When producers in search of a home for an MTV reality show found a hostile reception in well-to-do corners of Newport and Middletown in June, they did what generations of pioneers had done before them -- they went West.
In July, they found a home in the former Gold Rush town of Telluride, Colo., and its neighbor Mountain Village. Town officials there said they were welcomed with open arms.
"It was a godsend," said Town Council member Mark Buschib of the six-week-long shoot, which wrapped earlier this month. "It was certainly a windfall for us."
Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet was rebuffed first by residents of Bellevue Avenue in Newport, then in Indian Avenue in Middletown, when they wanted to film 28 cast members living in stately homes there.
At the time, elected officials in both Aquidneck Island communities publicly supported the project, which they said would be beneficial to both the wallets and the image of the two towns.
Neighbors disagreed. And after a Newport Superior Court judge upheld an injunction filed by irate Indian Avenue residents, MTV packed up its operation and left Rhode Island.
"It went really well," Julie Pizzi, the show's producer, said of the Colorado shoot. In June, she was heckled at a public meeting in Middletown Town Hall while trying to convince residents that their production would be a good neighbor. "We showed up [in Telluride], and got everything done really quickly."
The neighbors of the large duplex on Country Club Drive in Mountain Village that housed the cast members -- who competed against each other in various physical challenges in the surrounding area -- loved having the MTV youngsters around, Pizzi said.
"The neighbors invited them over for dinner, and to watch Sex in the City," she said.
The shoot was not entirely without problems. There was an increase in medical calls, the police said, responding to cast members with cuts and bruises, and in one case, hypothermia brought on by a challenge in a nonheated pool. There were some noise complaints and one person associated with the show was cited for underage drinking, according to Mountain Village Chief of Police Dale Woods.
Not every resident of Telluride and Mountain Village -- whose permanent populations are around 1,000 each -- wanted MTV.
One woman complained in a letter to the local paper, The Daily Planet, that the show was "shameless promotion of our beautiful and rare mountain location."
At the end of July, a fight broke out between a handful of locals and some MTV crew members outside a bar, Telluride Chief of Police James Kolar said. No one was hurt, and no charges were filed.
Council member Buschib explained the incident as the result of overzealous regional loyalty and too much alcohol.
"We have some good ol' boys in this town, and they don't want anybody here," he said.
Overall, however, Chief Kolar and Chief Woods described the show's impact as minimal.
"From my perspective," he said, "there were no problems at all."
Nestled 8,700 feet up in the Rocky Mountains, Telluride is rich in Gold Rush lore, said Neil Hastings, director of sales in the Convention and Visitors Bureau there. It is where Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank, Hastings claimed.
And, with its spectacular mountain views, historic buildings and surrounding waterfalls and ski slopes, it's trying to establish itself as a premier holiday destination alongside the better-known resort towns such as Vail and Aspen, Hastings said. A show like the Real World boosts visibility.
"They came, they went, they did their thing. They brought money into the community," Hastings said. "We were happy to have them and we would do it again."
Hastings acknowledged that in a built-up, suburban community such as Middletown a reality show might not appeal to residents. In Telluride, however, "the nearest traffic light is sixty miles away. We have to drive an hour and a half to go to the store."
Despite the outcry caused by MTV's presence on Indian Avenue, Pizzi -- a Rhode Island native-- said she thought that given more time, they might have been able to win over the skeptics.
"Maybe next time," she said.
To contact Jenny Holland, phone 253-1200 or e-mail jholland(at)projo.com.
