Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing on ABC-TV December 1st

[Zev Paiss (Zpaiss]

Dear Cohousing Friends,

First off please accept my apology if you end up receiving this email more
than once. 

As promised, I wanted to let you all know that our family's episode of Wife
Swap will be on the air on Wednesday, December 1, at 9:00 pm (Mountain Time)
on ABC.  We have spoken to a number of people at both RDF Media (the
production company) and ABC-TV and have heard from everyone that it is a
very positive and funny show.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me give you
some background. During this past Summer in both June and August we were
contacted by the producers of a then upcoming reality TV show called Wife
Swap.  They were looking for an ³Environmental Family² as part of their show
where one adult (typically the wife) swaps places with another family for a
week to experience life in a very different ³culture².

After learning that they would consider a ³Husband Swap² instead of the
typical wives switching places, we decided to go for it.  Mind you we spent
hours and hours talking with producers and upper level executives (in
London) where the show has been a national hit for the past three years,
trying to determine if we were going to get trashed or if they really wanted
to show our lifestyle (especially cohousing) in a balance and overall
positive light.  After telling them NO at least three times and they
continuing to give us various concessions, we finally agreed to do the show.
The filming happened September 2-12 and it was quite an experience.  Neshama
did great partly thanks to the support of our cohousing community.  I on the
other hand had my hands full being in an unfamiliar home and neighborhood (I
did stay in Colorado) and a houseful of teenage girls ages 12,13 and 16
along with their mom.

In the spirit of community, we would like to encourage all of you to gather
with a few friends to enjoy the show together. Also for those of you who
live in or near Boulder we will be having a ³director¹s cut² showing on
Sunday afternoon December 12 at the Nomad Theater adjacent to our cohousing
community, where we will stop the show occasionally to explain the
behind-the-scene action that didn¹t make it into the final show.  Remember
they took 20 days of footage and edited it down into a 45 minute show!
There will be a LOT missing from what is shown on December 1.

We just finished watching tonight's show and at the end they has a 5 second
"preview" of our show.  That means the publicity for our episode is
beginning in earnest and you can expect to start seeing it all over the
place.  Remember this is ABC and they have both the ability and the deep
pockets to really get the word out.  We have already begun to giving phone
interviews and expect we will be asked to appear on a number pre-show
interviews including some outside of Colorado.  We know they are hoping to
get us on national talk shows like Oprah, Good Morning America and the Today
Show but at this point we have not be told of anything scheduled.

Feel free to contact us if you have questions and please pass this email on
to anyone and everyone you feel might enjoy watching the show and seeing us
and our cohousing community on the tube. We have been told that the national
audience for this show is 10-12 million people so it will be some big
exposure for cohousing.

In service,

Zev Paiss