Must-watch clip: Shark Tank’s millionaires emotionally argue for manufacturing overseas

Shark Tank is unquestionably one of the best broadcast reality TV shows on today, and on Friday night, it got even better by wading into both emotional and newsworthy territory during its final segment. Mark Cuban’s addition to the show has made it consistently must-watch television.

The final presentation of the episode was Sparta, North Carolina, resident Donny McCall, who invented the Invis-A-Rack, which transforms a pickup truck into one with a rack in 30 seconds. He wanted $100,000 for 10 percent in his company, and although his product was cool, his major focus was on using his company to support his economically devastated region.

Although he started with something absurd (“the lord handed me this idea”), his focus on wanting to “bring some jobs and some hope to my small town” created one of the most interesting segments in the show’s history. Essentially, the sharks argued that he had to agree to manufacture overseas to do it cheaper, which is the only way he could build his company and thus have a positive impact on his family and community.

They didn’t really discuss the possible consequences of manufacturing overseas, where labor is cheaper. Some of those consequences were revealed in two stunning, must-read stories last week, in which The New York Times focused on Apple and revealed How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work and how, In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad.

I love my iPhone, but these stories make me sick. Apple defends its behavior and its CEO claims they do more than most companies, which is perhaps true, but that doesn’t change the reality of the situation.

Anyway, the profit-first, everything else second argument from the sharks was slightly more nuanced than you expect. It was also emotional, thanks to Robert Herjavec, whose family emigrated from Yugoslavia to Canada, and whose father worked in a factory and faced discrimination but loved his job. It seemed to me like he was torn between understanding creating opportunity for people in the United States and also helping those people by creating a strong company that can survive. At the end of the episode, though, Robert summarized his objection, “If you could make it cheaper and build the business, would you do it? And he said no.”

A defense of Real Housewives as “fascinating and important TV”

Bravo’s exploitation of the bloody, real-life trainwreck that was The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills continues with a three-part reunion that starts airing tonight.

The producers’ and network’s inept and offensive editing left me with blind rage toward this season, even though I find other editions of the franchise, particularly New York, to be thoroughly entertaining. I recognize that some people were riveted by RHOBH, though I don’t understand that.

Today, The Daily Beast’s Kate Aurthur makes that argument, highlighting what she’s learned from the series, including “the ability to sniff out a lie” and information “about debt and foreclosure; about the erratic parenting of narcissists and the terrible things that happen to children when they have no privacy; and about hidden addictions.”

In the interest of full disclosure, Kate is my editor when I contribute to The Daily Beast, and I like and respect her, even when we have significant disagreements over this or other shows. But her distillation of why this season has “been an unprecedented character study, and truly great television” is worth a read, as she argues “scripted television has never done anything this enthralling.”

Mob Wives’ Big Ang once convicted of dealing cocaine

Mob Wives star Angela Raiola, aka “Big Ang,” was once a cocaine dealer who was indicted and convicted for selling cocaine in New York nine years ago.

The Smoking Gun reports that she “was one of 15 defendants indicted—and later convicted—for their roles in the narcotics operation, which distributed crack cocaine, powdered cocaine, and marijuana in Brooklyn and Manhattan,” adding that “Federal agents described Raiola as an associate of the drug ring’s leader.”

Indictment records published by The Smoking Gun show that, as the site reports, “In bugged telephone calls, Raiola was overheard complaining about the inferior quality of cocaine provided to her by the drug ring’s leader,” and note she was “indicted in May 2001 on six felony counts. Along with a conspiracy to distribute charge, she was hit with five counts related to separate cocaine sales she made to the CI. At the time of her arrest, Raiola’s handbag contained 14 small plastic bags containing cocaine.”

The site says she “pleaded guilty to the indictment’s top count” in 2003 and in October, “was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to spend four months under home confinement,” although that was later modified to include drug treatment.

SYTYCD choreographer sentenced to 10 years in prison for rape, assault

Former So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Alex Da Silva was sentenced today to 10 years in prison after being convicted of raping a dance student and assaulting another with the intent to rape her.

L.A. Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy told him in court that he “does not respect women” and “believes he is entitled to do whatever he wants when he wants,” according to E! News, which notes that he received the sentence after a jury convicted him last fall “of the forcible rape of a 22-year-old woman in August 2002 and assaulting a 25-year-old protege with the intent to rape in March 2009,” although the jury “deadlocked on four other counts, including an additional charge from the March 2009 attack and the alleged rapes of two other women in 2004 and 2005.” Those other charges were dismissed today.

Da Silva was first arrested in 2009 and charged later that year.

Behind the scenes with Wipeout’s version of Survivor’s Dream Team: the Black and Blue Crew

Survivor’s Dream Team, the group of crew members who test challenges and work for the show’s challenge department, has been an endless source of fascination. (Watch this video for an introduction to them, and read my account of facing off against them in a challenge.)

Wipeout has a similar group, and they’re known as the Black and Blue Crew. ABC has started to profile them in a series of webisodes. They’re introduced in the first video, which includes behind-the-scenes footage that shows them testing obstacles and reveals what’s outside of the view of the camera, including the people who squirt or throw things at contestants as they run through the qualifier.

In this episode, they test obstacles and act as “test dummies,” but also do things like rescue contestants trapped underwater:

Lifetime planning two more Dance Moms shows

Lifetime has ordered not one but two shows related to its reality hit Dance Moms, one set in Miami and one that follows kids who ice skate and their parents.

Last week, the network announced that it had picked up six episodes of Dance Moms: Miami, which is set at the Stars Dance Studio, with the Abby Lee Miller role being apparently filled by Victor Smalley and Angel Armas. In a press release, the network called them people who are “fiercely dedicate their lives to their craft” and “expect the same from both their young and impressionable students and their equally passionate mothers.”

Today, the network announced that it is developing Ice Moms, which will focus on figure skating coaches Laurie Vigilante and Adam Schmidt in Dearborn, Mich., who the network says “dutifully rule the rink and train their students who aspire to become champion skaters” and “often ruffle the feathers of parents who endure frigid relationships with the two coaches who demand from students and parents the practice, precision and perfection required to succeed in the hit sport.”

All three shows are produced by Collins Avenue. And all two new shows will likely join Dance Moms in exploiting and abusing their child stars.

Why you need to stop watching Dance Moms and Toddlers & Tiaras, even though they’re entertaining

Dance Moms has Abby Lee Miller, who’s a made-for-TV character with her awful screaming and horrible behavior, and the dance moms themselves certainly contribute a lot of entertainment with their hypocrisy and stage mom personas. And Toddlers & Tiaras is like a trainwreck and fascinating to watch.

But they also have kids who don’t deserve to be publicly humiliated, even if they’re sometimes little brats. Would you have wanted your childhood’s worst moments broadcast to the world and mocked by people online and elsewhere? In a Daily Beast essay, I make that argument.

I do struggle with this, not just because the shows can be entertaining, but because I find other shows that star kids to be far less egregious, such as CBS’ awesome and underrated Kid Nation (deal with it!).

I’m never one to think that we need to protect kids from what they see on television, such as language or sex, but when they themselves are television, that’s a different story, I think. It seems pretty unethical to produce, broadcast, and watch these shows. Here’s why.

Inside Comedy: conversations with comedians, from Kathy Griffin to Jane Lynch

A new documentary/interview series debuts on Showtime tonight, featuring comedians talking about themselves and their comedy with comedian David Steinberg.

The premiere episode features Jerry Seinfeld and Don Rickles, while future episodes will include Chris Rock, Jane Lynch, Martin Short, Kathy Griffin, Steve Carell, Sarah Silverman, Robin Williams, Steven Wright, and others. The show is similar to the TV Land series Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg, except there’s no audience, just conversation. Here’s a preview: