Great Pretenders

Many people actually haven't heard of this show, because it was for teens and most adults would have to be really hardcore WO fans to sit through it.

The series premiered on Halloween in, I believe...1999, don't hold me to that. I only began taping the last two seasons, and I did not keep any of the actual performances, I'm sorry, but you can see the clips and get the general idea on my video page or YouTube accounts (available on the Links page).

There was also an hour-long Family Style segment that I used to have, but it got stolen. I'd love to get it back!

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Great Pretenders was a show that WO hosted on Saturday mornings on Fox Family which became ABC Family. I believe there were 4 seasons in total, along with an hour-long "Family Style" special which had guest stars No Authority and in which WO themselves sang "World Without You" (which would have been on Fire).

The show was about teenagers dressing up and lip-syncing to songs. The audience would then judge them and pick a runner-up and a winner, who got trophies and prizes. In the last season of the show, they did 6 "Karaoke Style" episodes, in which the contestants really sang, and the prize for the winner was a recording session. All WO did was sing the theme song, announce contestants, interview them, and read off the winner (after much struggling with the sealed envelopes!). I heard Stefanie say that they actually taped several shows back-to-back in one day. For the first two seasons, the girls were joined by a D.J., who introduced WO, cracked jokes, and for some reason spun records, although chances were slim that the kids' music was on those discs. Later, he was replaced by children in the audience introducing WO, one of whom turned out to be Stacy's cousin, Bridget. (For the Family Style special, Stacy's grandmother Lynn introduced the group's one musical number)

The show itself wasn't bad, but some of us felt that it was underutilizing WO and distracting from the fact that they were more than just pretty faces, they were recording artists. ABC Family made up for this a bit by giving them a spot in one of their Front Row Center concerts, but by then, the damage was already done.

Seriously, one look at the premise and you’d wonder what the hell a recording group was doing hosting this! Why not get some cheesy actors like they did for their other shows? Although Renee does say in an interview that it reminds her of KI ( the dressing up and lip-synching aspects), I think she was just being kind.

For the first two seasons, the opening credits contained clips of WO’s “Be Mine”, video. The third season changed openers dramatically, and the 4^th season opener featured WO more than the acts themselves. This is most likely due to Sony’s copyright crap, since they are all over my YouTube videos that include “Be Mine".

Like I briefly mentioned, the first two seasons also featured a DJ character named "Corn Dogg". He would introduce WO and interact with them, but thankfully, he was dropped. I don’t know of any game show that talks to the bandleader; I guess he was meant to represent Rod Roddy from The Price is Right. From the 3^rd season on, random kids introduced WO. The girls read off the rules at the beginning of the show, and other than a few minor changes, it’s the same throughout the show’s run. The only highlight of the first 2 minutes is seeing what the girls are wearing, particularly Stacy, who has admitted to putting together elaborate costumes as her other way of dealing with WO-related stresses. You don’t really need to know the rules, anyway – kids perform, and the ones who brought the most friends usually win.

There are 5 acts – each Orchid trades off reading the contestant info and doing the interviews. Questions were usually nothing thought-provoking; “Who would you pick if you could come back?” “What was harder to learn, the lip-synch or the choreography?” Some of the kids have personalities, some merely mumble. Nearly all try using the mic they’ve just pretended with even though it’s not live. Most of the time, the girls manage to get some singing in when returning from commercial. Sometimes, they tell jokes that are sort of funny. Other times, Renee asks who’s next and Stacy initially refuses to tell her. They’ve also recorded the theme song, but you only hear the chorus. I’ve only heard the full version with 2 verses of lyrics twice.

After everyone has pretended, the audience is given a score sheet where they award each act points. The acts are quickly recapped with WO ’s signature stupid thing: one always yells “HOLD UP!”, and the other two reply, “WAIT A MINUTE!” “We haven’t taken another look at today’s acts!” Then they call for drum roll (and Stacy later begins cutting it off).

I should mention that the card containing the winner and runner-up is sealed in an envelope. The girls nearly always have trouble opening these! It’s funny in a sad way.

The runner-up and winner both get trophies and prizes that are announced later via voiceover that the girls also take turns doing. As the winner is revealed, balloons rain down KI-style, WO sings the theme song, and…then they pull a cheesy Chuck Woolery. I believe their sendoff “Adios, Sayonara, Bye-bye!” was written just for this. Why? Why not, it’s a game show!

The 3^rd and 4^th season also started featuring clip show eps, called Best of Great Pretenders. There was a boy-band themed one, a diva one…you get the idea. WO sat on a couch in their pajamas eating junk food and pretending to reminisce. They still sing and joke the show to a close. A few of these clip episodes even had their own blooper reels. One also played the theme in its entirety.

There were several special episodes towards the end, too. First, there was the Diva special. All the acts were girls performing as divas and girl groups. WO came out all glammed up and jokes were made about them being divas, too. It was all right, I suppose.

Then there was the all-Britney episode. Five girls did Britney Spears, and some were really good! This episode is notorious for several reasons now – firstly, it’s painfully obvious that Stacy has lost massive amounts of weight due to meth use, which helped her pull off her bulimia lie. Second, a contestant was dressed very similar to Stacy, leading her to joke that they were “twin Britney dolls – with Justin in the middle!” Now that we know Stacy and Justin briefly dated, it’s funny to think of her and Britney sharing him!

The hour-long Family Style special took place somewhere around the 3^rd season. Parents joined their teens on stage, and a boy band called No Authority guest starred and performed. WO also did a FANTASTIC performance of “World Without You” from their Fire album, which I’ve never seen anywhere else. You NEED to see this clip!! I’m working on getting my copy back. They were introduced by Stacy’s (maternal?) grandmother. This was a great special and I wish they’d done others each year.

Finally, the 4^th season featured 6 episodes called “Karaoke Style”. For this whole season, kids were being nabbed from performing arts schools, and some of them were talented singers, so they were given a chance to really sing. Some were excellent. The winners from these episodes would win a recording session and lunch with a record exec. Us fans got to see a shot of WO in a recording booth, possibly taping the theme song. Of note is the one episode that featured Disney star Anneliese Van Der Pol of “That’s So Raven” fame. I never kept any performances, but she sang “My Heart Will Go On”, and I think she deserved better than to tie for runner-up.

In closing, I don’t think this show had such a good audience. It would have done better had it not been moved around so much. WO fans tried to watch it, but it was kind of cheesy and really unfair to the girls. You’d never know they were really recording artists and not some pretty faces! The channel changing ownership halfway through the show didn’t help, either. It’s not a bad show, and I hope it got WO some younger fans.