Forthcoming MTV series to feature wild, young West Virginians
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Move over, “Jersey Shore” cast. A bunch of wild young West Virginians are about to fill your time slot.
MTV will begin airing the reality show “BUCKWILD,” shot in Sissonville and Charleston, at 10 p.m. Jan. 3, spokeswoman Candice Ashton said Thursday. Two half-hour episodes will air back-to-back each week, following nine “carefree and adventurous friends.”
The network ordered 12 episodes of the show last fall, and a trailer shows the cast drinking and swearing, four-wheeling and fighting, even filling a dump truck with water and using it as a swimming pool.
“They live their lives loud and proud without restrictions,” MTV said in a statement. “Beyond dating, friendship and their love of mudding, the bond they share with family and friends is always at the core for this fun-loving group.”
The cast includes: Shain, a former high school prom king who missed the dance because he had to work; Shain’s best friend, Joey, a self-proclaimed ladies’ man; and Shae, a nursing student who goes for the bad boys.
There’s also: Anna, a “wild child” trying to decide between work and school; brave but troublemaking tomboy Ashley; Morgantown native Cara, who’s recovering from a failed relationship; heart-breaking pretty boy Tyler; danger-avoiding college student Katie; and the oldest of the group, Salwa, a college graduate living at home with strict parents and always eager to start the party.
The executive producers are Zoo Productions and J.P. Williams of Parallel Entertainment, a native West Virginian best known for creating Blue Collar Comedy.
The West Virginia Film Office denied tax credits to the producers over concerns the show would negatively portray the state’s young male residents, the latest front in a continuing battle over stereotyping.
In 2002, public outcry prompted CBS to drop plans for “The Real Beverly Hillbillies,” which was to feature residents of rural Appalachia plunked down in the middle of Beverly Hills. A year later, the horror film “Wrong Turn,” shot in Canada, was set in a hypothetical West Virginia, where cannibalistic mountain men terrorized lost tourists. And in 2008, state leaders responded vehemently when a casting company looked to West Virginia for extras to play inbred degenerates.
On the upside, though, was last year’s Paramount Pictures blockbuster “Super 8.” It was set in Weirton, the same town used for some scenes in the classic Vietnam film “The Deer Hunter.”
The 2004 film “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” was partially shot in Fayetteville, which stood in for the Putnam County town of Frazier’s Bottom, where the script was set.