Introduction

In this bonus episode, we include a bit about our backgrounds, how we came up with the show name, and how Isabella used to sneak and watch Jersey Shore when she was little. We also spill the tea on how Dad isn't really a boomer, how Isabella got Dad addicted to reality TV, some of the shows we plan to cover, and our top-three franchise shows.

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Music: "Goodbye to Joey" by The Mundahs, used with permission.

What is Check Me Boomer?

Check Me Boomer is a weekly father-daughter podcast about reality TV. Dad's obsessed with Bravo. Maybe even more so than Isabella.
Every week, the show covers the Real Housewives franchises — Beverly Hills, New York, Atlanta, New Jersey, Potomac, Salt Lake City, and Rhode Island - along with Summer House, In the City, Next Gen NYC, Southern Charm, Ladies of London, Southern Hospitality, The Valley, Love Island, and whatever else pulls them in. Sometimes they agree. Sometimes they don't. Either way, listeners get two people who actually love reality TV, working through it together. What they watched, what they side-eyed, and what they can't stop thinking about.
Whether you're a longtime Bravo fan, a casual reality TV viewer, or someone who just likes a good father-daughter conversation, Check Me Boomer brings honest takes on the moments, the drama, and the cast dynamics that everyone's talking about.
New episodes drop every week.

Isabella: 00:04

Hi. I'm Isabella. My dad is obsessed with reality television, maybe even more so than I am. She's not wrong. This is Check Me Boomer, a father daughter weekly dish on the latest in reality TV.

Isabella: 00:21

Hi, dad.

Dad: 00:22

Good morning.

Isabella: 00:23

It's 2PM, but okay. Afternoon. Should we give our audience some background on who we are, maybe where we come from, and a little bit of our story and what we're gonna cover? Perfect. Alright, Dad.

Isabella: 00:37

Do you wanna share your age and and that you're secretly not a boomer? Or

Dad: 00:42

Yes. I am mid fifties, and I think that puts me at Gen X, but I'm often referred to as a boomer by you and your brother.

Isabella: 00:52

Yeah. We'll make jokes here and there, but just for the record, he's not technically a boomer.

Dad: 00:59

So how did we come up with boomer in the title then?

Isabella: 01:02

Good question, dad. If anyone had noticed that Check Me Boo is a Sheree Whitfield reference.

Dad: 01:11

An homage, if you will.

Isabella: 01:12

An homage. Yes. So who gonna check me boo is one of our favorite quotes. So we took some inspiration from there. I'll share that I am 28 years old.

Isabella: 01:23

So I am on the cusp of Gen Z millennial. So we got a little bit of an age difference here. Of course, it's my dad. So do you wanna start with dad kind of how you started watching reality TV, kind of how we started watching it together even when I was little?

Dad: 01:44

Sure. I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. That's a boomer reference if there ever was one. Reality TV probably started with real world, and I can't remember my age at that time, but I wasn't a kid. It started in your mother and I watched it pretty religiously, then moved on to Jersey Shore, and then we were probably watching Orange County in real life as you kids say these days on a weekly basis.

Isabella: 02:11

And

Dad: 02:11

then Atlanta and some others that we can probably come back to, but then there was a big resurgence that I think you wanna cover during COVID where we caught up with some of the better, more iconic franchises, especially RHONJ. And maybe we should explain how we sometimes refer to them by saying it that way.

Isabella: 02:30

Yeah. We'll get there. I wanna say first that I started watching reality TV with Survivor and American Idol, Biggest Loser, America's Next Top Model, some of those shows that now we can call pretty controversial. But I would always come into the living room to watch shows with my parents, and those were the shows we'd watch. You mentioned Jersey Shore.

Isabella: 02:59

What's funny is as a child, I also watched Jersey Shore. You just didn't know about it. So once I got the Interesting. So once I once I got the TV in my bedroom, when I turned, what, maybe 12, I would put on Jersey Shore in my room, but I'd leave my door open so I could see you coming down the hallway. And as I saw you coming down the hallway, I'd put my finger on the previous button and go back to Disney Channel.

Isabella: 03:29

So you had no idea I was watching Jersey Shore.

Dad: 03:32

Classic.

Isabella: 03:33

So, yeah, then after that, we COVID kind of thrust us more into the Bravo sphere where, yes, we started with RHONJ, which translates to the Real Housewives of New Jersey. We followed that with RHONY, the Real Housewives of New York. My mother and I watched a lot of summer house and southern charm when you were traveling a bit. So you have since come into those as well.

Dad: 04:04

Yes. With a vengeance.

Isabella: 04:06

Yes. Now we have since added some shows. Like, I introduced my father to Love Island.

Dad: 04:16

I'm addicted. It's quite a franchise. It's a lot of work and a lot of episodes each week.

Isabella: 04:25

Sure is, but it's worth it. So we will, of course, be covering that when the new season drops on June 2. Speaking of that, some of the other shows that we do plan on covering are Anything Bravo, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Selling Sunset, The Bachelor franchise, Perfect Match, Temptation Island. I will cover maybe a little bit of Survivor and Big Brother. Dad, maybe I know you love your American Idol.

Isabella: 04:58

Maybe you can mention a word or two on that when it comes back around. Any anything that you can think of that I missed, dad?

Dad: 05:06

No. I'll just cover a couple of those. Survivor was something that we watched from the beginning, but it just kind of got old to me. There's not enough drama, especially towards the end. All the people that are dramatic and controversial seem to be weeded out, and that three person episode where they just re reel in the memories of everyone who's lost is just it's a little bit too much for me.

Dad: 05:25

And I guess I just kind of think it's jumped the shark, and so I kinda pass on survivor. American Idol is is one that no one else seems to watch in the family, but to me, it's the most uplifting. Not like the old school. I don't know about that, but it's it's certainly gets close. And then it's it's it's the opposite of how it used to be when it was a lot of abuse of people and saying how horrible they are, and Simon was iconic in that.

Dad: 05:53

And now it's much more, you're great. You're great. But still they bring people out of the woodwork who would never otherwise make a splash. And so I I like the opportunity for those people to succeed.

Isabella: 06:04

No more pants on the ground?

Dad: 06:06

No. No. I haven't seen that in a while.

Isabella: 06:09

Okay. Well, so we will pretty much be covering anything reality TV. Anything we don't cover, feel free to leave a comment, and we will definitely look into it. I had a couple questions for you, dad.

Dad: 06:23

Sure. Shoot.

Isabella: 06:24

So I wanna ask you how you feel about the men that might judge you for watching reality TV or say, like, oh, that's only for that's only for women and gay men. What do you what do you say to those people?

Dad: 06:40

I don't really care what they think. I think they're missing out. And it's sort of like there was a time period where people said if you drink White Claw, you have an issue. And I have a friend who was in the Navy Seals, and he drinks White Claw and says, I don't really care. I kinda think of this obviously, I'm not a Navy Seal.

Dad: 06:56

I never did anything of the sort. But if he can drink White Claws without guilt or concern, I can certainly watch Bravo TV and other reality TV shows. Plus, it gives us something to talk about not just you, but your mother and I with you. And as we'll come to in the season, I'm sure there are a lot of things that happen in reality TV that could be this might be a stretch, life lessons. Like, quick example, how the people on Love Island UK deal with controversy and conflict, it just baffles me.

Dad: 07:27

We've talked about this before. How can they it's something in The United States version. They would be throwing hands. So if if we could just take a lesson from the folks on that show, the world might be a better place.

Isabella: 07:38

Yeah. I like that. I like that. My second question is for both of us, and I didn't give you time to think about this, but I want you to, off the top of your head, give me your top three reality TV shows of all time. This is including Bravo, including everything else.

Dad: 07:59

By franchise or episodes?

Isabella: 08:01

By franchise.

Dad: 08:03

I'd probably say Rohanje, especially because the episode with the table flip. "You prostitution whore!" Mhmm. That's up there. And the whole franchise, at least until it kind of petered off and changed and got too much of a conflict between Teresa and Melissa, then I would say I might go with RHOSLC, which is Real Housewives of Salt Lake City that's almost a lisp sounding when we say it.

Dad: 08:31

But that and the Mormon Housewives, which I I can never keep the name straight. What is it again?

Isabella: 08:37

Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Right.

Dad: 08:39

Right. MomTok ? Yes. There's something in the water in Salt Lake City and Provo because two franchises to come out and have such incredible drama in so few seasons. It's it's crazy.

Dad: 08:54

That's three. So you asked for three. That's those are my top three, I would say. Yeah. At least off the top of my head.

Isabella: 08:58

So I thought about this a little bit more, but I didn't I didn't think about it too in-depth. I have four. Okay. But I'm gonna, again, I'm gonna give one an honorable mention. So I'm gonna go Love Island as number one, actually.

Dad: 09:14

Wow.

Isabella: 09:15

And and this is it's I'm mostly referring to the earlier UK seasons. If you know, you know, when they were smoking cigarettes, chain smoking all day long. I I love it. It's the best.

Dad: 09:29

Did they have only one drink per day, Max?

Isabella: 09:31

I don't think they had that limit back then.

Dad: 09:33

I might have to go back and watch those earlier seasons then.

Isabella: 09:36

Second, I'm actually going to put Rahoney.

Dad: 09:40

Okay.

Isabella: 09:40

Because that group of women, there's just they they struck gold with that. They really did. And I'm so glad that they're going back to it, they're filming a new show called The Golden Life. I will be very excited to cover that. Third, I'm going to I'm I'm a little biased because I will say we do live in Atlanta.

Isabella: 10:01

We're from the Atlanta Metro Area. I'm gonna go with Real Housewives of Atlanta for number three.

Dad: 10:08

Which we do not refer to as RHOA for

Isabella: 10:10

some reason. It doesn't it doesn't sound the same.

Dad: 10:12

No. It doesn't roll off the top.

Isabella: 10:13

But Nene Leakes, Porsha Williams, Kenya Moore, I mean, Kim Zolciak even, those are my girls. I don't know if we reached a level of drama that we reached in Atlanta in any other franchise. My honorable mention is going to be Vanderpump rules

Dad: 10:34

Okay.

Isabella: 10:35

Which is one really one of the best ones. I couldn't leave it out.

Dad: 10:40

Quick question on a couple of those. On Vanderpump and Rahoney, are you referring to the original OG cast or the revamps?

Isabella: 10:49

I'm not referring to the revamps. Not even a little bit. I think both revamps are terrible if I'm being completely honest. I I still watch both of them, but you can't even compare the two.

Dad: 11:02

Maybe it's more generous to say they're in the early phases of development.

Isabella: 11:06

And and that's why I'm watching them because I'll give them a chance, and I know that shows can grow. So I'm giving them a chance. But, yeah, it's it's not looking good so far. You you can't you can't match the Jax Taylor, Stassi Schroeder effect. You you just can't find that again.

Dad: 11:25

Well, I don't take issue with any of the four, but you did have a chance to think about it.

Isabella: 11:31

I did. So when we come back, if you if you wanna change your top three, we can revisit this.

Dad: 11:36

I'll think about it.

Isabella: 11:37

I'm sure we'll revisit this a few times. So That's our episode. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Dad: 11:46

Thanks for listening.

Isabella: 11:47

If you like the show, leave us a rating or a comment. It helps more than you think. Follow us wherever you're listening and on social media at Check Me Boomer. And tell a friend who'd get it. See you next week.