Photo by Danielle Peterson / Statesman Journal
Portlanders expect our hometown to be weird, and indeed, I think Portland could launch a thousand successful reality TV shows. What we don’t expect is to be upstaged by a small town neighbor. When the first openly trangendered mayor, Stu Rasmussen, was elected last fall, however, Silverton clearly got the best of us. Now they may beat us to the reality front as well.
According to the Statesman Journal, TV crews from LA have been rolling into Silverton to tape a teaser that they plan to pitch across tinsel town.
“It will make a phenomenal background for a really interesting story,” Massimei said. “There is something really special about this town…
…The show would be centered around Rasmussen and his challenge as a transgender person living in a small town. It would also look at the mechanics and intricacies of local government, including some “hot button” issues such as the Silver Creek Dam, Rasmussen said.
Have trans issues hit the mainstream enough to make the affairs of a small town fodder for reality television? And if it gets picked up by MTV how much can we expect Silverton to be exploited?
