Absolom

I believe one of them switched to a combined high school/college program.

Viewership for Sunday: 1.614 M viewers and a .6 rating. If the family doesn't have some new drama naturally I'll be looking to see what production dreams up.

I think that they only count actual children not miscarriages. Jubilee was actually a miscarriage not a stillbirth albeit a very late miscarriage. They tend to say x children on earth and y in heaven if they follow standard fundie speak.

I doubt the book brought in huge chunks of cash. Not even one copy was purchased for our county library system and there are not big displays of it in stores. In fact I haven't even seen a copy anywhere. Apparently to read it, I'll have to get it from Amazon and I'm refusing. Not to mention, they'll be splitting what profits they do get at least four ways if not more.

I think they may use pajamas at home when not filming. They don't want any but the very youngest filmed in other than street clothing. So they either sleep in regular clothes when the film crew is there or get up and change before answering the door for the crew.

Not those as they don't generally exist for reality shows.

TLC needs to be lashed with a wet noodle for their false advertising. The doctor Michelle saw was not a fertility specialist but a high risk pregnancy specialist. TLC did all they could to give a false impression.

I believe it's 90% scripted. As scripted as you can go with pre-schoolers. They have to be able to do lighting set up, know where the filming is headed, etc. Are they doing things that they would do anyway? As long as they stick with that, I'm OK with the series for the adults. I'm not really OK with the kids working.

Three isn't that unusual with the distance that the couple's parents live apart. Those women in Florida know the groom and the groom's parents so it's pretty normal that they would want to have a party at least partially in his (and his mother's) honor.

Rather than @someone, if you quote a snippet from their post then they'll get a notification if they allowed notifications. I'm antiquated enough to dislike @s everywhere also.

Part of what bothers me about kids on reality TV is that in most states there is no protection for them. There is no provision for money to be put in trust for them. There are no restrictions on how many hours a day or hours without a break that they can work. There is no requirement for an impartial advocate such a set teacher. Faith is put in the parents to see that the children are not put in a bad situation. I see a big difference in children portraying a character and a child being themselves. The character is not them and they go home and put it away.

My belief is that TLC set the whole thing up. Saying Jim Bob called was the excuse of the week. It's like when they said we decided to go to Biltmore House. No, production decided you were going to Biltmore House and made all the arrangements. Plus the doctor isn't a fertility specialist. He's a high risk OB.

In my household all the kids except Josie would be expected to get themselves ready including brushing their own hair and Josie should be well on her way to doing it solo. The way they brag about being parents while not knowing how to mature kids along the path is a huge issue to me.

I don't want to absolutely call it a dig, but I think it may have been. The Duggars tend to think of themselves as so holy and religious and I think it was a reminder that other Christians can be fine Christians without going Gothard or Duggar.

I'm 99% sure that they took several days to film the entire Easter episode. It's just the way filming works. Each time they move sites, lighting has to be set up and checked and rechecked. It's probably extremely boring for the children if sufficient fun activities aren't included.

No truth at all in any of that. They don't want to register with the IRS as a charity as they'd then have to deal with all of those requirements. Their house was never written off as a church and they currently hold church in a converted warehouse type place. The property records in their county are open to the public and it's been easy for years to see that they pay the same property tax rate as everyone else. :) It's an internet rumor that comes up periodically no matter how often the actual facts are presented.

The Duggars do pay property taxes. All one has to do is check the county property records. I've never encountered anything showing the Duggars are an official charity. I didn't see Will have a meltdown over the cake. I saw some fussing and whining. I also didn't see Jen engage in snipping and arguing with him. I doubt I would have given him cookies, but I'm on the strict side of the parenting scale. I don't expect them to donate their TLC salary and I don't think any of the other TLC families have been known for donating their salaries. I do think there is a great tendency to listen to the TLC reps especially after a couple of seasons and begin to get too much of an attitude. I can see some tendencies that way. The participants get a lot of attention while filming and it's probably tough to counter that expectation. I do hope they stop when the current contract expires or possibly do a couple of specials a year.

Didn't she die?

Oops it wasn't Santa Barbara, but Bakersfield. Still a housewife though. Tracking back it seems the whole Oprah story was an internet fabrication also.

I would have bought Michelle was being serious instead of ticked off if she'd said anything kind to Anna. Anything. Instead she was stone faced as if the whole thing was a major imposition on her life. With Michelle to me it's a sign if she can't manage at least one fake smile or giggle.

Oh, yes, Razing Ruth was indeed a complete fake. She was really a housewife in Santa Barbara who had pulled stunts like this related to other reality shows.

Can you imagine trying to get all the parents and teachers from two pre-school classes to sign waivers for filming? That's if they got by the administration? They might manage to get agreement to film a special event. I've noticed on other reality shows graduations are popular since other people will already be filming.

This is true. Not responding to production cues, being late, being dull, getting sick a lot are also techniques used by talent when wanting out. Forgetting is also very useful. That's a good question as to whether the contract was written strictly obligating Jen and Bill or whether since it seems trying for a family was being considered from the beginning it included any future children or was written as family.

About the filming, my guess the episode was filmed over at least three or four days. TLC is well known for these "one day" events. However, they really don't work out that way. It takes on average four days of filming to get 22 to 23 minutes of television (kind of trade rule of thumb). The hospital was probably on one day, dying eggs was another day, the trip to the farm was probably one very long day, and then the "talking head" sessions were at least one other day. As I've said on another thread, we have a relative who practices entertainment law. One thing relative does is negotiate people out of performing contracts. Sometimes it goes easily and other times it's very long, tedious, and expensive. The first thing to remember is that Bill and Jen of their own free will signed a binding contract to film for x years. They can't up and decide to stop without incurring financial penalties. Those are built into the contract to protect the network. Can they get someone to negotiate them out of the contract that they willingly signed? Probably but it will likely involve elements of paying a penalty or continuing to work but at a reduced level or extending the term of the contract while reducing episodes or whatever the two sides can mutually agree upon. If they go to court or get taken to court for failure to perform (I don't see this happening), their biggest obstacle is that they as apparently adults of sound mind entered into a contract to do a, b, and c. The judge will in all likelihood view as strictly a contract case and enforce the contract as written.

I believe it was a foreclosure when Jim Bob picked it up.