The Nakamura Family.

[Rossaroni]

Tammy was a truck driver? That explains quite a bit, at times I was waiting for her to spit out the chewing tobacco.

Normally I don't care for 'reality' shows, since there's hardly anything 'real' about them, regardless I couldn't stop watching this piece of monkey dunge. At times I suspected this woman was either an actress or she really had to be one of the most self-absorbed soccer mom's I've ever seen. What contest in hell would make her a trophy wife?

I feel sorry for the kids, the nana and of course the husband must have a few screws loose himself.

[Google]

 

[Maveno]

Tammy (obviously) is used to reading wills, trusts, etc.. quite obvious by the way she worded the letter to the TEE in the letter to the Biggins family.

Ok. So here's my big ole question to Tammy, hopefully you come on this site and talk to us.

I heard you doing interviews that it was EDITTING that ruined your "charactor"...that you really aren't that way. Tell me, was it the editting at the end ($50 letter to Biggin family) that portrayed you as "cool" to redeem yourself a smidgen?

If not.. then WHO wrote it for you? Your attorney?

[Rossaroni]

Is this woman completely blind to body language? No one looked liked they were having a good time at 'Tammy's party'. Country music? At least the other mom got into after a few drinks, I genuinely felt sorry for the family stuck with Ms. Soccermom, especially when she told them to shut up while reading her boring dinner story.

[prhoshay]

I was somewhat disappointed with the conclusion of this mom-swap, since I was hoping that somebody would set Mizz Tammy a little straight. But, alas, I think it will come from interviews that she participates in, so all may not be lost! But don't you think it was a little anti-climactic.....disappointing??? Oh well.....onward to the next family!!!

[decan]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

I was somewhat disappointed with the conclusion of this mom-swap, since I was hoping that somebody would set Mizz Tammy a little straight. But, alas, I think it will come from interviews that she participates in, so all may not be lost! But don't you think it was a little anti-climactic.....disappointing??? Oh well.....onward to the next family!!!

you know what? until Tammy gets a divorce or going broke herself I don't see how she can learn anything..... it's obvious that from what she experienced at the Biggins house, she should REALLY appreciate what she has and perhaps have a better understanding of what "others" are going thru in life....

But she's as clueless as the first day of her one-week stay. It's a shame really.

[Bill747]

Originally Posted by Maxima

I think it's mainly a cultural thing. I was told that in some Asian culture, which shall remain nameless, women can't start eating until men in the family finish. So don't be surprised that Nana was washing dishes when it's all said and done.

I wish you had named the country (possibly India) instead of defaming the whole continent with a broad stroke. Asia is a large continent, the largest on earth.
The status of women varies greatly among Asian countries. From highly industrialized Japan & Korea, westernized Singapore & Hong Kong, to Muslim Arab countries, to backward rural India. In China, although communism has not done well as an economic system, it has promoted women's rights legally and culturally further than many other countries.

As for the Nakamuras, I think it's more a family thing instead of a cultural thing. In Japan, the daughter-in-law (Tammy) would be doing most of the household chores and serving the grand-mother (Nana), instead of the other way around.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Women hold up half the sky". Mao Tse-tung.

[Bill747]

And Dr. N's rather disrespectful treatment of his mother is also not "a cultural thing", it is a Yuki personal thing.

[EVOO]

Originally Posted by Bill747

And Dr. N's rather disrespectful treatment of his mother is also not "a cultural thing", it is a Yuki personal thing.

Yup, because MOST Asian people are taught from the get go that you RESPECT your elders. I know I was.

[Unklescott]

Originally Posted by Rossaroni

Tammy was a truck driver? That explains quite a bit, at times I was waiting for her to spit out the chewing tobacco.

What is with all this truck driver/oriental/southern stereotyping being done is this thread? I haven't read this many prejudiced remarks since I don't know when. Chill out people.

[realityluver]

Here's a copy of the article above for those of you that don't want to register to read it:

A jolt of reality

Thanks to their roles on Fox's 'Trading Spouses,' life won't be the same again for two local families
07:18 PM CDT on Monday, July 26, 2004

By ARIANA FALK / The Dallas Morning News

Reality TV shows delight in putting people in situations that make them uncomfortable and letting the audience watch them squirm.

"I'm just a person like anyone else," says Tammy Nakamura, a resident of Colleyville and one of the subjects of the new Fox show Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy. "Right now, I'm mostly just embarrassed."

Out of 5,000 families considered for the show, both of the families who ended up in the limelight live in the Dallas area. Trading Spouses' premise is simple: Two mothers swap families and subject their new families to their fears and foibles.

The twists are simple, too: Mrs. Nakamura is wealthy and white, while Al-Mela Biggins is not wealthy and black.

The Nakamuras live in a big house with a pool. Yuki Nakamura, Mrs. Nakamura's husband, is a plastic surgeon, and his wife owns a full-service car wash. The Bigginses live in South Oak Cliff, where Mrs. Biggins is a surgical technician and her husband, Anthony, is a hospital supervisor.

At first, both families thought the idea of being on a reality show was crazy. At an interview last week in Los Angeles, Mrs. Biggins told TV critics that two casting agents approached her at a dog show and asked if she might be interested in appearing on a reality show.

She thinks they may have noticed her because she and Anthony were with her three children and about seven other children of family members and friends, she says.

The agents later came out twice to her house in South Oak Cliff for interviews and finally told her the premise of Trading Spouses. After a long discussion, she and her husband agreed to be on the show.

"His biggest worries were where the lady was going to sleep," Mrs. Biggins says. "I told him, 'Well, I guess she'll take my daughter's room.' "

Mr. Nakamura was more reluctant to become a reality TV star than his wife and children were, he says. His medical colleagues will probably be taken aback to see him on the small screen.

"Sure, I worry about myself and my reputation getting into all this," he says. "But I wasn't going to be the one to stop them."

Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy

7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Fox (Channel 4). Monday repeats Part 1; Tuesday is the premiere of Part 2. 1 hr.
The actual filming took place over six days in June. "It's definitely weird to have a camera in your face and be expected to act like normal," says Donna Melotakis, a friend of the Nakamuras who attended a party in one episode.

The Nakamura family held a party to watch the first episode of the show. The guests cheered as they saw their friends on television for the first time. The premiere is full of surprises for Mrs. Biggins and Mrs. Nakamura, too, since they know nothing about the other family's experience. "OK, yes, that's what I look like at 6 in the morning," Mrs. Nakamura says with a laugh.

The atmosphere at the screening is lighthearted but nervous. The show is silly, but it also pokes at wealth and class, race and family – sensitive issues in America.

What's most revealing are the women's looks as they face the most unfamiliar aspects of their new homes. Mrs. Nakamura blanches at the bail bond shops and graffiti-covered walls of Oak Cliff. Mrs. Biggins' eyes widen at the Nakamuras' enormous walk-in closet and she grimaces after her first bite of sushi at an expensive dinner with the Nakamuras.

Trading Spouses paints a harsh picture of Mrs. Nakamura – she sometimes seems insensitive and unable to care for herself. She advises Chrishara Biggins, 13, on her eating habits and tells the family they ought to count carbs. "Well, I just hope the daughter just didn't take my advice the wrong way," she says after that scene.

The day after the premiere, Mrs. Nakamura sounds shaken and upset. She couldn't resist looking on the Internet to see what others said about her after the first episode, and the public wasn't kind.

But the portrait the show paints is skewed, she says. She became a scapegoat to heighten the drama and is anything but spoiled, she says. She grew up in Louisville, Ky., in a family with little money to spare, and she drove an 18-wheeler with her father for a year after college.

Living with a family who had to watch every dollar brings back painful and poignant memories for Mrs. Nakamura. Her eyes well up with tears when she remembers meeting Mrs. Biggins for the first time on the last episode of the show. "We stood together and cried," she says. "We will have a bond no matter what. They will always be wonderful soul mates for me."

Despite some scenes of on-screen tension, neither family harbors any hostility toward the other, Mrs. Biggins says. In fact, Mrs. Nakamura says her family plans to invite the Bigginses to their lake house after the show ends.

In the days after the show, strangers have come up to Mrs. Nakamura and asked if she's the mom from the show, and even asked for her autograph.

"I see what the poor movie stars go through!" she says.

Students at Grapevine High School ask Natalia Nakamura, 15, about the show, she says.

Mrs. Nakamura is done with reality television, but she's always imagined she might be a newscaster or a sportscaster. As for Mrs. Biggins, she'd be thrilled if her 15 minutes of reality-television fame weren't up.

"If I had the opportunity, I would do it. My family would just have to understand I'm a star," she says.

Mrs. Biggins had the chance to go to Hollywood and promote the show, and meeting Fox TV actors left her decidedly star-struck.

"This is a totally different experience," she says. "The familiar faces on TV – I can't believe I'm standing next to them. ... I am so in love with Omar Epps," who is cast in the new Fox medical series House . "He kissed me on my jaw!"

Staff critic Manuel Mendoza contributed to this report.

E-mail afalk@dallasnews.com

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