Dec 16, 2007

Wife Swap Questions Answered. (the TV show, get yer mind outta the gutter!)

I have gotten several questions about my experiences on the TV show Wife Swap.
So here goes...

How did you happen to end up on the TV show Wife Swap?
Well, they actually e-mailed me. The first time I ignored em. The second time I ignored em. Then they followed me to a forum I regularly post on (HomesteadingToday.com) looking for someone to do the show. I decided I'd answer em to see if they were legit.
I sent them an e-mail, they called me.. three weeks later we were filming.

Is that show "real" or do you follow a script?
We did not follow a script, but if you are not very bull-headed and stubborn (which I AM) they can and will try to manipulate every situation to make the "story-line" more entertaining/extreme. They write their own list of "rules" for you to implement for your side of the swap. I changed every single one of em! I thought mine were better anyway.

Your husband didn't seem too happy to be on the show. How did you convince him to do it?
I simply said one sentence...... "Honey.. how would you like to make $20,000 in 2 weeks time?"
Nah... he wasn't too thrilled with the idea in the beginning. The Man-of-My-Dreams is a man of few words and likes his privacy, But after going over what $20,000 could do round here and thinking about how cool of a story the kids would have to tell... I mean how many kids can go to school and say they are TV stars? It was a once in a lifetime experience. And hey.. the thought of an adventure was really cool too!

Was the other family really that spoiled and clueless about the real world?
Well.... yes. They live a totally different lifestyle than we do. I mean I have never even dreamt of owning a $300 pair of jeans. These girls had over a dozen of em! The mom was shocked to see a yellow school bus pick up my kids... she had no idea they really existed cept on TV. The Lovazannos are a very nice family. They treated me with respect (I know the girls seemed like spoiled brats) we all got along great! My family fell in love with Tina. She was wonderful with my boys and she and Charles got along too. But, how many people would have actually watched a whole hour on TV without changing the channel if all they showed was everyone getting along and liking each other? nope, not many.
They live in a totally different world than we do. I'm not saying either was "wrong" but they were like night & day.

Where did you go for the swap?
I went to Redwood City California, just outside of San Fransisco. I stayed in a absolutely BEAUTIFUL house. got to drive one of their two Ferrari's, it was amazingly beautiful, even their dirt was clean!

Is your family still in contact with the other family?
We were for awhile. Tina even wanted to arrange for the boys to go out and visit with them. But life happens and we no longer contact each other. No drama.. Its kind of like when you meet the woman in the bed next to you in the hospital when you give birth... You talk and are gonna be best friends forever and your kids will one day marry etc.... It just doesn't happen. You get busy and you end up never talking.

Would you do it again?
Well.... I would. But my family say they would not. They did not have a good experience with the crew on their end of the swap. I had a blast! I loved my crew. I loved the family. I loved the adventure off of the farm. But was also very ready to come back home.
But I don't think I could ever go 10 days again with no contact what so ever with my family. That was very very hard.

Did you have to sleep with Bruce? (the other hubby).
Good grief back in the gutter again.. ABC is a family channel! No... one of the requirements to be on the show is the Mom needs to have her own room with a lock on the door. I had a beautiful suite and loved every minute of it.

And the number one question I have gotten. (34 e-mails as a matter of fact)..

Why didn't you kill Stew???
(a little background for those who didn't see the show. When I changed the house rules for the other family, one of the things I did was tell them that they were gonna learn where their food came from. I introduced them to "Stew" , I think my dramatic line was something like.... Meet Stew *holding up a cute meat rabbit* He may be your friend today.... But He'll be a feast on Friday night. **gasp, tears, begging, sobbing,**)
I didn't kill Stew because I am NOT that mean. Even here on the farm, our kids are prepared for it. It would have been a very traumatic event if I would have lopped off the cute bunny head in front of those girls. And it did bring up lots of discussions about food / meat that's what I really wanted. I wanted to teach them... not scar them. Now.... Bruce? I would have loved to do it in front of Bruce.... It would have been kinda funny to see him pass out. (Bruce was my hubby for that week) Nah.. I like Bruce. but it still would have been fun.


Another thing to keep in mind when you watch these "reality" shows. They filmed for 144 HOURS then edited it down to 42 MINUTES!! that's a LOT of editing and lots & LOTS of film on the cutting room floor. Things can very easily look different than they really were after editing.


You can read the ABC press release by
clicking ----->> here.

The ABC web page that has our interviews, pictures & manuals can be found here http://a.abc.com/primetime/wifeswap/episode/306/gallery_clover.html?photo=1

Oh... and just in case your looking for our episode online.....
Do not... I repeat DO NOT type "Wife Swap" into your Google search bar, I had to go wash my eyes out... you would not believe what wife swapping really is!! Oh My!! Be sure to ad TV show or ABC or something.
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8 amazing comments. Talk To Me!!:

Debra said...

My neighbors were on Trading Spouses and the experience was awful for our family. The production staff parked an enormous RV in our cul-de-sac and the generator ran day and night. My kids couldn't play outside for a month(that is about how long the whole process took), because there were all kinds of strangers walking by our house. I don't think that people consider how being on one of these shows is going to affect their neighbors, when they decide to do it.

I do hope that your experience was a positive one.

Dana Clover said...

wow a month? the crew here was here for ten days and they stayed in a hotel in town left by dark each night. and we had plenty of room for an RV if they wanted to do it.

thank goodness ours was better than that.

Anonymous said...

why did your family have a bad experience with the crew? were they rude to them?

Dana Clover said...

well... not really rude.
and it wasn't everyone on the crew, but some of them.

They didn't follow through with several things they promised (feeding animals when the boys were "off" etc..)
The director and Charles butted heads from Day one.

It just wasn't pretty.

Anonymous said...

why'd they butt heads? i imagine a director being a fancy hollywood type jerk

Anonymous said...

My family did the casting stuff for this show and it was a very fun and exciting time. I was two weeks away from flying out to film and they dropped us. The family they matched us with was not right for us and we never heard from them again. We also were doing it because the money would have helped us a lot and the experience is a once in a life time opportunity (even if it could be a bad experience).

I saw your episode and I thought the "stew" moment was very funny. It amazes me when people do not know where their food comes from. I have a son who loves animals but even he knows that those chicken nuggets he is eating come from the same thing as the sweet golden hens we have living in our barn!

Dana Clover said...

Amanda....
Don't feel bad!
They had Tina's family ( the other mom in our swap) all ready to shoot and dropped it because of the other family too...
9 months later they found us and she was off to Texas!

Karen and Gerard said...

Wife Swap is one of the few shows both my husband and I enjoy watching because it is usually so funny. Thanks for all the insights into how the show actually works. I would never have guessed the show tells you what rules to make. Here I just thought some of these women were plain mean when it was probably the show telling them to do those type of rule changes.

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