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National Geographic Channel has greenlighted Are You Tougher than a Boy Scout?, a new unscripted series from Deadliest Catch executive producer Thom Beers, the network announced at TCA today. On the show, adults will compete with the country’s top Boy Scouts for merit badges in challenges based on the Scouts’ 100-year-old handbook. “I was three badges short of my Eagle Scout badge, and I know I am not alone,” said Beers. “This series is going to allow people like me one more chance to achieve such an incredible milestone. Plus, it’s authentic, has a fun and interesting set of circumstances and underdog characters with a story to tell. And frankly, who doesn’t love the Boy Scouts?” Production of the six-episode series, from Beers’ Original Prods., is set to begin this spring for a premiere later this year.
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What a good idea this is.
But Thom asks, “who doesn’t love the Boy Scouts?” In Hollywood, plenty. The organization is a little too conservative for showbiz. But since showbiz doesn’t know what the country likes, this show will do just fine.
Instantly Jerry Sandusky’s favorite tv show.
Who doesn’t like the Boy Scouts? Well, all the gay kids, kids perceived to be gay, kids’ moms or dads who are gay or lesbian, the heterosexual children of gay or lesbian parents, all of whom have been thrown out of the this antigay hate group because they were born gay. You should Google boys scouts antigay and see all the horror stories you come up with. Fairly recently, two boys and his mom were thrown out because the mom, the only person who volunteer to be a troop leader, was a lesbian. It’s the tip of the iceberg. NatGeo has no class or taste in coming up with this disgraceful idea. Why didn’t NatGeo choose an organization that bans Jews, blacks, Latinos, etc. Oh, it’s just easier, still today, to target LGBT. Perhaps next there will be a reality show with the KKK. Blacks can compete to see if they can achieve physical feats in duplication of the KKK, another group that hates LGBTs, just like the national Boys Scouts of America.Maybe they show the Scout Troop leaders discover a parent or child is gay and throw them out of the organization right there on camera! What a disgrace.
In the real world of scouting, we don’t talk about sex with the boys or they’re parents. There are just a few incidents where gays bring up they’re personal lives and the media picks it up. We have plenty of known gays in scouting and no one cares. just as it should be. Maybe this show will help clear the air and tell a positive story.
Terry!
In your next anti-Boy Scout, be sure to mention Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and Edi Amin.
No rant is complete without comparing [insert object of hate here] to those villains.
And no one would deny there have been *some* injustices as you cite. But ScoutGuy makes a great point. What point does someone seek to make by announcing their sexuality in a Boy Scout setting?
It seems like the “mentioner” is openly trying to lobby for his/her group’s acceptance by kids.
That’s extremely bad taste. It’s as icky as if some dad told the troop of adolescents that he likes leggy red-heads.
Sexual preference has no place being mentioned in the Boy Scouts. If one wants to lobby for greater acceptance, and less mistreatment of, the LGBT community, there a thousand more-fitting forums to do that.
Feel free. I’m on your side in that fight. Just not here.
Actually, the Boy Scouts mentioned sexuality first. They ban all gays. If you think bigotry is contrary to the Scout Law, and think being honest about yourself is not, then you will be thrown out. It’s not about sex, it’s about opposing bigotry. Check out the novel, A Scout is Brave, if you want to see what the modern Boy Scouts is like.
Or, I could just look at my experience from when I got my Eagle Scout 3 years ago… Sure, the organization has had some flaws, but grouping everyone involved into the same category is ridiculous. Are all teachers bigots because a few of them have been caught with antigay/racist views? Boy Scouts teaches some incredible life skills that most kids will never have the opportunity to learn elsewhere. It is a real shame that a few people have given it such a bad name…
I would have bought this pitch in a minute. Great idea, cheap, containable, human interest, adventure, guys hanging in the woods. Hope it kills all the snarky, mean programming.
The Mormon takeover of the Boy Scouts has upset quite a lot of old timers who don’t like taking marching orders from Salt Lake City.
And the title sounds like a child molester’s threat.
“Mormons” have not taken over the Boy Scouts…and neither have the Methodists or the Catholics or the Elks Club. Yes, some local councils have a majority of LDS members/units….but most don’t. Some “old timers” don’t like change but as far as I see it, the change in the BSA is driven by most Scouters, not just LDS, and it is being driven by the world around us. Change/adapt or past into history. What we teach remains the same but HOW we teach it must change. May our second 100 years be even better than the first 100 years.
Both the LDS and the Roman Catholic Church, both virulently homophobic, with histories of racism and anit-Semitism, are in bed with Boy Scouts. Google Boy Scouts and LDS and you’ll find a photo of two smiling WHITE boys. No blacks, no Jews, no gays, no atheists, etc. Boy Scouts of America stands in disgrace just as the Daughters of the American Revolution is now a marginalized organization. Maybe NatGeo can build a fence around the set for this show, that allows all the people thrown out of the organization based on their religious values and born sexual orientation to watch through an electrified fence. As for NatGeo, next they might do a reality show on the KKK and the Aryan Brotherhood of North America. Hate is hate is hate. Now NatGeo has allowed its brand to go hateful and discriminatory. Farewell, NatGeo.
Terry,
It may seem as if Boy Scouting in general is “racist” but I’ll tell you from my personal experience that it isn’t. When I was a Youth, which was less than five years ago, we had a numerous amount of Asians and African American boys. No one, and I mean no one, thought of them as different or treated them any differently. The fact of the matter is not that the organization is racist as you say, it has more to do with a child’s upbringing. Parents and kids don’t know about the Scouting program in general so they never involve themselves in it.
Funny how you compare the Boy Scouts of America to the KKK or Nazis, who pride themselves on killing those they hate. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe there is a difference between joining an organization to kill Jews or Blacks and joining one to learn how to save lives, survive in the wild, learn how to be a good leader, and learn ethics like the scout law.
Im an Eagle Scout and just graduated from USC film school, only if I was older and more powerful in this town, I could have created a better tv series about the Boy Scouts, but of course someone had to beat me to it.
This show seems like it will be really awesome ! Im an Eagle scout from New Jersey and with all my scouting expericences working at camp and for council this seems like it will be interesting to watch. I really wish i could participate in this to show America exactly how the Eagle Scouts from Jersey are some of the toughest scouts around.
I’m as liberal as they come and I’m tired of people saying the BSA is anti-gay. Simply not true. I didn’t grow up in the Scouts but in college I worked as a camp counselor at a Boy Scout camp for two summers. I needed a summer job (a friend offered to hire me) and I had the assumption it would be full of bigots.
Thankfully, I was proved wrong. I found the people I worked with to be compassionate, bright, and tolerant. In fact, they were some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. I can think of at least three people who I worked with there who are “out”.
Of course there are going to be pockets of intolerance in the BSA. You will find that with any organization.
And Terry, in my two summers there, kids from every ethnicity and denomination attended. From the inner city of Minneapolis, from Canada, and from as far away as Utah.
Find somewhere else to do your trolling or better yet actually take the time to be better informed.
I grew up in the scouting organization. Although I am only 21, it has been a huge part of my life and character for the last 15 years, and I am proud to say that I am an Eagle Scout and a 4 year veteran of our local summer camp staff. I think it is a wonderful idea to shed some light on what scouting truly is all about, and those of you who are making negative comments about the organization prove just how much this show is needed.
Look up a list of famous Eagle Scouts and you will find Athletes such as Hank Aaron, Politicians such as Gerald Ford, tons of Medal of Honor recipients, CEO’s, Astronauts such as Neil Armstrong, Scientists, Educators, the list goes on. Are there some cases of leaders of the organization who dont understand what it means to be a scout? of course. But to generalize that intolerance and ignorance is to not only insult the BSA, but is to insult many of the important figures in American History over the last 100 years.
To those who only see the darkness that must always come with the light, I will most certainly pray for you tonight that the Lord may guide you to greater wisdom and prosperity in the future.
I’m from Oklahoma and I am 18 years old. I earned the rank of Eagle in 2010. This is awesome that there is a show about the skills and hard work that Lord Baden Powell came up with when the Boy Scouts started in England. It is not just for one ethnicity or religious group. This program is for the young leaders of America to have fun and explore the outdoors. I am now an adult leader for my troop that I eagled out in, and I tell every single adult, no matter what age, this is for the boys!! Us adults are there to guide and influence the youth in every way possible. I can’t wait to see this show!! Im super excited!!
For everyone who keeps saying that the BSA is not anti-gay and that homosexuality never comes up unless a gay person mentions it, then why did BSA tell the Supreme Court that BSA “teaches that homosexuality is not morally straight”? That is a direct quote; you can look it up yourself. Was BSA lying to the Supreme Court?
If BSA does not teach that homosexuality is immoral, it would have lost its 2000 Supreme Court case, and it would have no legal basis to exclude gays from membership. The BSA teaches that homosexuality is immoral. They say so themselves. To claim otherwise is to claim that BSA lied to the Supreme Court.
Nobody is disagreeing with you on this. What people are trying to say is that MOST people involved in Scouting don’t care about your sexuality. There are a select few that do, and it is sad that they have given the organization the name that they have. There is not an equivalent program out there for young men to have the kinds of experiences that the Boy Scouts offer. At a local level, the program is typically very accepting (and no, I am not saying always. There will always be bigots.)
You almost have it right. A select few took it upon themselves to speak for the entirety of BSA and gave testimony to the Supreme Court that the entire BSA teaches that homosexuality is immoral. BSA retained the right to exclude gays from membership based on that testimony. Without that testimony, there would be openly gay members in BSA today.
Those select few represent you and every other member of BSA. No one within the BSA structure since has come forward to state that those select few were wrong or misguided, and a few local units who did speak out have had their BSA charter removed. After that testimony to the Supreme Court, it became the choice of every individual whether they want to continue association with a group whose national leadership claims the entire organization teaches that homosexuality is immoral.
I question the notion that “At a local level, the program is typically very accepting”. I challenge you to find one local BSA unit, a troop or a pack, that has a non-discrimination statement that includes homosexuals.
Boy Scouts teaches a scout to have a religious faith. Most Christian faith today do not believe in gays. So the Boy Scouts say that gays are not allow because what parts of Christianity says. Don’t blame the BSA for being but the overly Conservative Christian that try to run BSA
The BSA is not a Christian organization. They recognize over 38 different faith groups in their religious awards. Maybe you are thinking of the Royal Rangers? They are a Christian, Scout-like organization.
Besides, many Christian churches in the U.S. *do* recognize and accept openly gay people as members, including most mainline Protestant churches. Are these churches not part of BSA?