Boot Camp (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Boot Camp | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Reality, Game Show |
| Directed by | Scott Messick Chris Pechin |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | Starke, Florida, USA |
| Running time | 60 min. (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | FOX |
| Original run | March 28, 2001 – May 23, 2001 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Celebrity Boot Camp |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Boot Camp was a weekly reality tv game show that aired for one season on Fox starting March 28, 2001. The show drew a lawsuit from Mark Burnett due to similarity to his reality show Survivor.
The show involved sixteen civilian contestants participating in a real life military style boot camp 24 hours a day. Four drill instructors put the contestants through special training activities and obstacle courses to prepare them for the "missions" which they took part in on each of the first seven episodes.
The four drill instructors:
- Leo McSweeney - Former Marine Corps Sergeant
- Tony Rosenbum - Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer
- Dave Francisco - Marine Corps Sergeant Major
- Annette Taylor - Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant
Recruits
- Mark Mayer
- Alfonso Moretti Jr
- Ryan Wolf
- Kasi Brown
- Katie Coddington
- Rebecca Ann Haar
- Jack Lauder
- Jodi Hutak
- Jennifer Moretty
- Jane Katherine
- John Park
- Sue Yen Pupo
- Jen Whitlow
- David Thompson
- Shawn Yaney
- Leigh Dana Jackson
Leading up to each mission, a unique team leader was chosen from the remaining players. Besides extra responsibility in camp, the team leader led the effort to complete the mission. If successful in the mission, the entire group was rewarded, and the team leader earned "immunity" from the eliminations for that round. If unsuccessful, the entire group was punished, and the team leader remained vulnerable for elimination. Contestants went to "Dismissal Hill" (similar to Survivor's Tribal Council) every four days to eliminate players from the game.
The contestants voted to "dismiss" a recruit by secret ballot. The recruit with the most votes against them was "dismissed" from Boot Camp, eliminated from the game. Unless a medical discharge or other elimination occurred prior to Dismissal Hill, the dismissed recruit then "discharged" another recruit, eliminating that player from contention as well. After each trip to Dismissal Hill, an even number of players remained in the game, as two players were eliminated on each episode.
On the final two-part episode, which aired on May 16, 2001 and May 23, 2001, the two finalists competed in a "Gauntlet" of seven events over the course of 48 hours without any rest. Each of the seven events was named for one of the dismissed recruits from earlier episodes. The winner of each event was awarded the dog tags of that recruit. Once the Gauntlet was completed, the winners of each event were revealed, and six of the seven discharged recruits voted for which of the two finalists they wanted to win. (Recruit Katherine, having withdrawn from the show on the second day, was denied the opportunity to vote by the show's producers.) The recruit who collected the most dog tags would win $500,000.
| Gauntlet Events | ||
| Event | Description | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| Lauder's Last Stand | Recruits had to stand on two raised foot-shapes for as long as possible | Wolf |
| Haar's Heartbreak | Recruits had to run 1½ miles against the benchmark time set early in the show, the recruit with the best improvement was the winner | Whitlow |
| Moretti's Memory | Recruits had to look at a series of photographs and answer questions immediately after each photograph concerning its content | Wolf |
| Park's Peak | Recruits had to rappell down the side of a tower, memorize a quote written on the tower, and continue to the bottom before rewriting the quote in full. Only when the quote was exactly correct did the time stop | Wolf |
| Jackson's Hold | Recruits had to hold their arm horizontally through a ring with a set of dog tags placed on their arm. The first recruit to drop their arm below a certain level lost | Wolf |
| Meyer's March | Recruits had to March 10 miles, carrying 1/5 their body weight in a backpack | Wolf |
| Coddington's Crossing | Recruits had to complete an assault course on the first day, before being told that they would run it again on the second day, with the best improved time winning. | Wolf |
Despite winning just one gauntlet event, Recruit Whitlow went on to receive the support of all six discharged recruits to win 7-6, netting herself $500,000. The runner-up, Recruit Wolf, received $100,000. Earlier in the season, the entire group was severely punished by the drill instructors for leaving a crucial piece of equipment behind during a mission. Nobody came forward for it, but recruit Wolf was generally the one blamed, and it's believed that blame was responsible for the unanimous vote against him; videotape later revealed that it was Recruit Yaney who failed to retrieve the equipment in question.
The show also spawned a celebrity version, which ran over just two episodes and featured ten celebrities, with dismissals occurring at the drill instructors' discretion. Drill Instructors Francisco and Rosenbum reprised their roles along with a new female DI. This version was won by Coolio.
[edit] External links
- Boot Camp at the Internet Movie Database
- Boot Camp at TV.com
