Wild Orchid spent quite a bit of time post-Oxygen and pre-Fire with the network that was both Fox Family and ABC Family. While I suppose it got them the attention of the teen and tween crowd, it didn’t do much for their musical career. By this point, the group was already being transformed into a female *NSYNC, bounced around and then ditched by RCA, and struggling personally. One of the last things they did for the channel was take part in its Front Row Center concert series.
The first confusing thing is that ABC
Family ripped WO’s act out of another lineup. While they aired alongside A*Teens and
Soul Decision, WO originally filmed alongside Shaggy. I do think that Fire
fit better with these other pop artists, though.
The show is basically a stripped-down version of the Shoutback! show. They start with “It’s All Your Fault”, and for some reason Stacy comes out saying, “This is for all the people who didn’t believe.” I have yet to find out what that’s referring to. The girls are flashier, grittier, and just don’t seem at ease like they usually do. Again, I think this was an image made to go with the rest of the program, and the audience. Next, they put on the coats for “Just Another Girl.” A J.C.-penned song seems a good fit here, actually.
Going out to commercial, the girls
are playing volleyball on the beach.
When they come back, they’re telling the WO story. Again, everything is a little juvenile –
they now have a “WO sign”, which is basically the sign for “I love you” with
both hands, with the remaining fingers touching. (Okay, I’m botching the description, just look at the pic). 
It seems
like they’re acting goofier than normal – although all of the Family appearances
are pretty goofy. You’ll notice
Stacy has a necklace with big “W” and “O” letters. By themselves, that’s not unusual, but
combined with the signs and antics, are the girls now 12? If you’ve watched other interview
portions, everyone is usually much more subdued and natural. Their silliness never kept you from
taking them seriously. I can’t
vouch for the other two, but what you’re seeing in this time frame is “Stacy”
and “Fergie” basically fighting for possession of Stacy Ferguson’s body. The whole last season of Great
Pretenders was like this, and Shoutback! devolves into it towards the end. It’s painful to watch.
That’s not the worst part,
though. We now cut back to the
concert as the girls begin “Stuttering”.
But what the-? They decided
to censor the song – the song that is already censored! Okay, sure, this is a family network…but
WHY LET THEM DO THE SONG, THEN?
Yeah, yeah, it’s a single.
But it sounds hideous!
Admittedly, if they wanted songs from Fire, they certainly couldn’t have
done “Simon Sez”. But what about
“World Without You”? It was already on their network! Or there was “It’s Only Your Love”,
that’s a beautiful song. Bad enough
that every impressionable teen consumer already thought WO was copying that Joe
guy, with a similar song…did they think that “forbidden” lyrics would make it
cooler?
By the end of the song, they’ve stopped singing and are just shouting. Their two dancer guys come out throwing out t-shirts. That just sums this up nicely – Wild Orchid has been transformed into a marketing gimmick.
Ultimately, while I’m glad the focus
switched back to Wild Orchid’s music instead of glorified TV personalities, I
think this concert came too late.
WO was already circling the drain, and Stacy fell in. Few teens probably realized that the
suits didn’t hire pretty girls to host their show and then put them into a group, instead of
it being another way around.