#tbt: Survivor

#tbt: Survivor

Depending on your opinion of reality television, you can either thank or blame Survivor for shows like American Idol, the Apprentice, Jersey Shore, etc.  The phenomenon, that was the first Survivor, led an explosion in reality television. For CBS, Survivor was a gold mine. It was able to fill a prime time TV slot with a highly rated show at a low cost since having strangers play for $1 million is cheaper than paying high profile actors. As imitation is the best form of flattery, every network and cable channel developed its own schmorgesborg of reality shows. Consequently, we were oversaturated with these shows during the 2000s and they have seeped into our culture.

Similar to a lot of America, I was captivated by the first season of Survivor. In fact, it is the only thing I vividly remember from the summer of 2000. It was intriguing from the beginning of the first episode with Host, Jeff Probst, narrating the opening sequence of 16 Americans beginning an adventure of a lifetime as castaways stranded on an island in the South Pacfic. The brilliance of Survivor is that it takes a random group of people from completely different walks of life. Outside of Survivor, they would never be caught anywhere near each other. Within the game, they have no choice but to live and coexist with each other in order to survive in the wild. It is a social experiment and a microcosm of the real world. On top of it, you split them into 2 tribes where they compete for reward and immunity. For the tribe that loses immunity challenge, they have to go to tribal council and vote a tribe member out. Near the middle of the game, the tribes merge and both tribes will live witch each other. At that point, individual players compete for rewards and individual immunity with the rest of the tribe eligible to be voted off. At the beginning of the original season, people were voted out because they were weak or did not socially fit in. However, it changed to strategy in the middle of the season, which I will touch upon later.

Of course, the key to any reality television show is the cast and Survivor had its share of great characters. First, you had Colleen Haskell. She was the pretty girl next door. She was witty, funny, and simply adorable. She became “America’s Sweetheart” during the the first season. Next, you had her friend Greg Buis with who she had a showmance. They would go into the woods to talk and gossip would swirl among the tribe of a romance. Colleen jokingly said in a confessional that “it was all about the sex”. Nevertheless, Greg was a character in his own right as he was goofy on his own. First, he had a coconut that he pretended was a phone and he talked into it. When he got eliminated, he pretended to break down and cry in the most humorous exit of the season. The cast also included Jenna Lewis who was a young mother. When the other castaways got videos from home, Jenna’s daughters were not able to tape a message and send it in time which left Jenna distraught and in tears. Moreover, the show had Gervase Peterson. He was athletic, likeable, and one of the contestants and was a viewer favorite to win the game. Sean Kenniff was another entertaining character. He was a doctor who played the game ridiculously. In the game, he was known for his alphabet voting strategy in which he went in alphabetic order. As he told the rest of his tribe of the strategy, he inadvertently voted out people.

Finally, I have to touch upon the final four: Richard Hatch, Kelly Wiglesworth, Susan Hawk, and Rudy Boesch. Rich was a leader from the start of the show and took control. He was also a great fisherman who provided food for his tribe, which was a key reason he was kept around. Rich was also open about being gay. In addition, he spent a lot of time in the island nude which irked his tribe mates and the viewers. Kelly was a whitewater rafting guide. Ironically, she went up against Gervase, who did not know how to swim, and lost to him in a canoeing challenge. Nevertheless, Kelly was a dominant player in the challenges. Kelly’s closest friend for most of the season was Sue. Sue was a blue collar truck driver from Wisconsin with a big mouth. She was a fan favorite because she was never known for being shy in expressing her honest opinion.

My most favorite Survivor was Rudy. He is still the oldest person to play the game. He is also an American hero as he served as an original Navy Seal. On the show, he was hysterical as he was blunt in expressing how he felt. Many of his greatest lines were in describing his closest ally Rich: “Rich for once, I mean this guy is strong, he’s smart, the guy surprises me, you know he’s fat, but he’s good.” His most famous line regarding Rich was “Me and Richard got to be pretty good friends. Not in a homosexual way, that’s for sure.” As a career military man and as part of the older generation, it is easy to understand why he would have some homophobic views. At the end of the day, he did not agree with the lifestyle: “I don’t agree with his lifestyle and I told him that, and he probably don’t agree on mine.” While he said he would not seek to hang out with homosexuals after the show, he also said he had no problem doing business with them. As such, if he gave someone his word, his word is good regardless of how he feels about his sexuality. Nothing spoke louder than his actions as he stuck with Rich the entire game. Their relationship is also a great example of how forcing people with different backgrounds to be exposed to each other is critical in ending biases.

Rudy also had great quotes in regards to other people on the show. In regards to a tribe mate who was religious, Rudy noted “It’s funny to me that a guy would read the bible out here, the only reason I bring the bible is if… I mean I’m religious too if I need a toilet paper.” After the merge, Greg won a challenge and received a video from his sister and he was able to send a video back. In the videos, they were jokingly flirting with each other as they are both goofy. Rudy thoughts on the videos were “I can’t understand a guy talking to his sister that way, it sounded like Greg was talking incest.” I respected and liked Rudy. He also gave me someone to root for every week and an emotional tie to keep on watching.

Survivor got bigger and bigger as the season progressed during the summer. My local radio station talked about it every week. The morning show even forced a couple of people to replicate one of the most infamous challenges that involved eating bugs. In general, everyone was talking about the show and had someone to root for whether it was Rudy, Gervase, Colleen, etc. As our politicians and leaders figured out a long time ago, Rich realized that a voting bloc was the most effective strategy in a game where a plurality or majority was able to dictate control in a voting system. As such, he organized Kelly, Sue, and Rudy into the Tagi Alliance that propelled them to the Final Four. When they merged with the rival Pagong tribe, they were able to pick the other tribe off one by one as the other tribe’s votes were unorganized. However, Kelly abandons the alliance later in the game and has to go on a streak of immunity challenge wins to get to the Final Four and eventually to the Final 2.

When the finale was aired, I was on a family vacation in Toronto. As we were returning to a family friend’s house after a long day of site seeing (I do not remember what we saw that day in Toronto), I requested the finale recorded beforehand. Nevertheless, we were able to return in the middle of the finale. As soon as I got in the house, I asked our family friend if Rudy got to the Final 2. Of course, I was terribly disappointed that he was voted off by Kelly. I was even more disappointed when I watched how he lost the final immunity challenge. The final three of Rich, Kelly, and Rich had to hang on to a wooden idol as long as they could. Being a former Navy Seal, you would figure that Rudy could hang on forever. However, as they were rotating positions and switched which log they were standing on, Rudy inadvertently fell asleep during the transition of walking to the next log and let go of the idol. Long before Rudy let go, Rich purposely let go. As such, he had a lot of time to talk about the decision with Jeff Probst. As a result, the show has a great clip of Rich talking about how the show will be played for years to come with Kelly and Rudy hanging for dear life in the background. First, Rich explained why he let go. When he was holding on, he realized that he could not outlast Kelly. However, he also came to the conclusion that it did not matter as both players would take him to the end regardless. Kelly had to vote out Rudy because Rudy would beat her easily in the Finals due to his likeability. As for Rudy, Rich knew that Rudy gave him his word and that Rudy would honor his obligation.  Consequently, Rich deduced that he would be in the Final 2 anyway so it was pointless to try to hold on. He also talked about how future players would need to get into a large alliance to get far in the game but then sub-alliances so they could get to the end. Rich was correct about all accounts. Future Survivor seasons have become exactly what he spoke about. Players are more concerned about alliances than surviving in the wild. It has become a strenuous mind game that becomes even tougher as you play those mind games with the strain of not eating and being at the mercy of the elements.

One of the great things about Survivor is that the jury that determines the winner as it is comprised of the Finalists’ peers that were voted out by those Finalists. Moreover, that jury has free reign to define the most deserving person to win however they like. As such, the Finalists have to face the people they voted out and convince them to still vote for them to win. During this final tribal in the original season, Rudy said “I don’t have nothing to say to these 2. I just like to let everyone here know how dumb I feel after the mistake I made yesterday.” Rudy was still being Rudy to the end. However, the Final Tribal is usually an opportunity for jurors to let out their frustration as was the precedent set by Sue Hawk in the most famous moment in the history of the show. As Kelly betrayed the alliance and eventually switched her vote to vote out Sue when there was a tie in the final 4, Sue was angry and blasted Kelly. One of the highlights or lowlights was when Sue noted that “If I were ever to pass you in this life again, and you were laying there, dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I’d just let the vultures take you, and do whatever they want with you, with no ill regrets.” The most memorable part of the speech was when she compared Rich to a snake and Kelly to a rat. She pleaded to the jury to honor the island spirits and to allow the snake to eat the rat. While it was great TV, it was counterproductive as it gained sympathy for Kelly from Colleen and Gervase and helped them decide to vote for Kelly. Nevertheless, Rich won 4-3 but it should be noted that Greg decided his vote on a number 1-10 that Rich and Kelly chose. While future seasons had the final votes revealed in the live reunion, Rich’s win is the only season where the winner was revealed on the island.

Survivor was the phenomenon during the summer of 2000. Survivor: the Australian Outback was also a big hit after the success of the first season. However, the mania started to die off after the second season and the show became more for the diehard Survivor fans instead of all TV viewers. Nevertheless, the show has just completed its 26th season and is definitely one of the greatest franchises in the history of television. I have not watched most of the seasons after the first two. However, I do enjoy the strategy of the game and watch strictly for great game play. As such, I have caught a lot of the seasons with returning players as I prefer people who know how to play the game rather than new contestants that are trying to find themselves personally and strategically. The series has also introduced many twists to keep it fresh. The most intriguing twist has been the hidden immunity idol which allows a player to play it before a vote is read and cancel out any votes casted against them for that one tribal council. As such, it has increased the strategy in the game significantly as having the numbers in votes does not automatically mean you can vote someone out. Regardless, the original season was magical and all subsequent seasons have been trying to recapture the magic of the original. However, part of the magic of the first season is that the contestants were as critical at defining the game as the producers. While the rules were set beforehand, strategy and game play were not. As the game has long since been defined, no season will ever surpass the mass appeal and intrigue of the first season.

Survivor was a lot of fun in 2000 and it deserves credit for sparking the explosion in reality television.

Pat Wong

About Pat Wong

Patrick is a contributor for Rookerville. He is an avid sports fan. Before joining Rookerville, he was part of a defunct New York Yankees message board, NYYankeefans, where he was its top poster and was inducted in its Hall of Fame for his contributions. Patrick is also a passionate fan of movies. He has enjoyed reading movie reviews over the years and is excited about the opportunity to review movies.

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