A & E Reality Series is Just -- Well, Ducky

A few days ago, my family -- after an unexpected trip home to Tennessee - -introduced me to a TV show called "Duck Dynasty." The A & E reality series chronicles the adventures -- and misadventures -- of a Cajun country family who own a multi-millionaire dollar duck call business. It's all a huge put on but it's great fun as these faux country folk pretend to be the 21st century edition of the Beverly Hillbillies. However, there is nothing even remotely ignorant about these people. The men may sport ZZ Top beards and speak in over-the-top drawls but it's very clear, from the first scene to the last, that they are laughing all the way to the bank.

The tipoff is their vocabulary. Their sentences are punctuated with multisyllabic words and they speak in ways carefully cultivated to get the laugh.

Another clue is their wives -- all immaculately groomed and standing on the periphery of most scenes, with indulgent half-smiles and hands on hips, as if to say "Hurry up, guys. Finish this TV project and let's get to the country club. We're meeting Thurston and Lovey Howell for bridge."

Lastly, and most importantly, it's very clear that the family themselves are in charge. Okay, yeah, we'll do your reality TV series, one imagines them saying to the folks at A & E, but WE will call the shots and y'all can just show up and follow our lead. And, we may make up part of the storyline. In fact, we may make up ALL of the storyline.

Though it's clearly a farce, it's also highly addictive. Like the time one of the bubba brothers brought a winery on line. Or when another challenged the town troublemaker to a riding lawnmower race. Or, when the grandpa agreed to put together the newly arrived life-sized playhouse for his female grandchildren ("the yuppie girls," he calls them) but used his chainsaw to turn it into a modified duck blind. By the way, the little girls loved it and Pappaw announced "There's hope for you yuppie girls yet."

In an era of Honey Boo-Boo and the Real Wives franchise and even HGTV's Love It or List It, all of which rely heavily on TV producer-induced drama, Duck Dynasty isn't that different --- but it's certainly more entertaining when the subjects themselves seem to be in charge.