Despite a less-than-warm reaction from critics when it announced in January that it’s developing a reality show following five Amish youths through the rite-of-passage known as Rumspringa, UPN insists that neither the objections raised then nor the recent concerns over television’s relaxing of standards has dissuaded the network from pursuing the project.
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“We have total respect for what the critics are saying and what the Congressmen are saying,” says UPN President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff of the show, which is currently casting. “As we’ve said before, we have every intention of treating the Amish and their beliefs and their heritage with the utmost respect and decency, but we are going through the process.”
In the past few weeks, opposition to the show by lawmakers, rural groups and Pennsylvania Dutch tourism officials has increased.
“We all feel that we deserve the right to make a show and then have people criticize, or compliment, what we’ve done,” Ostroff says. “It is very hard because without having seen anything, it is frustrating for people to pass judgment.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])