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Producers Help Homeless After Filming Their Lives

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By CATHERINE TSAI, The Associated Press

Published: February 2, 2008

DENVER - Dirty and disheveled, Keith Peeler had been living on the streets for nearly a year when a crew of twentysomethings with cameras jumped out of a van and headed straight for him. Some of Peeler's homeless buddies wanted to run.

But the young people had an offer: $10 a day, plus close to minimum wage, to appear on what they were calling "Homeless Real World," an Internet spoof of MTV's reality show.
Peeler and his pals took the cash. Over several weeks, the producers of the show had the cast members compete to build the best cardboard house, sent them grocery shopping in a well-to-do Denver neighborhood (the homeless got dirty looks) and paid for them to golf on a public course (they got kicked off).

The idea has angered some advocates for the homeless, who said the series, which has yet to be aired on the Web, exploited the homeless people and mocked them cruelly.

Yet the story had a happy ending, of sorts: Four of the six cast members, including Peeler, have gotten off the streets with help from the producers.

After shooting was completed, ManiaTV's filmmakers drove several cast members to detox centers, some more than once, and drove another to job interviews.

"It was time to come in from the cold," Peeler, 53, said recently. He and fellow cast member Johnny "Sgt. Stutters" Kibodeaux, 51, have been sober for almost nine months and are living at rehab centers, where they are working as kitchen managers.

Producer Darwyn Metzger said the filmmakers became attached to the homeless men.

"Once you make that personal connection with them, you feel you have to go above and beyond," Metzger said. "I think we were all inspired by the fact they were very honest and had good hearts."

ManiaTV is pressing ahead with plans to run the show on the Internet sometime this year, with at least 10 episodes.

Founded in Denver, Los Angeles-based ManiaTV is an online entertainment business whose antics have included a live, unscripted show with prankster-comedian Tom Green and dancers in fishnet stockings.

"The homeless were exploited and used in order to create a sensationalized situation," said Denver Rescue Mission spokeswoman Greta Walker. "This is a horrible attempt to tell the story of the homeless population in metro Denver."

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