Board nixes TV show bid

Producers of reality show

won’t be able to film in schools
By:Donna Lukiw
   Concerns over how the school district would be represented on a new reality TV show led the Board of Education to unanimously reject two TV producers’ bid to film in Hillsborough schools.
   The producers of the up-coming reality show "Know It All," Steve Lawrence and Alex Pasquera, roamed around popular Hillsborough hangouts last month looking for the perfect cast members, but the board voted down their request at Monday’s meeting.
   "It doesn’t highlight our school and it is not valuable to us. It does not seem to be good PR for the school district," Superintendent Karen Lake said.
   "Know It All" was hoping to cast teenagers and parents from Hillsborough who were willing to trade lives for about three days. The teenagers would have been shown going to work and paying bills — while their parents would have gone to school and taken tests.
   Believing Hillsborough was an "all-American suburban town," the producers chose to film at the high school after visiting many other schools in New Jersey and New York.
   The television company asked for rights at the school which discomforted the board, including control over airing and promotional broadcasts — and editing.
   Being a reality show, board members said they felt that it would possibly humiliate people and not allow the board to make any decisions regarding what is aired.
   "I don’t think it’s conducive to a positive environment," Ms. Lake said.
   Mr. Lawrence said they have received permission from other schools to film, and held open the possibility of coming back to Hillsborough.
   "We are disappointed that we will not be able to shoot the pilot at Hillsborough, but we hope after we have a produced show that the board could view, they will then reconsider and maybe we could use Hillsborough during the series," he said.
   Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Pesquera came up with this idea for the show after observing how parents think that their kids have it easy in high school and how the kids always want to be older and treated older not realizing what responsibilities follow as an adult.
   "When I was in high school I always wanted to be older. I wanted that freedom but I never thought about paying bills or going to work," Mr. Lawrence said. "It’ll also be interesting to see the parent’s reaction while in high school."
   Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Pesquera said they were mostly looking for juniors and seniors in high school who are upbeat and would make the show a hit but were considering casting freshmen and sophomores.