"Armed and Famous"

Okay, I'll admit it. We watched it. But let me explain.

First, the show is the latest in the reality show lineup. Its premise is that a small group of minor celebrities trains to become police officers in a small city. I never would have been interested in such a silly concept, but come to find out, it's set in Muncie, Indiana, home of my alma mater, Ball State University. Of course, it got me all misty over my college days--what a great time! Here's the complex I lived in, Lafollette. I lived in Mysch Hall:

Wow, we had fun! (And I got a good education, too.)

Before the show started, Ken told me, "You do realize that they're going to make fun of Muncie and Indiana in general, right?" I said, "Yeah, I suppose, but I think it might be okay." Well, sure enough, they made fun of Indiana being such a hick state, and sure, they made fun of some of the hick residents. But you know what? It did turn out okay. A couple of the minor celebs were Erik Estrada (remember Ponch on "CHiPS"?) and Jack Osbourne, and believe it or not, LaToya Jackson. Amazingly enough, they all seemed to take it very seriously, and seemed genuinely proud to make it through a brief training session and then to ride in the cop cars and be semi-cops. Even better, the Muncie police force came across as really great and committed to doing a good job. I was so pleasantly surprised, and yep, I'll watch it again.