Thursday Movie Picks #307: TV edition: Reality Competition shows

This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This being the last Thursday of the month, it's time for another TV edition, with the theme this time being reality [sic] competition shows. I'm not a fan of so-called reality TV, which is just as staged as scripted fiction TV. But after a bit of thought, I was able to come up with three shows that I figure nobody else is going to pick:



Queen for a Day (1956-1964). Housewives tell their sob stories about why they should be pampered and treated like a queen for a day. Yeah, it's that shamelessly manipulative.



Can't Cook, Won't Cook (1995-2000). Two self-acknowledged lousy cooks were nominated by friends or relatives to be on this cooking show where all they had to do was follow the professional chef's instructions and make a tasty meal, with the winner of a blind taste test winning a prize package of cooking equipment. Of course, the chef goes so fast that it would be difficult for anybody to keep up, but the real message of the show is that while none of us are going to be as good as the professional chefs, it's a lot less difficult to make a good meal than you might think. I saw this one on BBC America back in the early 2000s when the channel actually still ran stuff from the BBC.



Who Wants to Be Governor of California? (2003). California Governor Gray Davis was subject to a recall petition in 2003 despite having won re-election due to his disastrous implementation of a fascistic "deregulation" of the electricity market that resulted in rolling blackouts. The recall was a circus, and Game Show Network got in on the act by hosting a special with celebrity candidates (including Gary Coleman) and the winner being porn star Mary Carey.