'Trading Spouses' crew calls it a wrap
Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:04 AM PDT
By Amy M. E. Fischer
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe TV cameras are gone. The "new wife" has returned home, wherever that is.
Now, West Longview residents in the 3400 block of Oak Street are burning with curiosity to find out what happened inside their neighbors' house during the taping of reality TV show "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy."
The weeklong filming ended Monday, but don't grab the remote yet. The FOX TV episode featuring Longview residents Mark and Teresa Nelson won't air for months. A date hasn't been set, FOX producers said last week.
Meanwhile, the Nelsons can't discuss anything regarding the show, in which wives from two families in different cities trade places for several days.
But what friends and neighbors observed last week provide tantalizing clues about the episode's contents -- and a dose of disillusionment for those who thought reality TV was straight-up real.
Camera crews followed Mark Nelson to work at Nipp & Tuck Inc. drywall company last Wednesday, said Longview resident Vicky Schierscher, whose family owns the business. She and her husband, Joe, have known the Nelsons for years.
"They're really basically normal people ... a really nice couple," Schierscher said. "They are wild rockers, though. That's their nightlife style. They live a normal homelife."
The 40-something duo are members of the garage/rock/punk band "The Shiny Things," which has a fan base in Portland. Teresa Nelson, a candy-apple redhead with a penchant for black clothing, is the lead singer. Mark Nelson, a former youth minister who wears a short, bouffant hairdo, plays lead guitar and writes songs.
A friend in another band submitted their names to "Trading Spouses," which was looking for a "rock star personality," said Schierscher, 53. The Nelsons flew to Los Angeles to interview for the show, she said.
In Teresa's absence last week, the band played a gig at Sabala's in Portland -- and the "new wife" had to sing lead vocals, said Schierscher, who arrived just as the show ended.
"She seemed to be having a good time, so I think they got along pretty well," she said of Mark Nelson and his substitute spouse, whom neighbors described as an "ordinary-looking" blonde woman.
But reality TV junkies know a show like "Trading Spouses" isn't complete -- or satisfying -- without conflict, and they may get a fat slice of it.
Oak Street resident Darlene House, 64, said she saw the blonde mom talking to the production crew outside the house on her last day in Longview. Then she sat down on the steps and cried for several minutes, said House.
"I was standing in the road," she confessed. "I might as well be the nosy neighbor -- take a good look."
Diane Johnson, who lives across the street, said when the "new wife" got in the taxi at the end of the week to return home, Mark Nelson, who was standing outside, shot his arms in the air in a gesture of triumph and relief.
"It was cute. It was like, 'I can't wait for Teresa to come home,'" said Johnson, 66, who frequently caught herself looking out the window last week.
"You can't resist it, you know? Something's gonna happen," she said.
Although the Oct. 18 Daily News story about Longview's "Trading Spouses" episode didn't say where the Nelsons live, people figured it out quickly. Hoping for a glimpse of the action, rubberneckers drove up and down Oak Street, and some even stopped to look, neighbors said.
Oak Street resident Kindra Chinchen, 28, said a carload of young people drove by the house Friday night yelling, "Yeah! Trading Spouses!"
The house was easy to spot. All week, two huge, modular trailers and several white vans were parked on the back lawn. Cameras were set up in the yard, and lights blazed on the home's exterior.
Neighbors saw the scripted moments of reality TV. For instance, every time Nelson and the "new wife" got in the car and pulled out of the driveway, they stopped at the corner and waited for production crews to pile into their vehicles and follow them, Chinchen said.
Johnson said cameras re-shot the scene in which Teresa Nelson returned home Sunday. Initially, her husband wasn't outside, and she carried her luggage in herself. The second time, he came out to meet her and took her bags, Johnson said.
"I thought, 'Oh, this is good,'" she said with relish.
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