Travel Channel 

first of all, this forum is really depressing. i can't believe so many people are so unanimously meanspirited. show at least a little evenhandedness in your comments about the ulles...

second, i don't think it's really fair to criticize the ulles for being ordinary people and behaving as such. if you want to criticize the travel channel for an ill-conceived show concept, or poor execution of the concept, then fine. but you can't fault the ulles for taking advantage of the opportunity presented to them. comparing their hosting skill to that of samantha brown or other professional hosts is comparing apples to oranges, and pretty meaningless.

i like the ulles, that they are down-to-earth, and that they didn't feel any pressure to be anything but themselves. and i believe they did exactly what the travel channel instructed them to do. what *would* have been idiotic is for them to have declined the opportunity of a lifetime.

I have no problem with the Ulles being "ordinary." My problems are with the fact that they apparently did little or no research on the places they visited, and that they seem blissfully unaware of how little they know and their role as guests. Here's an example: in their photo gallery, a caption for a photo taken on the island of Murano, Italy makes mention of how they "helped" to make glass. Glassware and glass art has been made on Murano for hundreds of years, and glassmaking was done there BECAUSE Murano is an island, so if a fire broke out it was unlikely to spread to Venice-- and any "help" that the Ulles provided the glassmakers there was probably no help at all. *THIS* is what so many of us objected to about the show-- that basic, interesting stuff that would have enhanced the experience was left out due to the ignorance of the hosts (as well as the producers, apparently) and that the hosts themselves thought that they mattered at all to the locals.

I have no criticism for them being ordinary - then they should not appear on a travel show. I am not volunteering to perform surgery anytime soon. You do not watch a movie to see actors that have little chemistry and no ability to act, why would you watch a travel show that has hosts that do a lousy job. True that the fault is probably more with the producers than the Ulles themselves.

That being said, they could at least have not presented themselves as ignorant, uninformed, and culturally insensitive. I would be humiliated to present myself in such a fashion for the whole world to see.

What is ordinary? Samantha Brown is ordinary looking. She's not particularly pretty. She's pleasant to look at as is Melanie. The big difference is that Sam Brown is well read. She only gets 22 minutes to bring us a location and she knows that she better read up and understand the area that she is going to or else she will look like a...well...look like the Ulle's. Something that I learned about the island of Murano from watching Travels in Europe, something that the Ulle's would have known before hand had they done even a little bit of research, was that glassmaking was done on Murano not only because of the threat of fire but because the glass makers didn't want their apprenctices and ,thus,their secrets to take off and leave the island. Now, do you think ol' Mel and Dumb-Dumb knew this? I bet not. It's amazing the things you learn when you open your ears.

Yes, the forum is somewhat judgemental. The Ulles are average people--that's why they were chosen I suspect. I agree, the Ulles were given an opportunity--they took it. I would have done the same thing.

Ignorance follows and loves ignorance. The Ulles are the ambassadors to the world that America doesn't need or want. I just hope that they never reproduce, we don't need more stupidity in the world...two of them is more that enough!!

I think the show is great, but anything bad said about the Ulles is TRUE ! They are complete douche bags. They are typical "Buffy and Chad" a-holes who think they know it all because they are rich, but they are so far from reality that it is comical. Their "douchbagery" is of a degree that if Paris Hilton was with them she would fit right in. What a couple of useless bags of crapola.

The show idea is great, but because of the Ulles, it is very frustrating to watch. I'm sure they're nice people, but I find myself cringing and actually become physically uncomfortable watching the show. It is unfortunate that a more engaging and "enlightend" couple wasn't given this wonderful opportunity. Hopefully, the Travel Channel will learn from this mistake.

quote:

Originally posted by mitchhellman:
I have no problem with the Ulles being "ordinary." My problems are with the fact that they apparently did little or no research on the places they visited, and that they seem blissfully unaware of how little they know and their role as guests.

In response to this posting and other postings with the same criticism:

I am a good friend of the Ulles and the only reason I am posting this is because I believe they are being unfairly criticized for something that was out of their control. The Ulle's did not know where their travel destinations would be until 2 or 3 days before they left the United States. In preparing to put their very busy lives on hold for 4 months they had to do this without knowing their destinations!!! To my understanding some of the original final destination choices actually changed while shooting so even at that, the places they had done research for never ended up being one of the 100 destinations on the trip.

So imagine if you had less than a month to prepare for a 4 month trip and the list of possibly destinations was 1000 places long , do you really think anyone could have done enough research to satisfy your complaints in that short period of time?

The Ulles were never expected to be Hosts of the show they were expected to be average Americans whose first time travel experiences were to be documented. ALSO keep in mind that before this show they had never had a camera crew following them and unless you’re a PROFESIONAL TELEVISION HOST I am sure that can be very intimidating.

I believe they did the best job they could with such limited time and experience.

I'm sure the Ulles are nice people. And I appreciate that they didn't get much time to prepare for their trip regarding research. That being said, I find it sad that supposedly well-educated Americans are so uninformed about the world. I would never dress in short-shorts in countries that are traditionally conservative regarding women's cloths. It's not considerate or smart. And the producers should be choosing segments that don't make the Ulles look so dumb - if available. I do have to agree, however, that the way the show is edited, it makes the Ulles look very self absorbed, uneductaed, and culturally naive. Maybe that's them, maybe it's not. But if what is shown on the show is truely an example of how the average American acts when traveling, I would like to go on record as saying "I'm So Sorry" to the rest of the world.