An American Family

Is the Loud family television series (An American Family) history repeating itself with the Gosselins? We have seen much drama and discord between Jon and Kate on the couch confessionals that some may take as tell-tale signs of a stressful marriage going even further downhill. How much farther will this go, in front of TLC's largest viewing audience? What is the real draw with this show? Is it the cute little children that we seem to see less and less of every week, to make room for their parent's dysfunction, or is it Jon and Kate's behavior toward each other that is becoming, at times, more of a train wreck to watch every week? A train wreck that draws in viewers and sells advertising time?

Some weeks what I see on the show seems to be better than others, some weeks Kate seems so stressed and out of alert reality that I really wonder what may be going on with her. Are we going to see an ever-diminishing relationship between Jon and Kate, week after week? What will we see when Jon and Kate renew vows in Hawaii? Do these two we see on the show lately seem like a couple that are close and loving enough to think about renewing vows, or are we being fed a Figure 8 scripted hook, line, and sinker, once again? Anything to get a trip to Hawaii, as Kate spoke about wanting to do while being filmed in Utah. Will we see things go so far that something like what was filmed with the Loud family happens on television with the Gosselins, or would cameras be shut off before getting this far, if things were to go this way for Jon & Kate?

Loud family excerpt from Wikipedia here:

Most notable was when Pat Loud asked her husband for a divorce and to leave the house on camera. Pat famously saying to her husband "you know there's a problem" and Bill Loud responding "What's your problem?". The moment was later chosen as one of the Top 100 Television Moments by TV Guide.

I hope for the best for this family. It looks to me like the best for this family right now may be some help and harmony to get back to how they felt about each other in the early days of filming, or before filming. If you tell me that what I see on television is only a small portion of their lives, and I don't know what goes on when cameras are off, then I want to know why we are shown such awful interaction between these two. Interaction that seems to create much speculation as to where their marriage is heading. Am I going to be told that it's all scripted and Jon and Kate really don't harbor disrespect and disdain for each other? Perhaps the best thing for the children right now is to hope and pray that their parents can get back to the basics of their relationship, those things that brought them together in the first place, with love and respect for each other, back in the days before fame and shame.

Sunny Day

TLC is airing a new Jon & Kate Plus 8 episode tomorrow night (Monday July 28th) -- a 30-minute feature starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern titled Sunny Day:

In this episode of Jon & Kate, the Gosselins family makes a visit to Sesame Street! There they meet Big Bird and Elmo and get to tour the set of Elmo's World where Elmo plays with them and gives them lots of hugs and kisses..

Comment of the Week

Here are the nominations, submitted by readers, for the 07/27/08 Comment of the Week. The comment of the week is featured in a link on the sidebar of our home page.

SmartyQ: "If you're going to combine the Gosselin's first names, I think 'Kon' is better than 'Jate'."

Manda: "She kind of looks like your local Mall Santa Claus when his shift is about to be over waiting for the last few brats to sit on his lap so he can go hit his cigarettes and whiskey flask."

Maggie: "This is confusing. The sign says STOP! Who am I not to obey a sign? So to read my further instructions I am told Not to stop (in fine print). But they told me to stop.

I can't wave? Was I supposed to? I can't talk? Isn't that part of the rights that the founding fathers of this country gave me?

What is this, a crime scene? Ok, never mind."