Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends
Format Documentary
Starring Louis Theroux
Country of origin Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
No. of series 3
No. of episodes 17
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 David Mortimer
Running time 50 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Two
Picture format 16:9
Original run January 15, 1998 – October 30, 2000
External links
IMDb profile

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends is a television documentary series, in which Louis Theroux gives viewers the chance to get brief glimpses of things they wouldn't normally come into contact with. In most cases this means interviewing people with extreme beliefs of some kind, or just generally belonging to subcultures not known to exist by most or just frowned upon. It was first shown in the UK on BBC2.

Louis Theroux's view on Weird Weekends:

“ Weird weekends sets out to discover the genuinely odd in the most ordinary setting. To me, it's almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended. The show is laughing at me, adrift in their world, as much as at them. I don't have to play up that stuff. I'm not a matinee idol disguised as a nerd. ”

Contents

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Series One (1998)

# Title Broadcast Synopsis
1.1 "Born Again Christians" 15 January In Dallas, Louis meets TV evangelists Marcus and Joni Lamb, and joins a group of hardline Christians called The Family as they visit the Deep Ellum entertainment district.
1.2 "U.F.O. Hunters" 22 January This episode follows several people who believe in UFOs. One of these is a man called Thor Templar, the self titled "Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate". He claims to have killed more than twenty aliens.
1.3 "Porn Stars" 29 January Is being a porn star really the dream job for any man? This episode offers a look at very different sides of the porn industry, as Louis interviews both male and female porn stars. He reveals the problems a lot of porn actors face, be it not getting a job in straight porn and therefore having to do gay porn, or not getting an erection when it is needed.
1.4 "Survivalists" 5 February In Idaho, Louis meets military enthusiasts and right-wing patriots who are preparing for a global catastrophe, including trips to survivalists' store Safetrek and a mountain refuge for conspiracy theorists called Almost Heaven. Louis also visits the Aryan Nation Church and helps to build a straw-bale home. The episode focuses on the survivalism movement and communities formed around it. The fact that several self-proclaimed survivalists were also hippies and environmentalists is a recurring theme.
Special "Weird Christmas" 23 December Louis invites someone from each of the four episodes of season 1 to his home for Christmas.

[edit] Series Two (1999)

# Title Broadcast Synopsis
2.1 "Infomercials" 12 May Louis attempts to become a presenter on Florida's Home Shopping Network TV channel and meets the people who invent, sell and make a fortune from products such as the Win Gym.
2.2 "Swingers" 26 May Louis meets a couple from Southern California who have been hosting swinging parties for countless years. He visits one of these very popular parties to find out what drives couples to want to swap partners. This programme also offers a brief look into other kinds of swinging through an organisation that has a database of members that are rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Under this system, people rated highly are invited to exclusive parties intended to keep out unattractive, socially awkward, or otherwise undesirable people.
2.3 "Black Nationalism" 2 June American black nationalist groups have been branded anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist and even racist by the mainstream press. Louis Theroux goes to Harlem in New York to meet its proponents, and meets the Reverend Al Sharpton, the main point of contact in the black nationalist movement. Theroux also meets Khalid Abdul Muhammad, dubbed by the media 'the most dangerous man in America' and visits the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge, who believe that blacks are the true Israelites and that all English monarchs until early modern times were black. Theroux also joins Al Sharpton on a march on Wall Street to protest at the shooting by New York police of Amadou Diallo, who was shot 19 times.
2.4 "Demolition Derby" 9 June Louis has to overcome his nerves to enter a demolition derby in car-mad Michigan.
2.5 "Off-Off Broadway" 15 June Louis meets the hordes of out-of-work actors in New York as they try to land a part – and even goes on an audition himself, for a job on a Norwegian cruise ship.
2.6 "Wrestling" 6 July Louis takes a look at different types of wrestling from the high profile WCW to people organizing events in their spare time. He also visits the WCW Power Plant, a training facility where some of the WCW wrestlers started out. The training he receives there from Dwayne Bruce shows him that some wrestlers will not break kayfabe (the illusion of fiction being fact) and will take exception when their profession's authenticity is questioned.

[edit] Series Three (2000)

# Title Broadcast Synopsis
3.1 "Hypnotists" 25 September Louis meets a Las Vegas hypnotist who claims he can make dreams come true and meets a California man who teaches chat-up techniques.
3.2 "Indian Gurus" 2 October Louis travels to India to witness Westerners seeking enlightenment. In Goa he meets 57-year old American astrologer Deepak who studies meditation. He moves on to meet Mike, who is a follower of Swami Ganapathi Sachchidananda, and Amma who claims spiritual powers through hugging people. He joins Amma on a pilgrimage with 400 believers on their three-month tour of India. He also meets Swami Ganapathi Sachchidananda, but is not convinced that the Swami's techniques differ from those of magician David Copperfield, whose stage show the Swami once enjoyed while visiting Las Vegas.
3.3 "Boer Separatists" 9 October Louis meets white separatists who dream of building non-black communities in post-apartheid South Africa, including Neo-Nazi leader Eugène Terre'Blanche.
3.4 "Body Building" 16 October Louis travels to California, home of the body beautiful, to see if he can join the world of extreme body building. After working out with Guy Grundy, a leading amateur, he soon realises he is not cut out to be a muscle man and goes off in search of another role in the bodybuilding world. Theroux travels to Charles Peeple's farm in Connecticut, where Peeple's has transformed his farm into a playboy mansion for female body builders. While here, Theroux gets a part in a female muscle film being made at the farm.
3.5 "Thai Brides" 23 October Louis visits a Bangkok marriage agency where Western men meet Thai brides.
3.6 "Gangsta Rap" 30 October Louis travels to America's South to have a look at the gangsta rap scene known as the "Dirty South". He starts his own Gangsta rap, having a CD cover designed for him as well as getting the rappers Reece and Bigelow to write a song for him to perform on a rap radio show. Other parts include him interviewing pimp turned rapper Mello T, as well as rap superstar Master P.

[edit] Book

In 2005 Louis released a book called "The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures" where he revisits people he previously interviewed for the Weird Weekends documentaries. He attempts to track down 10 of his subjects, up to 7 years after the shows, claiming a desire to see what "changes in their subcultures might say about the changes in the world at large", or at least "curious of what became of some of the odd folk [he] got to know".

He tracks down Thor Templar (alien resistance commander), JJ Michaels (porn star), Ike Turner (legendary musician and ex-husband of Tina, from an un-completed episode), Mike Cain (survivalist), Haley (prostitute), Jerry Gruidl (Aryan Nations), Mello T (pimp turned rapper), Oscody, Marshall Sylver, and Lamb & Lynx (the singing White Nationalist twins - aged 11).

[edit] DVD release

Weird Weekends has been released on PAL DVD in a number of best-of sets. Originally, Vol.1/Vol.2 and Vol.3/Vol.4 were released as two disc sets, before being split.

  • Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.1
    • Porn Stars
    • Survivalists
  • Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.3
    • Swingers
    • Boer Separatists
  • Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.4

[edit] Links