reality TV Archives - City Dads Group

NYC Dad’s Father Figure Clothing Tempts ‘Shark Tank’ Panel Oct. 29

Kevin McKeever — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 13:31:57 +0000

NYC Dads Group member Andrew Bentley, far right, presents his Father Figure clothing line to the celebrity panel of the TV show “Shark Tank.” (Contributed photo)

A member of NYC Dads Group who designed a line of clothing specially for new fathers will pitch his company to a national television audience and the business moguls of ABC-TV’s Shark Tank on Oct. 29.

Andrew Bentley of Brooklyn ran a successful $30,000 Kickstarter campaign in 2016 to start Father Figure, a company that produces clothing designed for dads — specifically those caring for infant children. The line includes super soft shirts, reinforced at the points where baby is usually held and featuring loops to hold burp rags (which the company also makes).

“It’s a dream to be able to share my vision to build a company that ‘strengthens the loving bond among fathers and their children’ with the world,” Bentley announced on his Facebook page recently. “Will I strike a deal with one of the celebrity millionaire / billionaire investor sharks? Or maybe I just trip on the floor rug and spill burp rags all over everybody. Tune in to see!”

Bentley, who has written on the importance of paid paternity leave for our blog, decided to start the company after his wife become pregnant, and conversations will male friends revealed how dads felt they lacked respect and validation for their work as parents.

TV Review: A&E’s ‘Modern Dads’

Niel Vuolo — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:00:00 +0000

A&E launched a new look at fatherhood last night in their latest series, Modern Dads. The show follows four stay at home dads from Austin, Texas. This new series will follow their exploits as they navigate their lives; juggling the requirements and social expectations of being both a ‘modern man’ and ‘modern dad’ while their significant others are off at work. The dads all in their late thirties to early forties cover ever stay at home dad category; you have Nate (the new dad), Rick (the veteran dad), Sean (the step-dad) and Stone (the single dad). Where is the dad who is trying to write a recap of a new show while a three year old is trying to climb on him? Maybe next season.

Each of the dad have their own unique quirks. Nate is raising his son Cormac and while he comes off a little nervous and smothering, he is really good at what he does and his wife really appreciates all he does. Especially keeping their son in clean diapers. Stone, who is divorced and shares custody with his ex-wife, sees lots of similarities between dating and raising his five year old daughter. “The puppy dog eyes, the mixed messages and I pay for everything.” Sean, who has been raising his girlfriend Rachel’s two kids since their birth father left the family a few years ago. He doesn’t think biology makes someone a father, involvement in a child’s life does. And finally there is Rick, who has four kids including a pair of one-year old twins. having school age kids looking for backpacks and babies getting into everywhere make every morning an adventure.

Rick’s wife discusses having a birthday party for the twins. Rick says that he can handle it, and he’d get some help from the guys. She was a little skeptical. So when the guys and their kids meetup at their local playground. The men brainstorm ideas, Rick is really into a Godzilla themed party. But cooler heads prevail and a princess party is being planned.

Meanwhile the group is encouraging single guy Stone into getting a vasectomy. Especially since he claims to be done with babies and marriage, but still has his hands full with the ladies. Stone thinks that they are just jealous of free lifestyle. There probably is a shred of truth there. While at the supermarket with Rick looking for cakes, Stone picks up a very pretty young lady who has a friend who makes cakes. Of course she does. Stone does go talk to a urologist, and while the surgery seems very minor. He chooses to think about it for a while.

Its now party day. The park is being decorated. The girl from the store is delivering cakes. And everything is perfect. Even the stocks that Sean tried to make, which his girlfriend eventually had to make since he isn’t very good with power tools, came out great. Rick’s wife Meghan was so impressed and said that she couldn’t have put the party together this good.

So the mundane and lonely parts of parenthood (even for those of us who have other parents to hang out with) have been excluded from the show, but Modern Dads is a TV show and fun and exciting things need to happen to keep the show going forward. The dads have their faults but are shown in a good light; they adore their kids, they are competent and are not insecure about being their kids’ primary caregiver.

Chef Aaron McCargo Jr. Talks Fatherhood and Stress-Free Cooking

Jason Greene — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:00:00 +0000

When I was told I would get the opportunity to interview Aaron McCargo Jr. while I was in Houston, I sat down and watched every video of his that I could find on The Food Network. The first thing I noticed was that it doesn’t matter how full you are while you watch The Food Network, the shows always make you hungry. The next thing I noticed was Aaron’s enthusiasm for everything. Whether he was talking about Buffalo Chicken Cheese Balls, his faith, or his family, he always did it with a lot of energy. The same was true in our interview. From the first hand shake, he was off and running.

McCargo’s great attitude and hard work ethic, both on display during our interview, were passed on to him from his father. McCargo credited his father for instilling in him the necessary tools to be successful in whatever he undertook in life, and McCargo has done that. From running kitchens in hospital and restaurants in Camden, New Jersey, to winning Season 4 of Food Network Star, getting his own show Big Daddy’s House, writing a cookbook, and introducing a line of spices, (all while raising four kids), McCargo has used the tools his father gave him to be successful.

As you might observe on his TV show, McCargo’s family is welcome in the kitchen. His children make cameos in the series and give their daddy help. When I asked how he was able to get his children to help, he responded, “It started with French fries and fish sticks. I had them put them on the sheet trays and count them. They were three years old. That led them to feel comfortable when they were 5 or 6 – cooking became first nature to them.” As his children have gotten older, those lessons have continued. He teaches his oldest teenage son the ways of the kitchen, just as his father passed down independent living to him.

As we talked about all things food related, I was surprised that there was no McCargo family favorite dish, one that gets the whole family excited. In McCargo’s house, every meal is worth getting excited about. (I suppose it helps if you have an award winning chef as a dad.) The whole family participates in making dinner; whenever someone is feeling lead to a food, they jump right in and get to cooking. Each child has a job to do, whether it is chopping onions, cleaning and separating other vegetables, or cutting meat.

Like many other families, cooking in my family isn’t a stress-free experience. So I asked the million dollar question, how can you keep meal preparation from being stressful? McCargo responded to my question with a smile and nodded his head as though he had heard this question a thousand times. “Shop one day and prepare the next; and the following day cook it. If you try to do it all in one day, it will overwhelm you. Whether I’m alone or with the kids, I just hammer it out. Put it in storage containers, and label it. We had tacos the other day and I make a lot of taco meat and then I freeze it and label it and put it in the proper storage bags. Label it so you know what it is.”

Preparing ahead of time sounded great to me, and I would absolutely love it if I was the kind of person who did that on a weekly basis, but unfortunately I’m not. So what’s a man to do when he hasn’t planned ahead and he has 30 minutes to get a meal on the table? His answer, “Soup and sandwiches. I buy the noodles in a pack. I cook up some vegetables and some meat. Some pre-cooked chicken and throw it in the broth. Tacos are great too. Like I said, I cook a lot of taco meat. Thaw out the meat from the freezer. Make taco salads, whatever.”

For more information on McCargo or to purchase his spices, go to http://www.aaronmccargo.com/. You can also purchase his cookbook Simply Done Well Done through his website or at most bookstores.

McCargo has also started a charity to increase graduation rates for young men. To find out more information about the charity, go to http://playtowininc.org/. Special thanks to ConAgra Foods and the Ketchum team for making this interview possible.

House Husbands: An Awesome New Australia Dramedy

City Dads Group — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The Dads and their children on the set of AUSTRALIA Channel 9’s new drama, House Husbands

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a trailer about a new show and gotten goosebumps because it looked so authentic & touching. Would you believe that this heartwarming show is about four families where the man is the primary caregiver in raising the children?

House Husbands! Only in Australia! They’ve created a new dramedy (that aired on Sept 2 – father’s day in Australia) that paints dad as loving, nurturing, and hands-on as well as a loving partner to their wives. Refreshing to see the that the overarching goal here is not to throw dad under the bus for shits & giggles. Check out the clip & let us know what you think. Would this show be successful in the U.S.? (reads: would you watch it?) Well, we read that the new drama series, House Husbands, set a ratings record as the NUMBER ONE new Australia drama launched on that day with nearly 1.4 million viewers! Ironic, because about two years ago there was an awful show titled “House Husbands of Hollywood” – absolutely sucked! Perhaps, if the West Coast version took a page out of Australia’s book, we might have a “House Husbands of NYC” that portrays nurturing, capable, and confident dads….that would star the crew from the NYC Dads Group.

Here is the show description from the channel Nine Network Australia website:

Fresh, funny and entertaining, the series centres on four young families with one thing in common: the men are in charge of raising the kids.

It’s the beginning of a new school year and recently retired Lewis (Gary Sweet) finds himself in the unfamiliar role of stay-at-home dad to Tilda, his daughter with nurse Gemma (Julia Morris).

Gemma works at the hospital with her best friend Abi (Natalie Saleeba) whose husband Mark (Rhys Muldoon) is juggling a return to part-time work and looking after five-year-old Poppy.

Mark’s brother-in-law Kane (Gyton Grantley) is in a relationship with Tom (Tim Campbell), raising Tom’s orphaned niece Stella.

When dropping their daughters off on the first day of school, the three men meet Justin (Firass Dirani), a former AFL star who, thanks to his bad boy ways, has seen his career and family walk out the door. He is now facing the fight of his life to win custody of his twin boys Zac and Jacob and eight-month-old daughter Angie.

Finding themselves severely outnumbered by all the mothers at the school drop-off zone, the four men band together and help each other along as they face the challenges of raising a young family.

Anna McGahan, Leah Di Niese and Nicholas Coghlan round out the stellar Aussie cast in this exciting new series that throws out the rule book and explores the new way modern families are doing things.

Filmed on location in Melbourne, House Husbands was created by Ellie Beaumont and Drew Proffitt, is produced by Drew Proffit and Sue Seeary and executive produced by David Taylor and David Maher for the Nine Network.

Dads Reality Show: Be Careful What You Wish For

Guest Contributor — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Editor’s note: The pitches from production companies wanting to do a docu-series or reality-style TV gig about stay-at-home dads has significantly increased. Not sure which production company will win the race (if any – we just don’t believe the life of an at-home dad is exciting enough to warrant a recurring TV show – maybe an engaging six minute news segment – unless they create unnecessary or negative drama). Either way, there are some dads out there raising their hands saying, “pick me, pick me” to participate in a reality TV show, and this guest blog post from NYC Dads Group member, John Scamardella, admits that he is willing to take the plunge. We just hope that the project is authentic, drama-free, and portrays fathers in a positive way. – L.S

You ever hear the saying: “Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.”

Of course, you have.

Recently, my family and I have had a handful of opportunities spring from my website blog, yourstayathomedad.com. We’ve been asked to audition for a commercial, a documentary and a reality television show. And I have to say, it’s pretty exciting. I mean, who would’ve thought that there could be so much potential in me not having a job. It really makes you stop and think.

Sarah and I just spoke with the documentary people yesterday and it seemed to go really well. The documentary is about how roles of women and men are changing with a focus on the working mother. As we spoke to the producer, the whole thing started to move from potential opportunity to very possible reality. Then I thought, “Do I really want this?” I mean, here I am a stay at home dad. A role that I have just recently come to terms with and accepted after being one for two years. Do I really want cameras in my face broadcasting my life to the world?

Well, the short answer is that I really think more good can come out of going for it than letting it pass by.

The long answer includes the many advantages: Free publicity for the blog, educating the public and shattering the stereotypes of high-powered, domineering working moms and effeminate, passive stay at home dads.

I’m also excited about the fact that the documentary focuses on my wife, Sarah. As I am a natural ham and enjoy being in the limelight, Sarah is happier being behind the scenes, which I think, truly is a shame. She is way more genuine than I am. As an actor, I have spent so much studying emotion and trying to recreate it that I sometimes forget how to just be real. She’s the kind of person who always puts the other person first; she always has questions, where I have stories. Her natural inclination is to want to know people, where my natural inclination is to want to be known, (hence all this blogging, auditioning, youtubing, etc.)

While some people may argue that traditional husband and wife roles are out-dated, I have to admit, Sarah and I are constantly struggling with inner conflict. Simply put: I struggle with letting go of the provider role and she struggles with letting go of the caregiver role. But why? If it truly doesn’t matter who does what role, as some people argue, then why does it matter to us in our hearts? Some people might argue that it’s instinct and instinct shouldn’t be denied. Others might argue that it’s just an imprint of society’s dogma, which has been ingrained in us over time and must be “unlearned”. Either way, it’s a struggle. Quitting just isn’t an option. So we keep struggling. Me, I enjoy exploring the struggle and if this documentary happens or we get put in the reality television show, then that struggle will be broadcast all over the world. And then we’ll struggle with that.

I’ve said the word “struggle” in my head so many times that it’s starting to sound funny, like some funny character from a fast food commercial.

Struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle.

Heh.

John Scamardella is Your Stay At Home Dad. He has a three-year-old daughter, Anna and an eight-month-old son, Lucas.

‘Househusbands of Hollywood’ – An At-Home Dad’s Review

City Dads Group — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:25:00 +0000

I had a chance to watch the new Fox Reality Original series, Househusbands of Hollywood that premiered last Saturday, August 15. First, I was disappointed that most of the “househusbands” are aspiring or professional (or not so professional) actors so the show did not feel genuine or fit the bill as “reality” show.

Second, I did not find the show to be very entertaining – I was not excited to see what would happen next.

Last, as I mentioned in my previous post, only three of the five guys in the show are dads … so the other two felt thrown into the mix because they are ‘characters’ to create drama.

There were a couple of highlights: I enjoyed the one dad (who had previously been incarcerated for 8 years on bank robbery charges) who was flying by the seat of his pants in his daddy role. He made the job look very entertaining. Additionally, I enjoyed Danny who who focuses a large portion of his free time on his keg-arator (a mobile fridge with a keg & tap) project. It reminded me of my days back in college! Lastly, it was amusing to see the different ways a few of the wives provide the guys with their “honey do” chore lists.

Overall, Househusbands of Hollywood is not a complete waste of my time…but, I will not be tuning in next week.