- By Dan Veaner
- Entertainment
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Well it's official. Jeff is the first candidate Martha fired as NBC assaults us with two versions of "The Apprentice." In addition to Donald Trump's "Apprentice," which will air tonight (as of this writing on Thursday 9/22) there is now a Martha Stewart version.
I will admit that I don't really like reality shows. There is enough reality in real life for me. I prefer shows with a plot. But I will also admit, somewhat reluctantly, that these shows hold a "watching a train wreck" style facination, and that I actually sat through most of the episodes of the first season of the supremely disappointing "Real Gilligan's Island." (By the way Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, died last week. I'd rather watch a two week marathon of his Gilligan on TVLand than another season of the so-called "Real" one any day!!!)
I will admit that I don't really like reality shows. There is enough reality in real life for me. I prefer shows with a plot. But I will also admit, somewhat reluctantly, that these shows hold a "watching a train wreck" style facination, and that I actually sat through most of the episodes of the first season of the supremely disappointing "Real Gilligan's Island." (By the way Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, died last week. I'd rather watch a two week marathon of his Gilligan on TVLand than another season of the so-called "Real" one any day!!!)
Can it be that Martha is using firing people as a ploy to soften her image? Everyone in her office seemed so darn perky and happy to see her as she exchanged upbeat remarks about this product or that article. And after she fired Jeff she wrote him an encouraging letter, saying how sorry she was to fire him and offering encouragement in his future life.
This certainly isn't your Sybil Shepherd Martha! She's nice, almost squishy nice. But aside from this twist it's a pretty close clone of the original "Apprentice," even sharing the pace setting, self-important sounding music, the catty remarks the contestants make privately to the camera, and the slickly edited scenes of their interactions as they scheme and scrape to complete a task.
Martha has her own "George and Caroline" to advise her. Charles Koppelman, the Chairman of the Board of her company, and her own daughter Alexis Stewart follow the candidates around as they struggle to succeed.
This week the task was to write a children's book, updating a beloved fairy tale of their choice. Before they could begin they had to divide into two teams, allegedly a creative team and a corporate team. And, can you guess? The corporate team turned out to be more creative, trouncing the creative team's truly scary urban Hansel and Gretel with a whimsical Jack and the Bean Stalk.
That meant a dinner with Martha catered by a private sushi chef. And Martha was chatty at dinner, and... nice. But for the other team it meant the dreaded board room. And someone had to be fired.
Or was it let go? Laid off? She was just so darn nice about it!
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