EXCLUSIVE: After exploring pot-dealing in suburbia in its dark comedy
Weeds, Lionsgate Television is taking on another suburban taboo in a new reality series. Certain to create controversy,
Bedroom Community
revolves around a group of swingers -- suburban couples who swap
partners. Lionsgate shot a presentation for the project, which is now
being shopped to cable networks.
Bedroom Community is one of the first projects shepherded by reality producer Eli Frankel, who in March
signed
a two-year deal with Lionsgate. "The world of swingers is mythologized
in American pop culture, but very few people outside of it have seen
it," Frankel said. And many would be surprised looking in, he said.
"What we have seen on shows about swingers are primarily older hippies,
fringe people who are a little bit dirty. What we found are elite
groups of people in upscale communities who are good-looking and have
money and access. That glossy version is much more interesting to
watch."
The series was cast after an
extensive casting process, Frankel said, adding that "it took awhile to
convince people to trust us and to convince them that the show was not
going to be exploitative but just document people who are fairly normal
but chose to do live their relationships on the edge." Focusing on
family and inter-couple dynamics,
Bedroom Community will
chronicle the cast members' lives in their living rooms, not in their
bedrooms. "It is not a show about sex but about people and their
relationships," Frankel said. The swinging lifestyle was introduced to
American suburbia in the 1960s, and was depicted in the praised but
short-lived CBS drama series
Swingtown, set in the 1970s.