Perhaps there is hope for 'merica? When wearing a pink shirt in an airport can get you attacked by a homophobic, overweight inebriate, hope is selling at a premium. But then TLC channel was forced to cancel the white-trash schlock show, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" last Friday. Was the show a deserved flop? Hardly. In its fourth season, it had bigger audiences than baseball or the Republican National Convention. It garnered an audience of 2.2 million viewers for its first show, a premier that beats the last season premiere of critically acclaimed "Mad Men". Bad behavior on television has a fascination for vicarious participants; it is a type of voyeurism after all. When June Shannon, Honey Boo Boo's mother divorced her husband, 'Sugar Bear' Thompson, nobody batted an eyelid. 'Mama June' has four children, all by different fathers. Since when is divorce risque? When she married a former flame on parole from prison after serving ten years, the eyebrows started to arch. If the offense was moonshinning or marijuana growing or even a convenience store holdup it might have added some extra spice to the story lines that revolved around a sordid phenomenon of white-trash subculture: child beauty pageants. The Thompsons knew no shame and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
What caused the show's cancellation was too much reality. The final straw or hayseed for the show came when it was reported the new man around had served time for forcing himself on an eight-year-old girl described as a "relative of the family". That relative finally turned out to be Honey Boo Boo's older sister, known to aficionados as 'Chicadee'. This revelation was too low, even for reality TV. The show's producers made the usual disclaimers and statements of commitment to child welfare upon announcing the cancellation. Balderdash, because in TV like so much else in America, the bottom line is where it is. Is it too implausible that screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky envisioned a deranged TV host turned prophet being assassinated live on air to improve show ratings? (Network, 1976). Unfortunately, not.