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08. The Simple Life
136 Plays1 year ago
Do you loves it? 2003 was a monumental and genre-defining year for reality television, but there was one show that stood out from the rest: The Simple Life, starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The two socialites lived in Altus, Arkansas for a month and worked (and got fired from) odd jobs to experience "real life." The show made Paris and Nicole household names, and solidified Paris's status as the It Girl of the early aughts. Helen and writer Kirsten King discuss the best moments from The Simple Life Season 1 (all of which, unsurprisingly, are Nicole moments), what The Simple Life would look like today, Paris's outfits on the show, and more.
LINKS
Princess Paris by Vanessa Grigoriadis Rolling Stone 2003 (http://www.vanessagrigoriadis.com/paris.html)
Paris Hilton Nostalgia by Rachel R. White Thought Catalogue 2013 (https://thoughtcatalog.com/rachel-r-white/2013/01/paris-hilton-nostalgia)
Song of the Week - CRAZY IN LOVE! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwtNLUqkMY)
Kirsten's social:
Instagram: @kirstenlking
Twitter: @kirstenking_
Website: https://www.kirstenkingsays.com/about
Watch her movie CRUSH on Hulu!
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Let
Introduction to 'Class of 03'
00:00:00
Speaker
your hair fall off naturally, no cancer in this hair.
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to class of three, the podcast that revisits the year 2003 and all the ways it's shaped our world. I'm
Meet Helen Grossman: Episode Overview
00:01:05
Speaker
your host, Helen Grossman, and this is episode eight, the simple life. So
Exploring 'The Simple Life' and Cultural Impact
00:01:10
Speaker
this is actually the second episode in our eat the rich sequence. Last episode I spoke with Hannah Becker about the MTV reality show, rich girls, which premiered only about a month before the simple life came out.
00:01:27
Speaker
Simple Life season one premiered on December 2nd, 2003 and immediately catapulted Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie from socialite to really like the first bonafide reality TV superstars.
00:01:43
Speaker
The premise of the show was simple. A fish out of water concept that plucked these heiresses out of Beverly Hills, took their credit cards away, took their sidekick phones away, and placed them in a small town called Altus, Arkansas. They stayed with the family on a farm.
00:02:06
Speaker
and for 30 days for a month and worked numerous jobs around the town so that they could experience real life for a month. And these were their first jobs ever, supposedly.
00:02:22
Speaker
So they did everything from work at a dairy farm to a gas station to a livestock auction and perhaps most famously at Sonic. It's not a spoiler to tell you that they were fired from pretty much every job they had on the show. That was just like part of the gimmick.
00:02:44
Speaker
You'll hear in the show that Nicole Richie is really like the star of this show. She's so funny. But Paris Hilton is really the most iconic embodiment of Y2K and the simple life. And so by extension, 2003 was her breakout moment.
00:03:03
Speaker
but right before the show premiered a sex tape heiress had made in 2001 with her then boyfriend leaked on the internet and later that same guy packaged and sold the tape at this critical job
00:03:18
Speaker
in her life and in her career and she was only 22 years old. She was playing this character on The Simple Life as privileged and ditzy. Simultaneously as she's getting super famous from having this show, she's becoming even more famous for the sex tape that she had not consented to releasing.
00:03:38
Speaker
This would come to define Paris for decades, and only recently has she really emerged from the grip of the effects of this, the release of this sex tape. In her memoir that came out this year, Paris wrote that she had taken poeludes and gotten really drunk before making that tape.
00:04:00
Speaker
There's an article in the November 2003 issue of Rolling Stone called Princess Paris by Vanessa Grigoriadis and when the sex tape is mentioned Paris' rep is quoted as saying Paris was nearly unconscious in the video. So this has actually been a consistent explanation for two decades that people just weren't really paying attention to or didn't listen to. And I'll put a link to this Rolling Stone article Princess Paris in the show notes. It's a really great
00:04:31
Speaker
read Paris Hilton and the author of Vanessa Grigoriadis, Go Clubbing Around the Sunset Strip. Later, in 2013, there is a Thought Catalog piece that comes out as Paris Hilton was trying to revive her career in her public image. The author of this essay in Thought Catalog interviews Vanessa Grigoriadis about this night that she spent with Paris Hilton in 2003.
00:04:56
Speaker
Vanessa Grigoriadis shared this theory about where Paris Hilton's career went wrong, and she says Paris, when they were hanging out, was really cool, was funny, dark, kind of a tomboy. According to Vanessa, and later this is confirmed in Paris' documentary and her memoir, Paris created this girly girl persona that has nothing to do with the real her. She goes on to say that if Paris had been vulnerable,
00:05:25
Speaker
If she had just been herself, a quote, gawky, dark girl who likes to dance and smoke weed, she would still be a huge star, end quote. Who knows if Paris ever would have been afforded the grace of just being herself and still being an icon. The
Conversation with Kirsten King: Personal Reflections
00:05:43
Speaker
early 2000s, as we know, were not that forgiving.
00:05:49
Speaker
So with that in mind, in your own rewatching of The Simple Life, look for the glimmers of the real Paris. I'm revisiting The Simple Life season one with my friend and screenwriter, culture writer, Kirsten King. I loved our conversation. We spent a lot of time talking about the United We Stand marquee at the Sonic Drive-In. That as a slogan is pretty much
00:06:18
Speaker
2003 in a nutshell, uh, maybe only second to half price salty anal wieners. So enjoy our conversation and thanks so much for listening.
00:06:47
Speaker
My name is Kirsten King. I am a screenwriter and general cultural writer working in Los Angeles. In 2003, I was, I think, 11 years old. So I was a little baby, but I also remember the year, the moment, the cultural conversation happening in 2003 quite well. It was a big year. That was my first bra year, actually. 10 years old. I don't think I definitely didn't need it. I still don't need it.
00:07:17
Speaker
yeah but at 10 you want it yeah you want it and you like want to learn how to shave your legs you want to like yeah you're going through all that I was using Nair for the first time Wow 2003 so Nair was Nair was big enough yeah it was it was yeah there was a whole song right oh my god I don't remember the Nair song
00:07:35
Speaker
Maybe I'm thinking of another jingle. It feels like there would be a song for Nair. Definitely. There has to be a jingle to convince you to put chemicals on your skin and burn your hair off. There's got to be a jingle for that. The jingle is, there's no cancer in this Nair. Let your hair fall off naturally. No cancer in this Nair.
00:08:01
Speaker
So we're talking the simple life today, but before then, what are some of your other memories of this year? This is the year when you're 10, you're sort of just starting to really, or 10 to 11, you're really starting to define your personal identity around identification and things that you associate with. This was the year my parents got divorced. I'm pretty sure it was the year my parents got divorced, and it was also a great year for
00:08:30
Speaker
obviously, culture, which you're going to cover on this podcast so much. I think that in that time of divorce, that was very important for me to just lose myself in these little brainless television shows. It was definitely a hard year for me, but also, you're a kid and you're figuring out who you are. Obviously, I didn't have a defined sense of self. I was also
00:08:59
Speaker
I'm queer, bisexual, and I was figuring that out at that time. I remember that was one of the years where I had a crush on this girl who was in my neighborhood and desperately trying to push that down and hide that. A very big year for me, life-wise.
00:09:16
Speaker
It's interesting because there is also a lot of conversation in O3 around the rise and divorce rates. This is just something I've been thinking about. Even the song Hey Ya, which is such a happy-go-lucky song, is actually about how there's no purpose in keeping relationships together anymore. Our parents figured it out, but they're not really happy. My mom had my sister and I,
00:09:43
Speaker
both when she was under 25, which is crazy because I think about what I was doing under 25 and I was just a fucking moron. To think that my mom had us both and then it is in her early 30s at this time and is asking for
Class Dynamics in 'The Simple Life'
00:10:01
Speaker
for a divorce and still has like a shit ton of life to live. So it makes sense because I think a lot of our parents had us pretty young and then reached that point of like still feeling like a young person that wanted to like live and be independent from the family obligations.
00:10:39
Speaker
as a segue into the simple life. We really get this contrast, right, of like this family, this nuclear family in Arkansas, Altus, Arkansas, that like a tornado, like the tornado in episode
00:11:00
Speaker
I think seven. Oh, my God. Right. Season one. Yeah. Nicole, Richie and Paris Hilton just blast on in. Yeah. And shake things up. Oh, my gosh. And I remember that first episode where they're having their goodbye party at Paris Hilton's home and their whole family and friends are gathered and they buy two thousand dollar a two thousand dollar pair of shoes to take to the farm with them. Oh, yeah. Like it is just such
00:11:30
Speaker
an excellent snapshot into
00:11:34
Speaker
both now and then, and that these class divides are still just as prevalent right now as they were then, but this was the first time that you got to see that on reality television. It sparked shows like Joe Billionaire and- Farmer Wants a White. Even The Bachelor to a certain extent. Totally. I think it was a realization that there's such a demographic for
00:12:03
Speaker
you know, in middle America for, for reality television. And it's interesting for me because as an adult watching it back, like I realized that obviously Paris Helen and Nicole Richie were playing characters and they were, you know, they were, they knew what they were doing. It was like a self-aware moment for them in some ways. Um, and they were master masterful at playing those characters. But at the time I didn't, I didn't realize that I took it at base value. I thought they were, I thought Paris Helen was really,
00:12:32
Speaker
blonde and ditzy and didn't know what a Walmart was, which maybe she really doesn't know what a Walmart is. She claims that she knew what a Walmart was and that that was just to get people talking, but my speculation is that she did not know what a Walmart.
00:12:48
Speaker
It seemed very genuine, but I do think that this type of comedy laid the groundwork for people like Nathan Fielder and Joe Parra and people that go into these situations as a character and then the real content is about the people around them. I grew up lower middle class, so it's weird to think about this because for me, I was laughing at Paris and Nicole with the family. I wasn't laughing at the family.
00:13:17
Speaker
Totally. I think depending on where you were on class lines, you watched the show in a different way. Do you know what I mean? I think upper middle class people were probably laughing at the Letting family. I don't know. I think that's a really interesting point and I would love to hear more perspectives on it. It's hard because my memory and I think that they were really also teenagers and young people are going to
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah. See the absurdity of these women in this situation and the joke was always about.
00:13:49
Speaker
Their behavior. Yeah. But I. I don't really think that the show frames the. The letting. The letting. I can never remember the name, the letting. Yeah. I don't think that they frame the letting family as anything other than like an up an upstart, like a good. Yeah. Quality. Yeah. Righteous family.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, they are like they're like America's bread and butter type of family There is one scene in that first episode where the grandma is killing a chicken Yeah, and it's edited almost like an 80s horror movie totally and I like I won just the editing in this show is insane and amazing and that like speaks to that but that scene is so
00:14:39
Speaker
I didn't grow up in farmland, I didn't grow up in Arkansas, so I had never seen a chicken be killed or skinned. That moment almost made me a vegetarian. I'm sure it made a lot of people a vegetarian, but the way it shot with the camera tilt and going in and out of black and white and horror music playing, it's so...
00:14:58
Speaker
That's one moment where I'm like, yeah, maybe the family is not the joke, but it's giving us a glimpse into, at least for people on various coasts, it's giving you the glimpse into that like real, real hardy middle America feeling. Yeah. Yeah. So in episode one, and they go from their shopping trip to this shindig, quote unquote, the fancy shindig at their home. Yes. One of my favorite moments from the shindig is when Paris says,
00:15:27
Speaker
I'm gonna miss all of you.
00:15:30
Speaker
It's like, who are these people? These are not her close friends. No, they're not her close friends at all. They're 30 extras, and then maybe five people she actually knows. I don't know. Or maybe it was actually, it is this interesting time of how much is produced and how much is real, because I do think this time in reality television actually had more reality than we would even get close to getting now.
00:15:59
Speaker
Because like her parents are there and they're kind of they're talking about how they hope that this teaches Paris a sense of responsibility So she might go on to like, you know Conquer the family Empire someday Kathy Hilton ends up becoming a reality TV person, right? Right, right. Like she becomes a housewife, right? This is also training for her. Yeah
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, and she's in that opening scene. Yeah. Because this launched Paris and Nicole. So, yeah, just to get into the chronology a little bit, Paris Hilton was already a very famous socialite and model. Right.
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie: Stardom and Rebranding
00:16:34
Speaker
Her childhood, she moved between L.A. and New York, but she was known as like a New York City socialite. And then she had known Nicole Ritchie, who's Lionel Ritchie's daughter since they were two years old or something.
00:16:49
Speaker
neither of them had really broken out on their own.
00:16:56
Speaker
you know, with the exception of being known in the tabloids for like being famous and rich and and Nepo babies. Yeah. The ultimate Nepo babies. Yeah. And they Paris Hilton. This is sort of her first screen appearance. She goes on to make an album. She goes on to movies. Oh, yeah. Stars are blind. Yeah. Obviously, she has like an illustrious career now that sort of re blossoming and in this moment, which is really interesting. Yeah.
00:17:24
Speaker
Nicole Richie, another really interesting trajectory right before this series was shot. She was actually arrested and sent to rehab. So she was sort of known as like a party girl. And she had been arrested for heroin possession. Wow. Yeah.
00:17:44
Speaker
and something else. This was a rebrand for Nicole Richie. This was a she had already been cast on the show. But it was it was her real launch, too. And I honestly think she's a superstar. Like I watch a show and I'm like, you're the real genius here. Like, oh, she's hilarious. She's so funny. You can tell that's a woman with like a real heart and a real sensitivity toward other people.
00:18:11
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Paris Hilton is a little bit more detached from the reality of it, I think. It's really interesting. They're dynamic. They play off each other so well. Also, I think Paris Hilton's rise and downfall has been this character of the dumb girl that says stupid things.
00:18:34
Speaker
It's interesting to watch her rebrand that with like her documentary that came out in 2020. Oh my god, 2021. Yeah, 2021. This is Paris where she, you know, takes ownership of the character she's played and she says, I've been playing it for 13 years. Like, yeah, I think that's really tricky though, because if you're saying.
00:18:53
Speaker
You knew what you were doing and you were playing a character for 13 years. What about all the other shit you said? What about the homophobic shit? What about the n-word? What about the anti-Semitic shit you said? She has been so problematic in that character that the idea of
00:19:08
Speaker
her being self-aware, I think it actually digs her a deeper grave. Whereas Nicole Richie does have empathy in this. You can see when she's actually trying to do a good job on the farm. Then when she realizes it's not good television and then does a bad job, you can see that she's in control of her narrative the whole time in a way that is so fascinating to watch.
00:19:31
Speaker
She brings so much levity and energy to it. Paris' character, I do think that she had a character. I also think that she has like eight characters. Yes. I think you can actually tell by the tonality in her voice which character she's playing. Yeah, that's a good point.
00:19:51
Speaker
she feels trapped inside the home. Not to get astrological on it, but Paris, she's an Aquarius. You do not trap an Aquarius. She needs to be free. I think the absurdity of being 22 years old and being in someone's home and being told by the patriarch that she can't go hang out with friends at noon at the mall.
00:20:18
Speaker
And that there's like a real moment of rage and she has like this like really low voice Her being trapped in the house. That is such a I Yeah, it's like imagine Imagine living in the house that she's lived in her entire life and having the accommodation She's and then she's sleeping on a pullout couch with her best friend in Arkansas. Like yeah, there's a real moment What the fuck am I getting into like there is no To my knowledge. There's no hotel that they slept in during filming like they actually were with that family
00:20:48
Speaker
they lived in this family's home and in future seasons they don't do it that way I imagine it was because she was like I'm never doing this again yeah I think both of them were like we can't do that and also I think that like the family became such a focal point yeah that I also wonder if the production company was like no we
00:21:06
Speaker
Have to make the story less about the family characters and more about sort of like who they meet along the way the family of the first season is what everybody thinks of when they think of the simple life like that is the most iconic season in my Mind like thinking about them going to the dairy farm and working there thinking about them working at the drive-thru and not knowing how to make change for people like these are
00:21:31
Speaker
It's it's the most grounded and I think it has the best payoff especially because the family they do form a genuine connection with them and I think it again like talking about bridging the gap in Middle America and coastal elite. I think that was like an attempt to do that
00:22:11
Speaker
In episode three, the girls get a job at Sonic at the drive-in, and they're given a variety of tasks. I actually think that the two women who are their managers are probably harder on them than any other managers they get for the rest of the time. They really want them to do a good job. They're invested in their growth at Sonic. This is the standout memory of them. Do you think this was a brand partnership with Sonic?
00:22:41
Speaker
Must've been. It must've been, right? It must've been, yeah. Yeah, because they do a variety of tasks from actually making the orders to working at the drive-through counter, and then also they roller skate things out to people, too.
Cultural Context of Filming: Iraq War Era
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, they roller skate things out to people. They talk to people. The most iconic is the sign that they changed, though. What does the sign say? I can't remember. The sign starts out saying, United, we stand.
00:23:11
Speaker
which I love this transition and I also feel like it's like the ultimate 2003 because that gives some context for when the show's filmed, which is early, which is like spring 2003. It comes out on December 2nd. Wow. The Iraq War has just started. Yeah. United We Stand says everything that we need to know about exactly this moment in time. Yeah. So they take United We Stand and they turn it into
00:23:40
Speaker
have price anal salty leaners. And then, I mean, it's just objectively funny. And they move the ladder so that the managers can't change the lettering on the sign. Just perfect execution. Perfect execution when the managers are like, why did you do this? Nicole says, I'm not a good speller.
00:24:07
Speaker
Wow, that might be one of my favorite Nicole moments from the series. Yeah, she's the mastermind. She is absolutely the mastermind of the show and
00:24:17
Speaker
Paris is a sidekick, which isn't how it was always viewed. I think because of societal beauty norm bullshit like Nicole was. Nicole also looking back, I remember there are so many jokes in the show about her being quote unquote the fat friend or like the chubby friend. And looking back, I'm like, this girl's tiny, tiny, tiny. It's such a.
00:24:37
Speaker
It is such a moment in time both in beauty standards and I think pointing out that the sign said United we stand before it was changed to half price anal wiener dogs. Anal salty wiener. Anal salty wiener. Excuse me. Wow. I can imagine
00:24:58
Speaker
Americans watching that and feeling very offended that the sign was changed to that. Yeah. Oh, right. The sacred the sacred sonic sign. After they do the sign shenanigans, they get a signed punishment, which is here.
00:25:16
Speaker
They have to dress up like the sonic milkshakes in these giant milkshake suits, and they just start flipping everyone off. Yes. Oh my God. And the managers, so I can remember the visceral madness of that manager, and I used to work at a mini golf and ice cream shop, and I had a manager like that for a while, who just took it so seriously, really took that leadership position as a sign that
00:25:45
Speaker
they were a true leader and just ran with it and i think that their boss at sonic just steps into that role quite strongly and also there's probably a bit of like these people are here for a day and this is my life yeah so there's that anger there too i think that one of the things that always surprises me is like the mix of emotions i feel when i watch this show because
00:26:10
Speaker
I feel when I originally watched it, it was like, oh, like, look at these dumb girls. Yeah, I mean, I think that same boat as you were when I first watched it, I really, really was like, oh, my God, these girls are so stupid. They don't know how to do like fast food stuff. Even I know how to do that. And I'm 10.
00:26:30
Speaker
or 11, whatever. They don't know what Walmart is. They've never been to Sonic before. I'm smarter than these two women. And then watching it back as an adult, you do realize they are...
00:26:44
Speaker
Comedians like they are comedians and they are really good at it. Even Nicole Richie hitting on guys in the drive-thru. Do you take baths together? Yes. So are all your workers hot like you? Just the pure shamelessness of it, the callousness of it. It's so funny.
00:27:03
Speaker
It's so funny and also like the question to those two men, the two men smushed in a truck if they take baths together, suggesting a level of homoeroticism that has not been introduced in that Arkansas town ever. Oh, totally. I mean, they make two boys kiss each other on the lips. Yes, yes, yes.
00:27:22
Speaker
They're really bringing Los Angeles and New York to Arkansas. Oh, totally. Yeah. I mean, there's even a moment where like Nicole's talks about how watching men kiss turns her on. Yes. And it's like such a shock even to Paris. Paris is like, you don't think.
00:27:38
Speaker
No, Nicole is ahead of her time. She is ahead of her time, but she's so cool and so effortlessly cool and funny that she definitely feels like the star of the show. You see in those moments where she's changing the sign, it's like Nicole looking at her goal and Paris looking at Nicole for directions and what to do. That feels like they're absolute dynamic.
00:28:03
Speaker
Well, I feel like Paris really compartmentalizes the roles that she's playing. Yes. And like and that's what I mean when I'm like you're watching Paris Hilton code switch when she goes from like.
00:28:15
Speaker
to being like, this is so boring. And you really, and then there are like shades in between of that that I feel are like character to quote unquote authentic Paris, whatever that means. And she also, when she genuinely does say something dumb, like what's a Walmart, do they sell walls there? Once she realizes people are laughing at her, she then jumps on board to laugh at herself and digs her heels in. Like she knows when to do that.
00:28:44
Speaker
In the family, the Letting family, I think they're really interesting because they're so genuine and actually wanting to teach Paris and Nicole about the way they live their life, especially the mom is so sweet and the son Braxton. We love Braxton. Love Braxton. I wonder where he is now. He's in law school.
00:29:05
Speaker
Oh my god, good for Braxton. Braxton is doing really well. And I think he in Paris, or at least in an Instagram post from several years ago, she wrote that she was in touch with him and that it was when Curly had died. Oh, the grandpa. Yeah, grandma. Oh, grandma. Oh my god, grandma who's killed the chicken. Yeah.
00:29:24
Speaker
No, I agree. I mean, I think that that's one of the reasons why the point of view of the show is like the laughs and the gags are always on Paris and Nicole versus on the town that they've sort of invaded and the people that they come into contact with. Yeah.
00:29:44
Speaker
because it accentuates how crazy they are and how different they are. But you think about this family and this patriarch in particular, Albert, imposing rules on these adult women.
00:30:03
Speaker
I don't know if they knew that that's what they were signing up for and I had a lot of sympathy for them. I mean, waking up at like 4 a.m. to go work at the farm and getting in trouble with your quote unquote temporary dad. It's a lot for
00:30:22
Speaker
And they are, how old were they when they filmed this? 21 and 22. 21 and 22. Yeah. It is crazy because you view them as like teenagers. And I think you view them as like, you're thinking about the family unit for the lettings, you view them like, I always thought they were around the sun stage, but no, they were like fully hitting on a 15 year old, weren't they? Okay. Yeah, joking about threesome on a 15 year old.
00:30:56
Speaker
I wonder, you know, we're making out the lettings to be the moral, the morally exactly like they're the morally right side of the coin. That's the brief that the production gave them was these girls are, you know, spoiled, entitled LA girls and they've never worked a day in their life and you need to teach them about what it's like. Right. And yeah, the letting family is united.
Reality TV Evolution and Comparison
00:31:21
Speaker
We stand in Paris and Nicole are half off.
00:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think the idea of them just exposing that family to
00:31:35
Speaker
you know even the idea of like you know bathing with your farmer bro and homosexuality and all these things that like just did not exist or be talked about in that town I think it's really interesting it's somewhat powerful but I would I would be curious to know what was happening off screen as well and
00:31:57
Speaker
I'm sure there were some comments like I'm sure they're on both ends. I'm sure there's homophobic comments I'm sure there's like a lot that yeah, even rewatching the whole show I bet there's a lot that made the cut that like totally we would we would win. So I remember The Sun's when they're talking about Paris and Nicole are describing them as like dumb bimbo blondes or whatever just very like misogynistic in that way and I
00:32:21
Speaker
And that was stuff that we were used to hearing and consuming all the time as women, like that's the norm. Yeah. I mean, you can't help but feel that had this taken place after 2016, that they would have been calling them cosmopolitan. Yeah. You know, that there would be other coded language. Yeah. The show is really a Bush era show.
00:32:47
Speaker
Definitely you could not send these two girls to Arkansas in 2008 after the election of Obama. Yeah, that's a great point. Or you would be...
00:33:01
Speaker
The divide between city people. Yeah, I think the evolution is like you have one end of the spectrum which is a show like this and then you have another end of the spectrum which is a show like Queer Eye. One has intentions to make people laugh and one has intentions to make people cry but they're still doing the same.
00:33:19
Speaker
Fish out of water like gay guys go into a small town and like, you know revamping So I think it's the same side of the you know, or the different side of the same coin just how those things are executed and even 2008 yeah, you you probably wouldn't make this show or maybe what I don't know I'm like, what would that look like now? And the only thing I can compare it to is the current queer eye. I
00:33:44
Speaker
what feels retrograde and what feels revolutionary. Still, when you watch it back, what feels revolutionary to you? I think if we're going retrograde or revolutionary for this show, I say revolutionary because of what it did for comedy and how people have mimicked that.
00:34:00
Speaker
comedic format in some ways like I really I think about Nathan Fielder and the rehearsal and You know, he's going and playing a father With this woman who you know wants to have a kid. I don't know if you've seen the show. Yeah using a real woman kind of morally ambiguous casting there, but I think
00:34:24
Speaker
Paris and Nicole walked so Nathan Fielder and other comedians could run like I think they're doing it in a more Sophisticated way with better language now and perhaps better boundaries, but I think this is like the original type of reality television like a really a comedy that I'm trying I really can't think of anything else in 2003 that was I
00:34:52
Speaker
as smart and funny as this. It feels revolutionary in that way and retrograde in some ways. Maybe it couldn't happen. Maybe they were saying problematic things at the time, but in terms of women in comedy, pretty revolutionary. They're like.
00:35:06
Speaker
We know that you're making this the joke here. You're making the joke on us. And what we're going to do is not only like lean into that, but we're going to subvert it so that everyone here ends up sort of flabbergasted. And we're going to do the joke on our own terms. You're going to put us at this job and make us look stupid. Then we're going to
00:35:26
Speaker
ditch the job and run across the street and roll around the grocery store aisle. Like they had control of their own narrative in a way that is really, really hard to have on reality television. Totally. Every time I rewatch it, I'm like, there's something really empowering about this while walking into situations.
00:35:43
Speaker
and recognizing that people are going to assume things about you. And they keep getting told by everyone in town, everyone thinks you're bimbos, everyone thinks you are spoiled. Right. And they also are like, if that's what you think of us, we'll play it out. We're not we're not trying to prove you wrong. Right. Yeah. Like that's not why we're here. Yeah. And doing the hard work would have been proving them wrong, but it also would have been boring television. Totally different show. And what's the point of that?
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah. What are they learning from that? What are they learning from like sticking their hand up a cow's ass? Yeah. Yeah. That could have been a completely different show. Like it could have been Paris and Nicole go and do a great job and show middle America that the coastal elites are not dumb and don't think they're better than, you know, the new, et cetera. Um, or they could go and fuck shit up and have a good time. Yeah. And they're, you know, you can see that even though they're
00:36:39
Speaker
not having a good time because they are you know they don't they don't want to be there yeah but they are having a good time because they're together and they're able to make light of most of the situation yeah I would love to know what the contract negotiations were like for season two because I'm sure after like yeah genuinely having to wake up at four in the morning and stick your hand in a cow's ass they were like we need some boundaries yeah the second season's great
00:37:04
Speaker
It's really, really, I haven't watched it in so long. Like this is the one that sticks out in my brain. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is iconic. And by the second season, they're really like leaning into the character. So it loses some of the luster, you know, the
00:37:19
Speaker
first time that I re-watched this show after watching it in its original run in 2003 was actually in 2015 a business partner and I were really struggling to raise money and it constantly felt like people didn't take us seriously and we started re-watching this show together and I
00:37:41
Speaker
That was when it first sort of dawned on me just how actually empowering they were. You know, no one put this show in the air in 2003 to be like, here are your role models watching it back. I absolutely recognize and feel inspired by how.
00:37:59
Speaker
By how they don't, they don't give a fuck. Yeah. There's a lot about Paris and Nicole that in this, you know, in the simple life season one that is timeless. And it's funny that you said you rewatched it recently because I, I did a full rewatch of season one in 2021 when I was working for Amazon and I was doing social for their tech talk platform. And we were thinking about ways to.
00:38:24
Speaker
You know what content did amazon have that appeals to teens on tiktok and the stuff that performed the best was simple life clips because Because they're iconic it's subversive. It's smart
00:38:40
Speaker
Um, it's ahead of its time in some ways. And also, I think, you know, there's such a nostalgia for the early 2000s right now. And there's specifically such a nostalgia from teens for the early 2000s. Um, I went back to my old high school to speak and you know what they're watching? They're watching One Tree Hill. They're watching the OC.
00:38:57
Speaker
they're watching all the shows we watched and so it was really interesting to you know cut down these clips like the Walmart clip and the grandma cutting the chicken and all these things and put it on TikTok and have it like over perform and all the comments be like what is this show I need to watch like it's still yeah it's still iconic and and that's yeah yeah it's not retrograde yeah
00:39:29
Speaker
there's a shift in the middle of the season from the focus being on Paris and Nicole and the sort of odd jobs that they're doing to their interest in the boys and how they're like they're like obsessed with the boys in this town and they each get like boyfriends or like a boy toys which like it's like is Stockholm syndrome for them like
00:39:50
Speaker
What is happening? Because they genuinely get crushes on me. Or maybe not genuinely. Maybe again, it's them being the masterminds of their own destiny. Well, they keep saying, the guys are our only escape. The guys are our only escape. All we do is work and hang out with this family. And the only thing we have to escape
00:40:11
Speaker
is having a little crush on the guys. I think the first four episodes are that true fish out of water and then the you know the last four are more like the temperature rising on a frog boiling where they're just like starting to actually acclimate with the place they are because they were truly there for I think what 30 days straight of filming? Yeah a month yeah okay.
00:40:34
Speaker
And it's interesting that there's this conversation now in a sort of obsession with nepo babies. Yeah. Like we said at the beginning, these are some of the original babies. And yeah, they proudly go into this experience.
00:40:49
Speaker
he's saying they've never had a job before you know yeah the ultimate stamp of a nepo baby i think nepo babies could really take a page out of paris and nicole's book in terms of owning the fact that they're nepo babies because no one is mad at paris ellen or nicole richie for being nepo babies no one is like because they embrace the fact that they're privileged and that they've had a path carved out from them for a very young age like so i think
00:41:15
Speaker
That would be something that like Nebo babies today could really learn from because it's like Jesus Christ No one's mad at you if you just acknowledge it and if you just poke fun at it and you say like yeah This is you know, my great-great-grandfather was Carlton Hilton like that's yeah, of course you're living in a big house and of course, you know, you're More privileged than other people I think that Nebo babies today are too caught up trying to hide the fact that they're never babies and trying to be like why I Worked for everything I had you know, right? It's like, okay
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah, like there's no defense. There's no defensiveness about it. No, there's no defensiveness. It's an embracement of the Nepo Baby. It is a warm, warm hug to being a Nepo Baby and it's a proud Nepo Baby banner flying the whole time. This show couldn't be made with anyone other than Nepo Baby. It has to be a Nepo Baby.
00:42:06
Speaker
because it also makes I think like you made a really good point earlier of like you were laughing you know we're laughing at their sort of ignorance and I think if it was someone more grounded that was a coastal elite you wouldn't get that that
00:42:22
Speaker
elevated like almost satirical feeling to to the comedy because they are just so out of touch and so in a different world they are so 1% they're not even they're just not near 99% of America because they are in the 1% like not many people can relate to the lives that they have they've had
00:42:41
Speaker
we're actually not getting them in a lot of scenarios of their quote-unquote real life. We're not getting that perspective of what their Monday through Friday is like when they're back at home living in LA or New York or whatever. When at the same time we have Tommy Hilfiger's daughter, Allie,
00:43:00
Speaker
and her friend Jamie, who are rich girls of the Upper East Side and rich girls. It's truly just a fly on the wall of them going shopping every episode. It's so unrelatable. There's of course a perverse fascination with it, but it's so inaccessible. It's almost boring. I feel that way when I watch the Kardashians. I'm like, this is incredibly boring. I want to see the hijinks. I want to see the drama. I want to see you interacting with real people.
00:43:30
Speaker
because in shows like that, that are like slice of life rich person, it's just fucking boring. It's boring. It's like, I don't, I'm not interested in what they're doing all day. I'm not interested in the lunch where you talk about what you're going to wear to the next event and then you get to the event and then you talk about what you wore to the event. Like that feels like the cycle of the Kardashians and probably the cycle of rich girls. And I think it is smart that, you know, we get 10 minutes of that in this opening episode and then the rest of the pilot is just mayhem.
00:44:00
Speaker
you
00:44:16
Speaker
Iconic fashion and it's totally back like everything they wore in the show People are selling on Depop right now.
Fashion and Body Image in Early 2000s
00:44:25
Speaker
Yeah, like it is it is so so back and
00:44:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I remember like the jean flared skirts. I remember having a lot of those and like feeling very, very Nicole Richie like sexy in those. Oh my God, the low waisted pants for Paris. I've never seen pants lower than the ones on Paris in the show. Yeah, it's really like you're getting the V of her body and it's very low.
00:44:58
Speaker
It's funny to know that Nicole was in rehab for heroin before because this is really heroin sheik era. This is skinny girl eating disorder fashion time. This is let's show our 0% body fat stomachs.
00:45:20
Speaker
Paris Hilton famously signed to Donald Trump's model management company at the time. She was just this icon of millennium Y2K fashion. Would Von Dutch Hats have happened without Paris Hilton sign up? Absolutely not. No way. Absolutely not. And thinking about how Nicole was also a fashion trendsetter but didn't get the credit for it because she was a different body size. And now looking at how her
00:45:48
Speaker
career has really been cemented in fashion. It's become her entire brand identity since. There's an episode where they're meeting with the quilt ladies. Tell your grandsons we're single. But she keeps saying it's squares. Do something different. Put cigarette burns in it.
00:46:10
Speaker
She has a fashion point of view. She has a point of view, you know? She absolutely does. She doesn't want squares. No, she wants cigarettes, burns, and ribs. She wants to be, you know, she wants to be next in fashion. She wants to be ahead. She wants to be on Making the Cut, which she will be 20 years later. Oh my god, no, but the the fashion of this time was so, I remember, like, I
00:46:33
Speaker
I really really just I there were so many pieces of clothing I wanted a Von Dutch hat I wanted a juicy sweatsuit suit I wanted all of these things that were considered luxury items but totally like
00:46:47
Speaker
Von Dutch, what? You're right, that would not have taken off without Paris Hilton. I think they can thank her for that. So Paris Hilton, I just looked up how tall is Paris Hilton. She's only five seven. She looks like six feet tall. She does. She looks like a six feet tall alien. She's so tall, she's a string bean. Just the longest torso, really long legs. I don't know. Because her pants are sitting just above her clit. Yeah.
00:47:14
Speaker
They are so low on her. And then her shirts are so small. Yeah. So of course her proportions look insane. I thought she was seven feet tall because her proportions look wild. It is like that time in fashion, I think, was the most cruel and unforgiving time in fashion because nobody's body looks good in that except Paris Hilton. Totally. And her body doesn't look good in that, by the way. It's just we were conditioned to believe that that is what looked good. Yeah.
00:47:43
Speaker
When I think of their style, I do think of the Von Dutch position just to the side. Just to the side. And then the bedazzled tank tops. The thick belts.
00:47:56
Speaker
I think Nicole Richie's style sticks out for me in the show almost more than Paris's because Paris, it is so unattainable because it's so tethered to her body type that like Nicole's is actually like, okay, I could make that look cute. That's probably what the majority of us looks like. Which is why it was so damaging that she was painted as the chubby friend because then you realize
00:48:22
Speaker
Fuck am I the chubby friend, but also she's the coolest part of the show. So it's like yeah. Yeah, why not?
00:48:45
Speaker
This show, I feel like it really stands on any rewatch.
Legacy and Cultural Relevance of 'The Simple Life'
00:48:51
Speaker
I truly laughed out loud so many times watching it. It's a cultural artifact that is both, still feels fresh, but also is so dated in such a fun way. I think it's the perfect mix of nostalgia, but also, as you said, we can watch along with them and relate to them more and root for them.
00:49:14
Speaker
and really appreciate the sense of control they have in their comedy and just how they're presenting themselves to the world.
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah, and watch it back with the perspective and the recognition of perhaps what's not being shown. What are the what are the omissions here? And how would it be today? Right. Because the framing was clearly this family is they are doing a good a good deal. And there's genuine moments between them and Paris and Nicole. And I think that that they really do bond. I think if the show was made today, as we said, that would be
00:49:50
Speaker
the show, the genuine moments bridging the gap rather than laughing at the gap.
00:50:03
Speaker
What are your loves it? What do we loves? Ooh, loves it of the simple life. Okay, I think my loves it are Braxton, loves it, Grandma. Grandma Curly. Grandma Curly loves it. I think suggesting the two men in the truck take a bath together, loves it. Absolutely. And then I love the sonic sign change. Yeah.
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah, I love Nicole. I mean, I think that she's like a real comedic wizard. Absolutely. And I also think that she is so good at diffusing tension. She makes a really excellent TV reality TV character for that reason.
00:50:53
Speaker
I loves in one of the last episodes, Kathy Hilton sends the girls chinchin, which is an iconic Beverly Hills fusion restaurant. They have one of the best Chinese chicken salads in town. It's so good. There's only one left. It's in studio. We're going to have to go and get the Chinese chicken salad. It's so good. That for me is a real nostalgic thing watching it because we used to go to chinchin a lot.
00:51:23
Speaker
And I
00:51:29
Speaker
I loves watching it and recognizing being able to like differentiate all of the masks that Paris Hilton is putting on simultaneously. 100%. I think knowing how curated and calculated she is really is a great context to have on the rewatch. Yeah. And I think my greatest loves is
00:51:57
Speaker
feeling inspired to look at a world that is predisposed to assume something about you or that looks at you in a certain way and to defy it with humor? Absolutely. They owned their narrative in a time that women didn't really have ownership over themselves. Yeah, they easily could have been put into the Jessica Simpson page. Absolutely. I think that's like
00:52:25
Speaker
the difference in how they both handled it. Not to blame Jessica Simpson, I think she, you know, she also has like a borderline abusive husband that she's, you know, filming this show with. But I think it's like the camaraderie they had and having each other. It really makes the show special. I love, I love how much they own their narrative. I think it's, it's, it's iconic. Honestly, Simple Life, that's hot. That's how I feel about it. I still feel it's hot.
00:52:54
Speaker
Loves it loves it. Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you for having me.
Beyoncé's Breakout and Podcast Conclusion
00:53:17
Speaker
So it wouldn't be fair to call Paris Hilton the icon of 2003 without acknowledging that there was another icon who, that year, broke out on her own and released her first solo album, Beyonce.
00:53:32
Speaker
Unlike Paris, whose fame has had its ebbs and flows, Beyoncé's trajectory has only skyrocketed from her first post-Destiny's Child effort. Dangerously in Love was released on June 24, 2003. Beyoncé was the executive producer of the album and co-wrote a majority of the songs on it. The album contains numerous bangers, including most notably Crazy in Love, Baby Boy, and Me, Myself, and I.
00:54:01
Speaker
This week's Song of the Week is Crazy in Love, Beyoncé's breakout single from her breakout solo album. Thanks again to Kirsten for joining me to discuss The Simple Life. If you have thoughts or comments on The Simple Life, you can send us an email at classof03pod at gmail.com or DM me on Instagram at classof03pod.
00:54:24
Speaker
If you like this episode, please rate it and review it. We really appreciate you. Class of 03 is written, produced and hosted by me, Helen Grossman. Our theme music is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth. And our show art is by Maddie Herbert of Dame Studio. Thanks and see you next time. Class dismissed.