Media Happenings

Tish and Tony Meeks said they’ve always tried to provide themselves and their two young children with exposure to others who aren’t like them.

That’s never been difficult given the fact that the Brenham couple travels around the state and region as the singer and guitarist for a rock band, 3 Kisses. They also don’t hide their affinity for partying.

The ABC show Wife Swap will document the Meekses’ experience switching wives with the Hoovers, a religious, conservative family living in rural Missouri. The show airs at 7 p.m. Monday.

Brenham rockers Tish and Tony Meeks were paired with a couple from Missouri for the ABC show Wife Swap.

Wearing black combat boots and pink highlights in her hair, Tish Meeks said the family is limited in what they can say about the show before it airs. But she did say there are plenty of “confrontational” moments.

“It was a great experience for us,” she said. “The Hoover family; they’re a bright family, and we’re still friends.”

Two families with very different values change places each week for the viewing pleasure of millions of TV watchers. In “Wife Swap,” the hit ABC show, the wives of the chosen families fly across country to experience a different lifestyle for two weeks.

One of these families was the Meeks, who lead a Texas party punk band, the 3 Kisses, managed by a student at this college.

Jen Kowalski, a 43-year-old music business sophomore, manages three bands, the Saturday Nite Shockers, PlayinSyx and the 3 Kisses.

A year after the Meeks applied to be on “Wife Swap,” they began taping in early January. Kowalski was supportive of the decision because it gave the band free publicity.

As a manager, Kowalski books gigs for the bands, plans tours and deals with band recordings and the creative side of the business.

“Managing is a lot of fun. It’s not all glamorous rock’n'roll life style. You have to take rejection,” Kowalski said.

Kowalski wasn’t there during the filming of the everyday family stuff, but she was there for the night performances and a surprise party she planned for the swap mom. She doesn’t know what will be in the edited show.

The popular reality show Wife Swap is looking for a queer family to be on their show. The show is requesting a same-sex couple who lives with each other and has kids in their house.

The mass media loves deviancy, especially that which undermines the family and the father figure. This is just another assault in an attempt to make perversion seem less shocking.

Two southwest Iowa natives will make their television debut on “Wife Swap,” Monday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. on the ABC television network.

Michael Haigwood, 39, a Shenandoah High School graduate, and his wife, Barbara (Davis) Haigwood, 37, a Clarinda High School graduate, along with their two children, Lee, 15, and Allesha, 13, believe the best life is a simple life.

The press release describes Haigwood as, “a woman who feels most comfortable in a stained pair of overalls and whose family barely interacts with mainstream society.”

The premise of “Wife Swap,” is to take two different families, from two entirely different backgrounds, and challenge them to swap lives for two weeks.

The wives in each family exchange children, husband, homes, chores, hobbies and careers, to experience life in someone else’s shoes.

The Haigwoods live outside Massena, Iowa on a farm. The press release said the nearest town is 45 minutes away.

The release also said the Haigwoods pride themselves, “on a self-sustained existence where food is grown, harvested and killed on their property with minimal help from the outside world.”

“The family lives by a raw food philosophy that includes raw beef and chicken, spoiled cheese and un-pasteurized milk. They brush their teeth with a mixture of homemade honey-butter and clay and only shower on occasion, as ‘bacteria is their friend’.”

During the popular reality show, “Barbara bucks at the pressure she feels society puts on people to become prepackaged clones and tries to keep most forms of ‘mainstream’ culture out of her household.”

While Barbara heads to California to live with the Hess-Webb family, Kim Hess-Webb, a 32-year-old professional, her husband Robert, 31, a male nurse, and their two children, Ivy, 6, and 4-year-old Breslin, believe in culture, education and appearances.

The press release said in the first week of the swap, Barbara is made over by Robert. This includes something she hasn’t done in seven years, shaving her legs.

Taking on the rules of the Hess-Webb home, Barbara is then expected to clean the apartment using chemical products, which she feels is dangerous to her and the family.

Meanwhile back on the farm, Kim is in for a real eye-opener when she meets the Haigwoods.

The family who eats raw eggs as snack is not what the Californian expects.

“By the second day, Kim breaks down, sleeping in a trailer on the farm and only coming outside to milk the cows and perform her other farm chores - which she barely gets through,” said the release.

The show can be seen Monday at 7 p.m. on ABC’s Channel 7.

- Valley News Today Staff Writer Tess Gruber contributed to this story.

It looks like Iowa citizens are upset at how they were protrayed on “Wife Swap” last night. This local article has more information.
From the DesMoinesRegister:

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070220/ENT/70220015

We’ve already received a couple calls this morning at The Register from Iowans who are outraged about how our state and its citizens were represented last night in an episode of “Wife Swap” on ABC that followed an Iowa farm family.

Go to www.desmoinesregister.com/life to join a discussion about the show and how Iowa is portrayed in the media and world at large.