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Bobby and Whitney jump on the reality TV bandwagon
Ozzy Osbourne. Anna Nicole Smith. Lisa and Brittny Gastineau. Nick and Jessica. Britney and Kevin. Paris and Nicole. Robbie Knievel. Even Farah Fawcett.
And now, Atlanta's own Bobby Brown-perhaps better known as "Mr. Whitney Houston."
"Being Bobby Brown"-the newest reality show to hit the airwaves-premiered last Thursday on the Bravo channel. The 10 p.m. show was the highest-rated series debut on the channel since late 2003 and the best Thursday premiere in Bravo's 25-year history according to Zap2it.com, a television industry site. The show overcame brutally negative reviews to attract an average audience of 1.1 million people the vast majority of whom were in the 18-49 age demographic coveted by advertisers.
The show follows Brown, his pop superstar wife Whitney Houston and his extended family over a six-month period as they "put their lives back together," according to Bravo publicity material. The series will also "demystify Brown's relationships with Houston; their daughter, Bobbi Kristina; his children from previous relationships, La Princia and Bobby, Jr. and his brother Tommy, Bobby's personal manager."
Whew. That's a lot of 'splainin', Lucy.
Brown has publicly stated that he wanted to do the series to "show the real me, that I'm not like what the media portrays."
Observers say Brown was likely swayed into doing the series by the success of "The Osbournes" or "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica," but reviewers are more readily comparing "Being Bobby Brown" to UPN's low-rated "Britney and Kevin: Chaotic." Critics have blasted both shows for being as dull as your neighbor's home videos.
The truth is that both Brown and Houston are undeniably talented performers-with Houston already considered a legend by many-but any success has been overshadowed by the pair's 15-year troubled and tempestuous relationship, which has landed Atlanta's infamous first couple in the tabloids time after time. Most notably, Brown was arrested last year for hitting Houston. Just a few months later she stood by his side in court, helping him get out on bond.
All of this promised to make TV's most outrageous reality series to date-"The Osbournes"-look like an old episode of "I Love Lucy." But Bobby and Whitney apparently aren't out for ratings. This is all about image rehabilitation. And that means lots and lots of happy footage: Bobby and Whitney dancing in a hotel lobby; Bobby and Whitney sneaking off to be alone; Bobby and Whitney getting a side-by-side massage. Not a whiff of the drama we've come to know and expect from Atlanta's most notorious couple.
"For me it's just what's going on in that moment in my life," Brown says in the series. "You might see me sitting all day in the house. For me, it's me. For other people, for some reason, they see the show and they're laughing, and I'm like, 'Why you laughing at me?' To them, I'm funny."
Helping her out with ...omigod!
Whether fans are laughing with Brown or at him may still be debatable.
Internet chatter about the show has been mostly positive, but public reviews and press have been just as negative.
In fact, "Being Bobby" may just be the "Seinfeld" of the reality genre: a show about nothing. Bobby gets out of jail, Bobby visits his kids in Boston, Bobby waits at an Atlanta hotel for a much-hyped reunion with his wife.
Despite this, fans are quick to defend the first two episodes.
At Atlanta's Club Vision nightclub-popular among "Being Bobby Brown"'s targeted audience of 18 to 34 year olds-almost everyone questioned for this article had seen the series.
"It was hilarious," one woman gushed. "We love Bobby and Whitney!"
"Aren't they so sweet together?" her friend asked. "He does everything for her."
Despite all of the happy-and often boring-footage, halfway through the first episode, most people watching seemed to be thinking the same thing: Is she or isn't she?
You see Whitney in sunglasses. You see Whitney withdrawn and moody. You see Whitney rail thin and snapping at fans. Again. And again. "God, I just want to be a real person!" she wails to the skies with outstretched arms after one woman dares to ask for a photo.
And it isn't just Whitney dodging the drug barbs thrown by viewers. Online postings on Web sites like Bravo's and MTV's have been inundated with comments similar to those of Atlanta's Ryan English, currently stationed in Baghdad but following the entertainment news back home. "I think you can sum [the show] up in, like, eight words: 'I will be able to buy more crizack.'"
What is certain is that the Browns and their production company-B2 Entertainment-began shooting six months' worth of material last year, winding up just before Whitney's month-long, court-ordered rehab session in April, 2005.
Regardless of how Houston comes across, Brown is undeniably congenial and loving. He indulges his wife-cooking for her, even providing way too much information about how he "helps her out when she's constipated."
Also crystal clear is what Brown wants to get out of the series: a resurrection of his late-80's musical popularity. In this regard, Executive Producer Tracey Baker-Simmons promises "many, many musical moments by Bobby," in upcoming episodes. Brown is to sing "old favorites" in a camping episode, and will sing new material while sitting at the piano in the episode after that one, according to Baker-Simmons.
His prerogative
One of the brightest R&B stars of the 1980s and early 1990s, Brown has been credited with creating and popularizing a musical genre called "new jack swing," an infectious blend of classic soul, new funk and maturing hip-hop beats that often showcased rap breaks between more radio-friendly hooks and choruses.
A founding member of New Edition, Brown left the group in 1986 for a solo career. Brown's second solo album, "Don't Be Cruel," released in 1988, landed him on the outer edge of modern R&B and spawned the No. 1 hit "My Prerogative," the song for which he is still best known, as well as the ballad "Roni," and the track that garnered him a Grammy in 1989 for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Male, "Every Little Step."
While he may have faded out of the music scene, Brown is still well known to Atlanta law enforcement. He's been arrested for drunk driving, spousal abuse and failure to appear in traffic court. He's been jailed in DeKalb County and in Massachusetts, where he was ordered to pay almost $65,000 in back child support. His seemingly nonchalant attitude toward the law may be rubbing off on his wife, who nailed a MARTA bus in Alpharetta with her Porsche earlier this year and promptly left the scene of the crime.
"Look, I'm just an entertainer, trying to get back in," Brown has told Atlanta reporters. And that part remains believable.
An associate who used to frequent Atlanta's nightclubs with Brown tells SP that
not only does Brown have an album in the works, "he already has two or three banked, and is just waiting on the publicity from the show to drop them."
The former club pal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says Brown has sincerely cleaned up his act this time.
"No one around here has really seen him for like two years. Used to be you'd see him almost every night at Holyfield's or Taboo or 112 or Atlanta Live," he says. "Not no more."
Rico Wade, a well-known Atlanta musician who normally makes up part of Organized Noize, wrote the TV series' theme song for Brown.
"I have nothing but respect for Bobby's talent," Wade says. "I've seen him working hard in the studio here, in Connecticut and in L.A. He deserves this."
Perhaps the excitement of the series is already having some impact on the couple since, as it turns out, Bobby isn't the only one clocking studio time. Houston is currently recording a new album with the legendary Clive Davis, former head of now-defunct Arista, on Davis' five-year-old and inarguably successful label, J Records. But while Houston's CD will surely sell well, at least among her most loyal fans, such an undertaking is a much larger gamble for Brown after his 15-year absence from the notoriously fickle R&B and hip-hop scene.
"Although there are never any guarantees," Baker-Simmons admits, "This series will give people a perspective on Bobby they haven't had before and they won't see him as the monster holding Whitney hostage."
The series will prominently feature a new single by Brown, "They Don't Know Me," according to Baker-Simmons. "Call it part two of 'My Prerogative,'" she says. And, in the series' seventh of 10 episodes, reggae fans will be treated to seeing Brown in Miami recording a hook for a Stephen Marley song to be released on the artist's album later this year.
But is a chance to take another bite at the music apple really worth the scrutiny and ridicule?
"I've said all along that doing the show was my prerogative," Brown has said. "Watching it is yours."
thesundaypaper.com Thanks Sam
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