Live for the Moment
Safety Rating: Very safe
Friendly Rating: All but the smallest members of your family should find something to enjoy
Quality Rating: Good, not great.
On CBS at 8 p.m.
From Mark Burnett, king of reality TV, and his protege Jeff Probst (of Survivor fame), comes this “feel good” special that actually feels more like it was intended as a series. In fact, the screener is labeled “Pilot Episode,” but the CBS press site shows it as a special.
The show first looks at Roger Childs, a nice guy with a wife and two boys, who has been diagnosed with ALS – a deadly disease that progressively atrophies your muscles. Since his diagnosis, Childs has been living his life to the fullest, with passion and enjoying everything he can.
So Probst pops up and sends Roger and his family on a series of adventures based on Childs’ passions, including watching a space shuttle launch in the company of Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, heli-skiing with an old college buddy and riding in a jet plane. In fact, that segment was shot in my old neck of Southern California, and the local mountains were snow-capped in the show, which they weren’t in real time until a few weeks ago – so I’m really wondering how long ago they shot this thing.
The whole thing is aimed playing tug-o-war with your heart strings, but Probst is about as subtle as a certain show for pre-schoolers I reviewed the other day. There are some lovely life lessons and touching moments, and some serious meat for conversations with your kids.
But there’s also this awkward sense of excess – along the lines of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which left me feeling just a bit off. Like the heli-skiing adventure and then going on a flight in a Navy helicopter.
I think the good far outweighs the bad. Childs is honored for his resilience and courage facing his limited prognosis, but as he points out, it’s the making pancakes with your kids that really counts. Nor is he given a lot of “stuff.” The boys come out of the experience with college scholarships and other friends have put together a foundation to help with ALS research. But that’s about it on the financial side.
Methinks this was probably a pilot that didn’t get picked up and if it gets enough viewers, it’ll end up being made into a series or possibly a series of specials. Probst, in the press release, suggests that future episodes are a possibility. It might be okay, but right now, it’s iffy.
Anne Louise Bannon
Your Family Viewer
