Manalapan resident enjoys
chance at TV fame, fortune
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — A Manalapan family has taken its shot at fame and fortune on a network television show.
Anthony Perrinelli, 22, an employee of Unique Musique, Route 9, and a dance instructor at the Freehold Academy of Performing Arts, said The Family is hosted by George Hamilton and is about 10 members of one family living in a West Palm Beach, Fla., mansion for one month. The family members compete against each other for $1 million in the nine-week series.
The show is broadcast on ABC-TV on Tuesday at 10 p.m. Perrinelli said he was joined by his father, Michael, and his mother, Donna, among other relatives.
Perrinelli, a 1998 graduate of Manalapan High School, became interested in the program when his cousin, who works at an advertising firm, asked him if he would like to be on the show.
"They had called her up to try to buy advertising time on the radio," he said. "She happened to ask them if they were still casting because it struck her that our family would be good for this kind of situation."
Perrinelli said the show’s producers were still casting and he, his parents and seven cousins were invited to "go out against 600 other families."
The families were put up in a $52 million estate in West Palm Beach.
"Basically, we were filmed for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on selected days there were different competitions where once a week each family member would be eliminated, until it came down to one," he said. "That person will be a millionaire."
Perrinelli said the competition was physical and mental and basically involved things that would be appropriate for families to compete in.
Thinking back to the weeks of taping and competition, Perrinelli said, "It was pretty much an overwhelming experience. It’s a lifestyle where everything was catered to us. We had butlers, cooks, maids, stylists, social secretaries and as much as I loved it, I’m not sure if I would love that lifestyle for much longer than I was there."
Filming lasted slightly longer than a month, according to Perrinelli, who wouldn’t say exactly how far he or any other family members were able to go before being eliminated.
Perrinelli said he believes everyone can relate to a show such as this.
"People know how it is at Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever holiday they celebrate, people know how it is to be around their family for four hours and get a little crazy with them, like they start to get agitated or aggravated," he said. "It makes people imagine what it would be like to live with these extended relatives in this house for a month solid.
"It was an absolutely incredible experience that I would do again," Perrinelli said. "It gave me a new way of looking at my family, dealing with people and looking at life in general. [It showed me] how some people live and what a different world there is out there that most people do not see."