Stuck to ODB (lost unaired Spike TV reality show; 2004)
Ol' Dirty Bastard.
Status: Lost
Stuck to ODB (aka Stuck on Dirty) was a reality TV series created by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese that was produced by the American television network Spike TV. The series was filmed in 2004 and challenged an average man to remain within 10 feet of Ol' Dirty Bastard (an American rapper and founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan) for an entire week in order to win a cash prize.
History
Before the show in its final form would come to be, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese had initially come up with the idea for a reality show titled Handcuffed to Mike Tyson that (as the title implied) would feature an ordinary man who would have to spend an entire week handcuffed to professional boxer Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson was initially on board with this idea but subsequently backed out following a meeting with Spike TV executives. Wernick and Reese were then tasked to find someone "less controversial" to take Mike Tyson's place within the series, at which point Ol' Dirty Bastard entered the equation.
The show was subsequently rebranded Stuck to ODB, and a casting call was soon put out to find "the whitest guy in Queens" who would appear alongside Ol' Dirty Bastard in the series. The person selected, a man named Bob who came from an Italian American family, was then flown out alongside Wernick and Reese to Ol' Dirty Bastard's home turf of Brooklyn, at which point filming of the series would commence.
Throughout the course of filming, Bob and Ol' Dirty Bastard would have electronic tethers attached to their legs with GPS technology built into them. These tethers would detect how close Bob and Ol' Dirty Bastard were to each other, and if the duo were ever more than 10 feet apart, an alarm would sound and Bob would be docked a portion of his initial prize money. As a result, Bob and Ol' Dirty Bastard had to do everything together throughout the course of filming, to the extent of having to sleep in the same room as each other.
Ol' Dirty Bastard was notorious both in his music and his personal life for his manic, unpredictable tendencies, and this led to many bizarre incidents taking place over the course of filming, such as Dirty and his mother having a heated argument over the phone which Bob was forced to stand there and listen to, Dirty hiring a 250-pound stripper to give Bob a lap dance at 3 AM, and a fugitive named Panther staying over at Dirty's home and sleeping on the floor next to Dirty and Bob's beds (with Wernick and Reese actually helping Panther flee to Philadelphia by sending him there in one of their cars). Staged events within the series turned out similarly, with Bob and Dirty being sent down to Coney Island at one point while the latter was hung over, resulting in Dirty passing out on the Cyclone roller coaster.
Dirty would also briefly spend time in Bob's regular habitat during filming as well, meeting Bob's family and (badly) playing golf at a public course. But despite the numerous strange events that took place throughout the week, Bob only went more than 10 feet away from Dirty on one occasion, during an instance in which Dirty had gotten Bob so drunk that Bob had to rush to a bathroom to throw up while Ol' Dirty Bastard was passed out on the floor. As a result of remaining close to Dirty for as long as he did and for "[rolling] with the punches", Bob would receive a high payout from appearing on the show, ultimately winning $25,000.
Availability
Three to four episodes of Stuck to ODB were shot before production wrapped in the Summer of 2004, with some sources stating that the show was set to begin airing on September 14th of that same year.[1] But for unknown reasons, this air date would not be met and the possibility of the show's release was subsequently thrown into jeopardy on November 13th, 2004 when Ol' Dirty Bastard tragically died from an accidental drug overdose at age 35. Following his death, the release of the show was further delayed, with a spokesman for Spike TV stating that “We expressed our condolences to the family and right now things are on hold due to the tragic circumstances.”[2]
But despite Ol' Dirty Bastard's tragic death, a possible release of the show was still not off the table by any means, with Ol' Dirty Bastard's manager Jared Weisfeld stating in an interview with New York Daily News that “It was mine and his mom’s call to air the show, and we decided that for his fans this was a no-brainer. Dirty would have wanted it and the show has to air.”[3] Indeed, many of the articles discussing the series at this time merely claimed that it was delayed as opposed to cancelled, with the show reportedly being slated to air on Spike TV at some point in early 2005.[4]
But in spite of Weisfeld's comments, Stuck to ODB would ultimately go unaired due to its comedic tone clashing with the tragic circumstances surrounding it, with no clips or stills from the show ever being made public. To date, the show has never been released, and while Paul Wernick claimed in a 2013 interview with Grantland that he was in possession of an hour and a half's worth of footage of the show, he stated that he "[didn't] know how Spike would feel" about him uploading it, leaving its release unlikely.[5]
External Links
References
- ↑ Stereogum article about the series. Retrieved 24 Oct '22
- ↑ New York Post article about the delay of the show following Ol' Dirty Bastard's death. Retrieved 24 Oct '22
- ↑ HipHopDX article reiterating Weisfeld's comments. Retrieved 24 Oct '22
- ↑ Rolling Stone article about Ol' Dirty Bastard's death that mentions the series. Retrieved 24 Oct '22
- ↑ Grantland interview with Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese about the series. Retrieved 24 Oct '22