<p>Is anyone watching Undercover Boss? The college president (?) didn’t know alphabetical order or how to pronounce common words? Is anyone in California watching this show?</p>
<p>Not in california, but watching. I was surprised about his poor public speaking skills.</p>
<p>What college was this? I assume the college pres is from another country?</p>
<p>Today’s local paper said it was a rerun. UC Riverside. i saw it before, not going to watch tonight.</p>
<p>I’m pretty cynical when it comes to reality shows and I’ve watched enough episodes of Undercover Boss to believe that they’re actually pretty scripted. The “boss” is always incompetent, no matter what the task. It’s understandable that an executive might not be that great at operating heavy equipment or being speedy on an assembly line, but wouldn’t you think that occasionally there would be a boss who’s actually good at doing some of the jobs that the little people do? Not on this show.</p>
<p>Also, there’s always a heart-tugging vignette in every episode, invariable involving tears. It just seems fakey to me.</p>
<p>I don’t believe for a second that the chancellor of UC Riverside couldn’t figure out how to reshelve those library books.or that he didn’t know how to pronounce common Chemistry terminology. He has a science background – he was a biology professor for several years and has a PhD from Berkeley. </p>
<p>GladGradDad, he’s not from another country (well, he was born in Argentina but came here when he was a little kid). [Chancellor:</a> About the Chancellor](<a href=“http://chancellor.ucr.edu/about/]Chancellor:”>Biography | Office of the Chancellor)</p>
<p>The episode made clear they weren’t spending college funds on the individual recipients. He started each off by saying “donors” have contributed. The only university money was an allocation of existing capital improvement funds for rehabbing the track. I suspect that was already in the works and that was why he was sent to that spot. </p>
<p>Second, the guy has no training in organic chemistry so not being able to pronounce the words under pressure is meaningless. He was also, btw, president of the U of Idaho and as provost of Oregon State so he has a lot of experience at the top of college management. </p>
<p>I did find it strange he didn’t know the bookstore was closed on the weekend. </p>
<p>I liked the chemistry teacher. She radiates intelligence and, with her degree from Cal Tech, looks like she belongs on Big Bang Theory.</p>
<p>I really liked the premise of this show when it first came on the air. But, it got hokey really quickly, with the “heart tugging vignettes” that patsmom refers to, and the significant “gifts” given to the (obviously hand-picked) participants. #sarcastic font# It’s amazing how often the participants have some story similar to the boss (ie, loss of a parent, difficult upbringing, handicapped child, etc). </p>
<p>I think the bosses (including the UCR chancellor) play up to the show, and look more incompetent than they are. OF COURSE he knows how to alphabetize. But that wouldn’t make for good TV.</p>
<p>We still watch it…but mostly just to make fun. Like last night…um…how many adults with bad mustaches, unaffiliated with the university, are tour guides? REALLY?</p>
<p>Did not see this show, but I have spent enough time as a university library employee to know that the LC system is not entirely intuitive. Simple alphabetization skills are not enough to get things in the right place on the right shelves. </p>
<p>Of course anyone who shelves a PN in the middle of D has just got to be kidding…</p>
<p>I want to add that all reality tv is fake to a substantial degree. Some is that they take 100 hours of footage and cut it up to make 42 minutes and that degree of compression allows them to create impressions that aren’t correct if you look at the larger context. Some of it is actual scripting. I expect that shows like this are largely the latter because the people in it have been interviewed substantially by the production staff. The participant - the boss - then learns what the production already knows so that part is real in a way. </p>
<p>Other shows are literal fakes. I mean they are completely fake and pass themselves off as reality. Some shows, like Pawn Stars are salted, meaning they include real bits and fake bits where items are given to people to bring in. The drama on these shows is essentially scripted, though not exactly, meaning there’s leeway in how it comes out because they don’t want it to look forced. It’s managed reality.</p>
<p>On this show, remember there’s a camera crew - referenced for I believe the first time on this episode by the chemistry prof. People aren’t followed around by camera crews in regular life. Secret Millionaire - same production team - makes a big deal of the people staying in a bad neighborhood. With a camera crew. Remember that. I assume the organizations are told they’ll get some benefit to assure cooperation. The people who appear must have been interviewed because they don’t have the time in a short week of filming to wander around looking for good tv candidates. So that’s a setup but I suspect the actual donations are real and that the joy expressed is also real. </p>
<p>One of my kids has worked on reality tv production. Is currently doing that while her network show is on the annual hiatus. A Short term trade of one form of insanity for a much less well run form of insanity. People don’t realize that everyone on tv basically gets laid off for a few months a year. The union people - meaning the crew - usually only get paid by the week or even the day so they just aren’t hired for that time. The regular contract people get laid off by the studio. (The whole who employs and pays whom thing there is weird. You may work for a production company but be a studio employee whose actual salary is funded by a network.) So people do other gigs or take time off or go on unemployment.</p>
<p>BTW, when you hear stories about how people act, not just actors … the actual story may not be true but that stuff not only happens but is frighteningly common. And when people talk about the business being brutal it is. Very much so. The industry is based on deterring people. They try to drive people out. And they do. There is an endless stream of people wanting in.</p>
<p>The reason that the Chancellor might not be shelving the books correctly is because he mentioned that it was intuitive to organize by book title rather than by the decimal system. It is basically a different system of rearranging books I guess.</p>
<p>Like others have said, there is lots of unused footage, so the footage that is used might have been more comical moments. The chancellor might have shelved everything else correctly, but the production crew would want to make it interesting and show human stupidity because it is entertaining and provides laughter to the show.</p>
<p>While the Chancellor might be knowledgeable in his current profession managing a college, he decided to do odd jobs he might not be familiar with since he did not do them for a long time.</p>
<p>I do enjoy watching the show even though it seems somewhat scripted. It is better than many others, and has shown me many needy organizations who are volunteer based and strive to help their respective communities.</p>
<p>This looks like an interesting episode… I’ll have to watch it sometime.</p>
<p>But normally I don’t like watching the show. Like others have said, it feels scripted, and they probably explained this but it’s weird how the employees don’t suspect anything even though there’s cameras following them around…</p>
<p>I also don’t like how the boss in the end showers the workers he encountered with “all expense paid trips,” raises, etc. and the rest of the employees only get whatever changes are made to how the company is run. I always wondered what the rest of the workers with sob stories were feeling when the CEO was doling out his little gifts… It just seems so unfair to me.</p>