MTV ‘True Life: I’m Occupying Wall Street’ To Premiere Nov. 5 (Guy Fawkes Day)

Protester wearing Guy Fawkes mask in Zuccotti Park.
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Because one “Occupy Wall Street”-themed reality TV show wasn’t enough, MTV is set to premiere a special “Occupy” episode of its “True Life,” series. “True Life: I’m Occupying Wall Street,” on Saturday, November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day), the network confirmed on its website Monday.

MTV blogger Gil Kaufman explains the set-up, saying that MTV wanted to focus not only on the goings-on of the movement itself but on the economic conditions that lead young people to protest and camp out in New York’s Zuccotti Park in the first place:

The special episode will take you to the front lines as MTV cameras follow four young people who get swept up in the political movement that has quickly grown into a global phenomenon. Viewers will be introduced to Bryan, one of the leaders of the Occupy sanitation team. You’ll watch as he steels himself against a potential fight with the city when he fears that their request to clean the park is an excuse to evict the protesters…

“True Life” viewers will also meet college students Kait and Caitlin, who are so worried that they won’t be able to find jobs after graduation that they set out to recruit their friends to join the cause as they work to keep spirits high among the occupants. The episode will also spotlight Jen, an experienced protestor who struggles to strike a balance between organizing a successful anti-Afghanistan war demonstration and keeping her job as a paralegal.

As stated, the episode appears to concentrate on the narrowly-averted-showdown between Occupy Wall Street protesters and police over a proposed professional cleaning of the park scheduled for October 14. Watch a preview clip here.

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The premiere date, November 5, is not coincidentally “Guy Fawkes Day,” the annual celebration of English Catholic Guy Fawkes’ and co-conspirators’ attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill Protestant King James I in 1605 for not according more rights to Catholics. The plot was foiled when Fawkes was caught guarding 20 barrels of gunpowder below Westminster Abbey. He was later tortured and executed.

Not coincidentally, Guy Fawkes Day, and the associated imagery of the Guy Fawkes mask – featured prominently in the graphic novel-turned-movie “V for Vendetta,” have, over the past five years, been appropriated by members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous, which was one of the early promoters of the Occupy Wall Street movement online. Guy Fawkes masks have also appeared on the faces of those at the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park, though New York Police attempted to stamp that out early on after the protests began in September by employing an antique anti-masking statute.

So there can be little doubt that MTV is seeking to cash-in on the notoriety of the date among Occupy Wall Street protesters and their supporters, but the question is whether they’ll even turn in the first place. After all, there’s already a number of protests scheduled for the date, including Bank Transfer Day, a one-woman movement to encourage people to transfer all of their money from the large commercial banks to small credit-unions.

MTV’s “True Life” series, which debuted in 1998 and is now in its 13th season, focuses on “three unique persons in their everyday situations,” typically organizing episodes based on a particular topic, such as “Season 12, Episode 7: I’m in the Marijuana Business.

That said, the show is notably less contrived than MTV counterparties “Jersey Shore,” and “The Real World,” the latter of which is also seeking Occupy Wall Street members to join the cast of its 27th season, as The New York Observer first reported last week.

And lest you think that MTV’s notoriety as a materialistic and consumeristic media organization (one incidentally owned by Viacom, the fourth-largest media company in the world) would somehow discourage Occupy Wall Street participants from joining up with the company, think again: There’s actually been a flood of applicants for the “Real World” Occupy Wall Street spot, according production company Bunim/Murray, which posted the casting call on Craigslist.

TPM has reached out to MTV and Occupy Wall Street’s media office to request further information on these and any other forthcoming shows based on the Occupy movements and will update when we receive a response.

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