Parental Control
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| Parental Control | |
|---|---|
| File:Parental control logo.jpg | |
| Starring | only contestants |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Michael Canter |
| Running time | approx. 0:22 (per episode) |
| Original release | |
| Network | MTV |
| Release | February 6, 2005 |
| Part of a series on |
| MTV |
|---|
 |
| Programs on MTV |
| MTV personalities |
| Censorship on MTV |
| MTV Generation |
| MTV News |
Parental Control is a television program produced by MTV.[1] The two directors, Brendon Carter[2] and Bruce Klassen,[3] have also created other MTV shows.
Plot
The version which aired February 2006 differs from its premiere in March 2005 on MTV's Spring Break 2005. A girl was to interview five boys, and after a set of about five questions for each person or an activity of some sort, the father would eliminate one of the contestants. This would go on until one contestant remained.
In the latest version, parents are unhappy with their child's current boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other, interview and select prospective partners who vie for the affections of their child. Afterwards, their child goes on a date with the two selections that each parent choose. They have to decide whether to keep their current relationship, or one of the new prospects.
During each date, the parents and the current partner watch and comment, often antagonistically, as the date unfolds on television. When the dates are finished, the child selects their new partner from amongst the competitors and current partner.
Ratings
Aside from the Spring Break 2005 premiere (which only had one episode), the show premiered in February 2006 as a spring 2006 replacement show without much hype or commercials. The show, much like other MTV dating shows (Next and Date My Mom), started off with few viewers and grew to a fair-rated show.[citation needed]
The first season ended airing new shows around June 2006.[citation needed] The only reason given was to make more room for new seasons of Made, Room Raiders, and Next, and start the new TV series Why Can't I Be You?.[citation needed]
The second season began in October 2006.[citation needed] In March 2007, a new series was filmed in UK.[citation needed]
The show continues to garner ratings and viewers on a nightly basis during its reruns and fill-ins.
Airing
A new season premiered Sunday, November 23, 2008.
Allegations of scripting
Because of things that tend to happen over and over from episode to episode, Parental Control viewers have repeatedly claimed that episodes are scripted.[citation needed] Some of these acts include:
- There are numerous insults from the parents and their child's partner, which would normally not be taken so lightly. The beginning also showcases the child's significant other doing the various negative acts the parents claim they do in a obviously staged area (but this may be for creative purposes).
- During the interviewing, there tends to be one or two people who give answers and act in ways people trying out for a dating show would normally not act.
- Over-dramatic reactions to the simplest things, such as a person being rejected by a person they went out with once, then bursting into tears.
- Similarities in the personalities and insults coming from the dates and the parents from episode to episode.
- Several people who have been on the show have stated that it is scripted.[citation needed]
- Participants often speak as if reading from a cue card.
- The Plasma TV that the parents and the child are watching the date on are exactly the same type of TV in every episode.
- Several viewers claim that the same people appear in more than one episode.
- One person "VJ" was on America's Most Smartest Model
- Almost every room has a chair which the father sits on and a couch where the mother and current boyfriend sit next to each other. The father and boyfriend never sit next to each other and the mother is always in between them.
- At the end, when the child is picking the new boyfriend, they always pick one of the new guys first and then choose between a new boyfriend or the current boyfriend.
- When picking the new boyfriend, the child waits for exactly 5 seconds before he or she says whom they chose.[citation needed]