Reality Television News!
Oil the most popular subject on the Internet and TV?
Planet Green is hosting a new reality television show themed documentary about the real cost of oil, not at the pumps but what communities that produce oil have to pay out in quality of life to reap the benefits selling oil brings. The eco friendly channel revealed the following details about their new reality TV show names BOOMTOWN slated to air Saturday nights (starting January 29). The eco-friendly show promises to expose the ugly underbelly of the oil baron land holders and the new reality TV celebrities, in that the residents who get rich quick from the discovery of oil struggle with their own leviathan of sacrificing community for the sake of money. In the wake of the BP Gulf Oil Spill and the very real fact that the most researched phrases on the World Wide Web in 2010 were all related to oil spill news (even surpassing searches for Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and other celebrity figures like Twilight’s Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner), the show promises to reveal far more interesting cultural events that Kate Gosselin appearing on Sarah Palin’s Alaska [run by their cable network competition on TLC].
BOOMTOWN is an unconventional case study of how the domestic oil and gas industries are exploring every option here on U.S. soil — but at what cost? In an illustration of what’s happening in small towns across America, practically overnight, many of Parshall’s residents and landowners are transfromed from ordinary folks into millionaires. But not everyone gets rich quick, and not everyone thinks this new development will end well for the residents of the town.
In the first episode of BOOMTOWN, viewers are introduced to Parshall’s mayor and only grocery store owner, Richard, who has struggled for years to keep his store afloat to support his family. He’s leased his land to an oil company and it looks like he may become one of the lucky ones. However, for every new millionaire, there’s someone who won’t benefit at all from the oil boom. Town rancher Donny has wells being drilled all over his property, but he owns only the surface rights to his land, which means he gets the inconvenience, but not the money from the oil. To others, the oil only means more traffic, noise and pollution.
Planet Green says the new TV show BOOMTOWN is, “Set against the stark North Dakota landscape, which, until the discovery of oil, saw the town of Parshall practically vanish off the map.”
The site claims the reality television inspired program is historically significant due to the current cultural and political climate. The shows reps say, “With mounting pressure for the United States to find alternative energy sources, BOOMTOWN chronicles the events in Parshall as they unfold over the course of a year, providing viewers with unprecedented access to one of the biggest stories of our time.”