“Jersey Shore” was a labour of love
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Jef in Pop Culture, Television
A "Jersey Shore" cameraman, loving the show before it's a show
It’s the week after the Jersey Shore finale and are you back-lashing yet? Hard to believe this show was ever the phenomenon it was, but before you write it off as some randomly serendipitous mix of trash, race-baiting, and the public’s anthropological curiosity aimed at strange douchebag subcultures and general appetite for all things ironic, take into account: Jersey Shore was soaked in sincerity.
Not only were the show’s stars — minus maybe the Situation — actually pretty fucking normal once you got past the fist-pumps and HAIR, executive producer (and, natch, writer) Sally Ann Salsano was herself a Long Island-Italian kid who grew up visiting The Shore. In a recent interview with Realscreen, Salsana says she was shocked by both the show’s massive success and the ensuing controversy within the Italian community. “It’s almost like when people were offended, I was offended, because I was like, ‘Wait a minute, are you guys telling me how I was raised and grew up was wrong?’” she says.
Normally I wouldn’t buy a reality show mogul insisting their product is “always really honest” and “play[s] everything completely straight,” but I have to admit, Jersey Shore always seemed to be on the side of its characters. Unlike other programs that laugh at, not with, more attention on Shore was paid to the bonds being made between housemates, and in any conflicts it made clear the stupidity of those who picked the fights against them.
But it wasn’t just Salsano; the entire crew came to know and care for Snook et al. –
Shooting the series, Salsano had a feeling the show would be big when the crew would arrive to shoot the next morning wanting to know what happened with the cast while they were gone. “I would get texts from my shooters asking, ‘Did Snooki do it? What happened? Are they still fighting?’ When everybody who works on the show can’t get enough of it, it’s generally a pretty good sign,” she says.
– and I think that regard shows in Jersey Shore‘s construction.
Here are some behind-scenes photos of the crew taken by JWoww (as found on her Facebook page) that showcases their Shore solidarity:
Jersey Shore, in the end, was something different: a sympathetic reality show where yes the characters were ridiculous but also in on the joke, but yet entirely sincere, but also baiting you. Shore was that person in your crew of friends that you always laugh at and are sometimes embarrassed of; and they know it and play to it. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that person is probably you.) But, as with the show’s creators, it was all love. And I’ll take that over most other reality shows any day.
rehana
Jan 26th, 2010
LOL. The crew look like they could have a show of their own.
Simon
Jan 26th, 2010
In a concerted effort for Political Correctness, I feel every ethnic stereotype deserves their own reality show now. I would totally watch the drama unfold during “Markham Mountain,” as Chinese immigrants fight over who got the higher test mark in calculus or who haggled for the best bang-for-buck cellphone plan.