UB students will star in two MTV series
By SHARON LINSTEDT
News Staff Reporter
8/24/2002
Reality television will capture Buffalo's college life this fall, when MTV comes to town to shoot its popular "Sorority Life" series, as well as a new companion show, "Fraternity Life."
University at Buffalo students will be the stars.
An MTV spokeswoman declined to comment on the network's Buffalo plans, saying final agreements have yet to be signed. However, sources familiar with the cable network's Buffalo plans said formal announcements regarding the second season of "Sorority Life" and birth of its fraternal twin are expected next week.
"Sorority Life," which tracks a group of six pledges through the sorority rush experience, made its debut on MTV in June, featuring a group of coeds rushing Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish house on the campus of the University of California at Davis.
The finale of the current series, which will air Sept. 9, will reveal who gets in and who doesn't make the cut. The show, which airs Monday nights at 10:30, has become one of MTV's five most popular programs, drawing an average of 1.9 million viewers per episode.
For its second season, MTV wanted to give the show an Eastern flavor by choosing an East Coast college or university. After touring a number of schools and meeting with students and sorority representatives, the network decided to focus its camera lenses on a dozen UB students.
The two locally shot series will begin airing in February, and reportedly will run back to back on Monday nights. Though the shows are being shot as separate entities, the 12 students are expected to cross over between the programs to some extent.
TV crews follow the students 24 hours a day, seven days a week through their efforts to become sorority and fraternity members, while simultaneously capturing a student's-eye view of college life. The unblinking cameras portray the good, bad and very real moments of the rush process and college life.
"There's no script. No one knows what will happen along the way or how it will end," said Dennis R. Black, UB's vice president for student affairs. "In the episodes of the current season I've watched, you see college students being college students and living their lives. It's not a picture postcard for UC-Davis."
In expanding its college-life franchise by adding a male pledge counterpart to its programming lineup, MTV will follow a similar formula to its sister program. The real-life cast of "Fraternity Life" will see six would-be frat guys rooming together in a North Buffalo house, with video crews trained on their pursuit of happiness, Greek-dom and passing grades.
The identities of the participating male and female students have yet to be revealed.
While MTV's negotiations have been conducted directly with the involved sororities and fraternities, the school is well aware of the network's interest, Black said.
"We know they are planning to film the reality shows here and that our students will be the focus, but we're not a direct party, just a very interested party," he said.
University officials hope the shows will portray UB in a way that attracts future students, but they are aware that in reality-based television, there are no guarantees the school's best attributes will show up on the screen.
MTV representatives have been busy in recent days securing housing in Buffalo's University Heights neighborhood near the UB South Campus for the two groups of pledges. They also have been looking at temporary office space to serve as local headquarters for the two programs for the next few months.
MTV crews are expected to start shooting the two shows soon after Labor Day, timed with the start of the school year and the kickoff of the rush season.
As the cable network crews set up, Universal Pictures film crews are scheduled to be in town to shoot scenes for the major motion picture "Bruce Almighty," starring Jim Carrey. Shooting is expected to start next week, capturing the sights and sounds of the Buffalo area. Carrey won't arrive until late September, when a key scene on the deck of a Maid of the Mist boat is shot below Niagara Falls. In the movie, Carrey's character plays God for a day when God, played by Morgan Freeman, gets fed up with all the complaining and gives Carrey a chance to show he can do a better job.
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