myself thinking about this possibility last night. I know there's been plenty of speculation here about the Fords turning to reality tv should they suddenly get ejected from the political world...and should Slob and Thug manage to avoid prison, natch. But even if such a plan ever came to fruition, I just don't see it panning out for them.
When you get right down to it, the only truly unique thing about Ford is the way he's holding an entire city hostage to his own ambitions, and a large, metropolitan city at that; not some provincial backwater out in the American deep south. Everything else about him we've seen in plenty of other far right demagogues in both government and the media over the past 20 to 30 years. Mainly across the border, yes, although we're seeing plenty of our own prime scumbags at work in more recent years. (Mammo comes to mind, for one.) But every one of Ford's predecessors who tried to cash in and make it big on television crashed and burned. None of them were sufficiently mainstream enough to appeal to a wider audience beyond the John Bircher fringe element that already supported them.
Rush Limbaugh's various attempts at becoming a tv star were abject failures. When "Dr." Laura Schllesinger turned her venomous 'talent' to the television screen, she bombed immediately. Sarah Palin, who's probably closest to Ford in this regard - a former politician who snagged a reality show - ultimately failed because she was as dull as dishwater. Something that Ford shares with her in spades. He's a banal, uninteresting dullard. Like Limbaugh and Schllesinger, he has (to put it as diplomatically as possible) a face made for radio. He's a hoser. And his, er, "contributions" to the shared radio and Youtube enterpises with his brother are not exactly encouraging.
The fact that he still gets so much support from his relatively tiny pack of followers is entirely due to tribalism, not to any real wit or charisma on his part. He tells our local yokels what they want to hear, which is why they love him. That won't translate into a larger audience if/when he gravitates towards television. People will tune into the first couple of episodes out of curiosity, then promptly tune out once it becomes readily apparent how incredibly dull and boring Rofo and his hideous clan are.
