Reality TV's Burnett Releases: Sarah Palin's Alaska Hits the Big Screen

Here's a recap of Sarah Palin's Alaska by Kim Fuller:

Special screenings were held in eight cities across the country last night and tonight for a preview of the Mark Burnett Productions TLC docuseries Sarah Palin's Alaska. I was able to attend the Tulsa, Okla. screening with some friends.

Most of the attendees of the filled Cinemark theatre on November 10, checked in with their computer generated RSVP ticket came about an hour or hour and a half early for the screening. They were groups of women in their 40's and 50's and many husband and wife couples, which was kind of surprise, but then after I watched the show, I found that the show is reminiscent of the 1960's Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom show, where the whole family would sit around the crinkly static filled black and white television on Sunday night to see the wilds of the world. The Palins and their fishing guide end up being too close to two Mama brown bears duking it out at a fishing "hole" Which caused Todd to have to pull anchor to get their boat out of potential harms way. You feel apart of the setting, and scrunch down in your seat cause you want to get away from those bears.

The show produced by reality television's, Mark Burnett, has put the technical aspects of Survivor together with the fascination of Amazing Race and the "you're fired" aspect of the Apprentice on the drawing board for this show.
They are calling this show a "docu-series." Eight weeks of one hour long Sunday night presentations on Discovery Channel's TLC. The show is captivating and takes capturing the dynamics of the wild of Alaska in what seems to be a no-expense spared production. The landscape is spectacular and the family who takes you out to see Alaska just happens to be Sarah Palin, the 2008 Vice presidential candidate and her family (husband Todd, son Track and Trig, daughters Bristol, Willow, Piper and a few grandchildren, nieces, nephews and other family members spattered in.)

Without a few references to "I can see Russia" from the top of a peak in Denali National Park and a reference to the book author who moved in next door to her in Wasilla, there was little about politics and everything about the reverence and beauty of the Final Frontier, our 49th State, Alaska. I think that the people who end up watching this show are going to a much broader universe than those supporters of a particular political part.

The Palin's call upon a Bush Plane that picks them up on the lake outside their home, like a New Yorker would hail a cab in the middle of Manhattan. Getting around the majestic state of Alaska is done with alot of planning and with watching the weather for frequent changes. There are parts of the show that you cover your face, as the rock climbing Palins get encouragement from their Denali Mountain Climbing Guide. They have to straddle a 3 foot crevass (they pronounce crev-ass, with the accent on the second syllable) which you learn in the climb that you are tied to the other climbers because one slip into a crevass could be your final resting place--100's of feet below.

The beauty, this is going to sound trite, is magnificent. There are national parks the size of some of the smaller states in the lower Fourty-eight, which seems to be the euphamism for what we just call America. The sheer landscape of the show is worth the television program, no matter if you like the politics or the personality of the woman who stars in it. As I looked at the attendees, I think that there is going to be a boost in cruise ship trips to Alaska next summer. Half of the audience is surely going to be on one of those ships.
I can't imagine this being a one-time, 8-week docuseries. The subjects are engaging and entertaining and introduce you to a world that you might never see on your own. But with one week installment, you can enjoy the in the confines of your own home.

A few tidbits that seemed to be the highlight for many of the attendees at the special screening was the laughter every time 9 year old Piper opens her mouth. She is a quick thinker, and pretty much says it like it is and is entertaining but respectful.

The father of Sarah Palin, Chuck Heather, retired Science teacher has a nice presence of putting things about Alaska into perspective and has some regrets it seems that he never climbed Mt. McKinley when he was younger, because it seems to be a test of who is a true "Alaskan."

One aspect that I wish that Burnett didn't give any attention in the show is the focus on the author Joe McGinnis who moved in right next door to the Palin home. His continued prying by constantly sitting on the deck of his home to pry on the activities of the Palin's causes Todd and his buddies to build a 14 foot fence to shield the family from his prying eyes. But what was so surprising is that the author had an American flag hanging from the porch wrong. Field of blue (canton) is always on the left in a vertical setting and I hope that what we saw was the reverse of the film during the editing process and not the a disrespectful hanging of our nation's flag.