UPN proceeds with Amish show

UPN is slipping an unscripted show that throws together five Amish youths and six city slickers onto the air starting July 28 -- much to the surprise of activists and politicians who figured their protests derailed the project after it was first announced in January.

Instead, following an outcry about the show that included a protest letter from 51 members of Congress, New Line Television and the producers of “Devil’s Playground,” a 2002 documentary about Amish teenagers, filmed “Amish in the City” in secret over the last two months.

Like the documentary that inspired it, “Amish in the City” examines the religious rite of passage known as “rumspringa” (a Pennsylvania Dutch word translated as “running wild”), in which Amish teens and young adults leave their communities to experience the temptations of the outside world and then decide if they want to remain in the Amish church.

The 10-episode reality show, however, places three male and two female Amish with six coming-of-age urban dwellers in a Hollywood Hills home.

The Amish youths are exposed to city dwelling -- from working with the mentally disabled to walking the red carpet during a movie premiere to visiting the beach for the first time -- while the urban youths, who include a swim teacher, a fashionista party girl and an inner-city student, get some lessons in the things they take for granted. The participants, ages 18 to 24, are there to learn from each other and decide what path to take, said New Line senior vice president Jon Kroll, whose credits include CBS’ “Big Brother” and “The Amazing Race.”

“We didn’t want to trivialize the experience by turning it into a game,” Kroll said. “There are friendly competitions to help them enjoy their excursions and make it entertaining, but there are no big rewards or cash prizes or eliminations. It’s like ‘The Real World,’ but the difference is that the kids are trying to come to the conclusion of what to do next in their lives.”

But that doesn’t sit well with critics in Congress and the Amish and rural communities, who urged UPN to drop the show after the network announced its development in January. They say the show is in violation of Amish religious tenets that prohibit the filming of Amish people for any reason.

U.S. Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-Pa.), whose district includes most of the Pennsylvania Amish community, led the 51-signature protest in February. On Thursday, he asked UPN for a private screening of the show before it airs.

“Putting any Amish on television is a violation of Amish belief,” said Derek Karchner, the congressman’s press secretary. “It’s a graven image under their interpretation of the Ten Commandments. It’s hard to explain how that is not disrespectful regardless of who gets permission, what they depict and how they depict it.”

The new show is “a sad comment on Viacom, UPN and CBS, and what they’ll do to make a buck,” said Dee Davis, the president of the Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies. That group was part of a so-far successful effort to indefinitely delay a reality show on UPN’s sister network CBS last year that would have transplanted Appalachians to a Los Angeles mansion, echoing the premise of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

The Amish religion has no central authority, leaving each community to set its own rules and guidelines, even about rumspringa. Some Amish communities allow teens to explore outside of their immediate areas, and others do not.

“But I would be astonished to learn that any Amish leadership would give approval for something like this,” said Herman Bontrager, secretary treasurer of the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom. “This is antithetical to everything they believe about their role in society. For them to make a show of themselves through the media is totally against their understanding of humility and servitude in their communities.”

Daniel Laikand, of Stick Figure Productions, which produced “Devil’s Playground,” suggested the criticism was misplaced. “When you’re on rumspringa, you’re not officially part of the Amish community. You’re making a decision if you want to join. Being on camera is an individual decision. We didn’t mislead the kids about what the show was going to be about.”

Both Davis and Bontrager said they intended to protest the show by contacting advertisers and requesting that they do not buy commercial time on the show, which will air at 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

“It’s very important for all of us that we were making a show that we were passionate about and believed in but that wasn’t exploitative,” Laikand said. “It made us look even harder at what we were doing. The Amish kids come across in a good light.”

“But we don’t try to sugarcoat it either,” Kroll said.

“You will see misunderstandings and the misconceptions that people have about the Amish. But in terms of our approach and how it’s conveyed, it is respectful. By the end of the show, all 11 kids have come to some conclusions about their lives.”