‘Alaskan Bush People', Cuddling & Spooning Through Adversity

[FWS]

‘Alaskan Bush People,’ TV review

Billy Brown and his backwoods clan prize rugged defiance as well as useful connections to mainstream society

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 6, 2014



Ami and Billy Brown make plans for dinner in ‘Alaskan Bush People’

For merchandising, publishing & ancillary products, check talent contract, appearance & property releases. Discovery Channel Ami and Billy Brown make plans for dinner in ‘Alaskan Bush People’

TV reality show producers have fallen in love with Alaska, in case you hadn’t noticed, but the relationship often doesn’t turn out to be quite as magical as the infatuation would suggest.

Take the Brown family, stars of “Alaska Bush People.” They’re “like no other family in America,” say the promotions. They stand alone. They may go six to nine months without seeing any outsiders.

Patriarch Billy Brown, who lives with wife Ami and their seven mostly grown children, says they “live free” and “wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Fair enough. That’s their choice and they seem happy to accept the tradeoff — which is, for starters, living in a one-room cabin with no electricity or water and at times not bathing for weeks.

The appeal for TV viewers, obviously, is to say, “Whoa, can you imagine?” and the Browns’ lives do invite that response.



The Brown clan of Alaska in ‘Alaskan Bush People’

The show also taps into the current fad for “defiance.” Turns out the Browns built their first cabin on public land, so the government evicted them, and now they’re moving north to a colder and more remote place.

But the Browns own an SUV. They have firearms and chain saws. They buy much of their food at general stores and they use a lot of duct tape. When the trees on their new land aren’t big enough to use for the walls of the cabin, Billy goes to town and secures $10,000 worth of lumber, which he pays for in part by barter.

“Isolated” and “living off the land” seem to be flexible concepts here. And oh yes, the five Brown boys, ages 20 to 30, apparently will soon troll for wives.

It’s still a rugged life, and we admire their dedication to it. But as with a lot of dates, things aren’t quite what they first seem.

[FWS]

New Series 'Alaskan Bush People' to Premiere Tuesday, May 6 on Discovery Channel

Categories: Network TV Press Releases

Written By Sara Bibel

April 28th, 2014

DISCOVERY’S NEW SERIES FOLLOWS A REMARKABLE FAMILY OFF THE BEATEN PATH AND INTO THE WILD ALASKAN WILDERNESS

ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE Premieres Tuesday, May 6th

(NEW YORK, NY) -- Deep in the Alaskan wilderness lives a newly discovered family who was born and raised wild. These are the ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE, premiering on Discovery on Tuesday, May 6th at 10:00pm EST/PST. Billy Brown, his wife Ami and their seven grown children – 5 boys and 2 girls – are so far removed from civilization that they often go six to nine months of the year without seeing an outsider. They’ve developed their own accent and dialect, refer to themselves as a “wolf pack” and at night, all nine sleep together in a one-room cabin. Simply put, they are unlike any other family in America.

Recently, according to the Browns, the cabin where they lived for years was seized and burned to the ground for being in the wrong location on public land. They were devastated, but instead of giving up and moving back to society, they decided to go deeper into the wilderness to continue their way of life. Their new land is located in the Copper River Valley, where temperatures can drop to 60 degrees below zero. It’s a race against the clock as the winter gets closer and closer. The Browns must work together to build a new cabin that will protect them from the harsh Alaskan environment, but the falling temperatures and dwindling daylight make it harder and harder. They’ll use what the land provides to construct their small home and will also have to contend with other rogue bush people. It’ll be tough, but having lived this way for decades, the family wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Our family is doing what is natural for human beings to do. We survive on what we hunt, fish, trap and barter for,” Brown says. “If you think about it, it’s the life we were meant to live.” His family echoes his sentiments:

Ami - “We figured out we didn’t need modern society…we could live off the ocean and the forest.”

Matt (31)– “People are always saying we have some kind of accent. I don’t know where it comes from. I guess it’s from all the different people that live here in Alaska.”
Bam Bam (29) – “You go through the forest and then into the wilderness, and you just keep on going; when you think you can’t go any farther and you’ve come to the very tip end of the wilderness, that’s where the bush starts, and that’s where nobody else ever goes.”
Bear (26) – “Our family is a lot like a wolf pack or a clan ‘cause we stick together. We’re like the three musketeers, actually. It’s all for one and one for all.”
Gabe (24) – “It’s not like we’re backwards or cavemen even though our lifestyle can be quite primitive.”
Noah (21) – “We’re all homeschooled, and even though we’re in the middle of nowhere, we do get bits and pieces of the culture from the lower 48.”
Snowbird (19) – “Girl time is different in the bush. We don’t just do our nails and play with dolls. We like to hunt, and we like to fish…”
Rainy (11) – “My name is Merry Christmas Catherine Raindrop Brown, and people call me Rainy.”

This “simple life” that the Brown family lives is far from simple. But this is the life that these ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE know and love.

ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE is produced for Discovery Channel by Park Slope Productions. Terrence Sacchi, Paul Reitano and Pete DeLasho are the executive producers for Park Slope. Andy Berg, Vice President of Production at Animal Planet, developed the series and Carter Figueroa is the executive producer for Discovery Channel.

[FWS]

the five Brown boys, ages 20 to 30, apparently will soon troll for wives.

They can get themselves some big sacks, strong burlap ones, and sneak into town at night.............................

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

You worry me FWS, you are really fixated on cuddling and spooning here lately. You probably need to come to Nevada and buy yourself a good time.

[FWS]

You worry me FWS, you are really fixated on cuddling and spooning

No, just speculating on a family of 9 living together................

in a one-room cabin with no electricity or water and at times not bathing for weeks.

You probably need to come to Nevada and buy yourself a good time.

No need to buy that with the shear number of angry, bitter divorced women wandering about looking for a man to entertain them and give them crabs..........

That would be Dungeness crabs BTW.