Celeb Reality Shows We'd Like to See - By Larry Carroll
Joe Francis/WireImage.com

Joe Francis

The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" franchise is young, wealthy and morally tenuous, constantly surrounded by handheld cameras and half-naked women, and has most of the potential viewing public peripherally aware of his existence. Has there ever been a reality star as ripe for the picking? We'd like to see a dating show that has Francis turning over a new leaf and searching for the right girl to settle down with. By day, he'd be begging 17-year-olds to lift up their shirts; at night, he'd have a conservative librarian giving him a peck on the cheek during their third date. It could be a reminder to us all that real women aren't the type you find at South Padre Island -- and that Paris Hilton is a poor substitute for the kind of woman you'd really want to take to Paris.

Dustin Diamond/WireImage.com

Dustin Diamond

Every few months, the Artist Formerly Known as Screech manages to get himself back into the headlines. Whether he's selling T-shirts to save his house or engaging in head-scratching sex tapes, this 30-year-old former "Saved By the Bell" star always seems like he's up to something, and the only thing missing is a camera crew. Believe it or not, Diamond's only true reality-show exposure was on "Celebrity Fit Club," which didn't even scratch the surface of the chess playing, bass guitar wielding, wannabe comedian, quasi-porn star we've come to know and love, sort of. To make things even more interesting, let's see a "Bell" reality show that follows the whole bunch of them. Only then will we learn what the elusive Lark Voorhies is up to these days.

Laruen Bacall & Shirley MacLaine/WireImage.com

Lauren Bacall & Shirley MacLaine

They're both living legends, they still resurface for movies every other year or so, and this duo of Hollywood survivors is equally unwilling to censor themselves. In recent years, Bacall has dissed Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Frank Sinatra, while MacLaine's beliefs in past lives have resulted in some equally eyebrow-raising soundbites. Rather than "Bewitched" remakes and commercials for the Tuesday morning discount chain, let's see these two trailblazers team up to open our eyes one last time. What is it like to be an older woman in Hollywood in an age of iPods, YouTube and Paris Hilton? How, exactly, do they spend their days? What memories are they willing to share that could rewrite history? In some ways, Bacall and MacLaine could get a late-career rewrite as a "Simple Life"-like pairing; in others, they could actually make for the rare reality show that would teach us something.

Fred Thompson/WireImage.com

Fred Thompson

In the last Presidential election, we saw people like Howard Dean and John McCain dragging politics into the 21st century via the Internet, to varying degrees of success. But isn't it about time a candidate embraces the potential of having a weekly show that chronicles the ups and down of the campaign trail? Obviously, candidates like Barack, Hillary and America's Mayor have more to lose than gain from such a daring move, so we'd like to see VH1 target the former Republican senator from Tennessee, if he does, indeed, decide to throw his hat into the ring. With a larger-than-life personality and a built-in awareness from all those appearances in movies like "Die Hard 2" and "Cape Fear," a peek into his daily life would be far more compelling than, say, John Edwards. And, Dick Wolf would probably be willing to throw in a few bucks and co-produce, since between takes Thompson could turn to the camera and film pick-up scenes to be inserted into that week's episode of "Law & Order."

Madonna/WireImage.com

Madonna

Everybody knows who she is, and she finally seems to have reached that tipping point where her personal life is more fascinating than any sort of art she could produce. Some might argue that the legendary singer has nothing to gain from a reality show, but we'd respond that she's arguably the most self-publicized woman in the history of the world. If asked, Madge might just be willing to subject herself to a 24/7 version of the revealing "Truth or Dare" documentary that had a hand in inventing the reality genre. Who could resist watching an aging legend push her baby stroller around London while trying to come up with a cone bra-esque gimmick for her next reinvention? Add in rapidly-fading husband Guy Ritchie, and you've got a "Being Bobby Brown"-like disaster waiting to happen. Hey, it can't be any worse than "Swept Away," right?

In addition to his regular contributions for MSN TV, Larry Carroll is a reporter for MTV News and a pop-culture junkie. His writing has appeared on Web sites such as CountingDown, FilmStew, E!Online and IGN Film Force.
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