In 2006, the TLC Channel—home to shows like Sex Sent Me to the E.R. and My Five Wives—was looking for its next hit. “The network wanted something outside the box,” explained producer Ronnie Krensel, who was charged with finding an unexpected host for a reality show about families. Krensel brought network executives a number of choices. After the first two, he could see them yawning. Then he showed them the third—“and they all sat up straight in their chairs,” Krensel said. This option? Shmuley Boteach, the rabbi best known as the author of the international best-seller Kosher Sex. “I brought him in as a joke, the sorbet of the meeting,” Krensel told me, “but he ‘popped,’ and they loved him.”
The result was Shalom in the Home, a one-hour, primetime self-help show in which the big-bearded, blue-eyed Boteach is given 10 days to help a troubled family acknowledge its problems and find ways to solve them. In each episode, Boteach drives to a family in distress in the “Shalom Mobile Home,” outfitted with multimedia gear, from which the rabbi watches the family interact. Throughout the show, Boteach observes their conflicts from his trailer and whispers advice through their earpieces.
Read Full Article »