The Swan 

A reality show about an ugly duckling turned beautiful swan, only it's a woman giving herself a physical makeover with plastic surgery, to compete in a beauty pageant.

Creator:

Nely Galan

Stars:

Amanda Byram, Greg Comeaux, Terry J. Dubrow

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Amanda Byram	...	Herself - Host 10 episodes, 2004
Greg Comeaux	...	Himself - Personal Trainer 10 episodes, 2004
Terry J. Dubrow	...	Himself - Plastic Surgeon 10 episodes, 2004
Nely Galan	...	Herself - Swan Coach 10 episodes, 2004
Randal D. Haworth	...	Himself - Plastic Surgeon 10 episodes, 2004
Lynn Ianni	...	Herself - Therapist 10 episodes, 2004
Sherri Worth	...	Herself - Cosmetic Dentist 10 episodes, 2004
Mark Thompson	...	Himself - Announcer 9 episodes, 2004

Storyline

A reality show about an ugly duckling turned beautiful swan, only it's a woman giving herself a physical makeover with plastic surgery, to compete in a beauty pageant.

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Plot Keywords:

non fiction | 

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Genres:

Reality-TV

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 April 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Miss Swan

Filming Locations:

Marina del Rey, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Galan Entertainment, George Paige Associates Inc., A. Smith & Co. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

[Gina is on the phone and has just found out that her home was flooded in a tropical storm]
Gina Davis: My house got flooded out?

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Connections

Referenced in Will & Grace: Company (2004)

User Reviews

A shrieking abomination of a TV show, aka standard fare for Fox.

One disconcerting thing about this show is that it has the unfortunate effect of nudging you to objectify everyone you encounter after seeing it. Taking the standards of the knife-and drill-happy doctors on this series to the street, nobody is perfect, or as they might put it, everyone's a mess, darling. It's an even money bet that every face you see after watching this show a couple of times will remind you of one of this shows 'before' cases. It's unavoidable. Glance at the lady walking your way. Her jawline needs definition, and, say, wouldn't she look great if the cartilage of the tip of her nose was shaved 20% and she had a nice set of Da Vinci veneers? ARGGHH!!! I DID NOT just think that! I dislike the show for encouraging me (and I cannot be alone) to look at physiognomies in a way that is linked directly to a TV series. No one did that with, say, the Price Is Right. But they do about this show. (Right after a recent broadcast of this show, we cut to a local car dealer's commercial with 2 "common person" testimonials. After having just sat through The Swan, you knew exactly what the shows medical team would have done to these ordinary, moderately attractive --and certainly "normal" looking-- women.)

The show is not without dark humor. There was the skinny, shy lady, with the sad ghost's personality, who asked for a double D cup augmentation that did not fit her frame by any stretch of the imagination, let alone her personality. She fought the process much of the way, like Rock Hudson in Seconds, so you may have wondered if this was for her. But you realized definitively, during her "reveal", that she had deliberately set herself up so that those things of which she had been taught to be ashamed, her visage and conversation and personality, were going to be the last things in the world you would notice about her ever again. The poor woman needed a year of therapy to mend her self-image and body-image, not an hour of surgery to give her physical assets to hide behind for the rest of her life. But then, the real solution for her case wouldn't make for the kind of quick-turnaround series and sure-fire TV in which Fox specializes. THAT'S why she got the only treatment this show has to offer (decorative veneer) and not the treatment any medical professional would recommend after observing her for even half an hour.

As you see from the above examples, the humor, when it comes, is accompanied by a heavy charge of righteous disgust with the shows producers and medical team. These plastic surgeons (as one assumes MOST plastic surgeons, and we only have cases like Michael Jackson's and this shows contestants' to judge from) exercise very little ethical judgment, probe the internal logic of the situation only scantly, and ask few questions, before chirping "Sure, we can do that!" Ever have a plumber in to unclog a sink in your bathroom, only to have him inform you that, for under two grand, he can put in a new shower, washstand and commode that will increase the value of your home by triple that figure? That's these surgeons. The combination of sizable paycheck, the promise held by the creation of a walking advertisement for their business, a certain giddy hot-dogging mentality all professionals have about their work, and sheer technical curiosity pushes them to give that which is indefensible through logic, aesthetics, sensitivity or ethics the old school try, over and over again. These form the mental condition of their work, and their world view, apparently. This point of view delimits their ability to look objectively at their ability to do genuine harm with the skills their training has given them. --Even if that harm is only to keep people from seeking appropriate help for their real conditions like self-esteem issues and poor body image. These plastic surgeons 'solutions' for a fair number of this shows contestants are the moral equivalent of assisting an anorexic by offering them a stomach staple instead of counseling. Reprehensible.

A few years ago, I saw a profile of a plastic surgeon who considered work of the kind done on this show a shallow misappropriation of the science. He only worked on people with profound disfiguring birth defects or on the casualties of war. His situation, contrasted with the forced tearful melodrama and appallingly acceptable butchery going on in this show, asks the question which might be phrased thus: As a scientist and top-paid professional, are your ambitions Nobel or Golden Globe? Are they for the greater good or for greed and show biz? An air of cheesy Zsa Zsa/Beverly Hills self-congratulation hangs over this production, especially during the "reveal" sequence, as we see that the medical team has long since bought its own hype. As a group, they are the polar opposite of this selfless surgeon. It wouldn't hurt them a bit to revisit the profile of this particular loving, caring humanitarian-- who just happens to do what they do-- before being driven back to their quick-trick corner of on-demand elective plastic surgery for the rich and for reality TV series.