One of my friends owns a junk yard and party store in the middle of nowhere. He has a welding fab business, plows snow with three 300,000 mile rusted out junk trucks with broken frames, the bed and cab full of junk, tools and welding units and no tail lights, has rental units around his store, is a notary and is licensed to marry people. His social network is a bunch of off the grid people who do what little he doesn't. Over the last few years he has had two groups phone him about a reality TV show. He is a notorious curmudgeon and told them to buzz off telling them, "I don't watch TV, it's trash and a waste of time", but his renter above his store was involved at one time in the TV business and she wrote up a proposal. Eventually NatGeo sent a crew and they filmed an episode. After the big wigs viewed a bunch of different proposals, his was the only one they liked and they gave approval for two more episodes, but it is dead in the water. My son is a film editor in NYC and according to him about 3% or less of these that even get as far as a pilot episode ever make it to national TV. Youtube would be a way to get rid of all the money men and politics and go straight to viewing. If it gets enough interest it will develop further. My buddy doesn't help himself either, being such a curmudgeon and indifferent to the whole thing. He tells people that don't have their money or card ready at check out to "get to the back of the line, your worse than an old lady", to cheers and chanting "no waiting here". He is rough around the edges, tells some people who try and be nice to him to get lost, been slapped by an old lady for swearing (he admits he deserved it and got a big kick out of it). I once had him fabricate something for me and he had me tend his store while he did the welding. I asked how much $ for the job and he said "get the H outa here, I am tired of looking at you". I went and paid his wife for his welding. What a peach of a guy, one of my best friends.
