Seems like only yesterday that they were announcing the new hamsters, and now it's down to the home stretch. And the way things
are going, I have every confidence (or should I say every pessimism) that they'll be back with another lineup of suckers next July.
But next July won't be just any July. It will be the tenth anniversary of when this whole shebang made its way onto the American airwaves, side by side with "Survivor" and the infamous Kelli-Sue saga. And it was that year, 2000, that the Infidel In The Temple came into being.
When I first learned that this whole concept existed, I was horrified and felt the need to write a play in protest of it. This was back when I was still in my 30s and thinking I might gain some fame as a playwright. I was in graduate school at the time, at ABD level--"all but dissertation"--and feeling as if I had forever and a day to do the dissertation. I watched some episodes to research the play "Jocelyn," and I also looked in on some message boards, also part of the research. Even there, I wasn't initially planning to post and be a community member, but issues came up and, in my brashness, I felt the need to set everybody straight, and so Infidel In The Temple was born, cribbing a phrase that was previously only known as the title of journalist Matthew Josephson's memoir of the 1930s. I was, of course, much less civil and civilized than I would later learn to be.
Since then, I've finished the dissertation, figured out that I'm not going to be a world famous playwright, acknowledged that "Jocelyn" isn't one of my better plays, and developed a sense of humor about "Big Brother." But I do continue to find it astonishing that it's still drawing an audience. I haven't watched an episode in ages, but the talk on the boards sounds like the same thing year after year with only the names changed, and it surprises me that wondering who's going to get booted, who's going to get power of veto, and who's going to win still holds people's interest.
But you guys, my RTVFR friends, you all rock.
But next July won't be just any July. It will be the tenth anniversary of when this whole shebang made its way onto the American airwaves, side by side with "Survivor" and the infamous Kelli-Sue saga. And it was that year, 2000, that the Infidel In The Temple came into being.
When I first learned that this whole concept existed, I was horrified and felt the need to write a play in protest of it. This was back when I was still in my 30s and thinking I might gain some fame as a playwright. I was in graduate school at the time, at ABD level--"all but dissertation"--and feeling as if I had forever and a day to do the dissertation. I watched some episodes to research the play "Jocelyn," and I also looked in on some message boards, also part of the research. Even there, I wasn't initially planning to post and be a community member, but issues came up and, in my brashness, I felt the need to set everybody straight, and so Infidel In The Temple was born, cribbing a phrase that was previously only known as the title of journalist Matthew Josephson's memoir of the 1930s. I was, of course, much less civil and civilized than I would later learn to be.
Since then, I've finished the dissertation, figured out that I'm not going to be a world famous playwright, acknowledged that "Jocelyn" isn't one of my better plays, and developed a sense of humor about "Big Brother." But I do continue to find it astonishing that it's still drawing an audience. I haven't watched an episode in ages, but the talk on the boards sounds like the same thing year after year with only the names changed, and it surprises me that wondering who's going to get booted, who's going to get power of veto, and who's going to win still holds people's interest.
But you guys, my RTVFR friends, you all rock.
