Strange Love

Infobox Television
show_name = Strange Love


caption = Strange Love logo
format = Reality
runtime = 60 minutes
creator = Cris Abrego
Mark Cronin
executive_producer = Cris Abrego
Mark Cronin
Ben Samek
starring = Flavor Flav
Brigitte Nielsen
country = United States
network = VH1
preceded_by = "The Surreal Life"
followed_by = "Flavor of Love"
first_aired = January 9, 2005
last_aired = April 24, 2005
num_seasons = 1
num_episodes = 11
website = http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/strange_love/series.jhtml
imdb_id = 0429438
tv_com_id = 31218

"Strange Love" is a reality series featuring Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav that aired on VH1. Sparked by their on screen romance in the third season of VH1's "The Surreal Life", it is a spin-off that focused solely on Brigitte and Flav. The series premiered on January 9, 2005 and ended its run on April 24, 2005.

Due to mutual jealousy, the couple was constantly fighting and yelling, and they went their separate ways in the end, with Nielsen choosing instead to live with her Italian boyfriend, Mattia Dessi.Flavor Flav would go on to have his own reality show, "Flavor of Love", where he continued to search for love.

Episode list

# "The Flavor of Love" (aired January 9, 2005)
# "The Smack is Back" (aired January 16, 2005)
# "Balls Well That Ends Well" (aired January 23, 2005)
# "The Wine, The Romance, and The Truth" (aired January 30, 2005)
# "Flav's Fried Chicken" (aired February 13, 2005)
# "Public Enemy Number 1" (aired February 20, 2005)
# "Bronx Cheers" (aired March 6, 2005)
# "The Family That Flav's Together, Stays Together" (aired March 27, 2005)
# "Flav Can't Lose" (aired April 3, 2005)
# "You May Now Flav the Bride" (aired April 10, 2005)
# "Reunion" (aired April 24, 2005)

Controversy

North Carolina's Reverend Paul Scott labeled Flav's performance "a coon act on a modern-day minstrel show". [cite news|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1607628,00.html|title=Still raging after all these years|last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=2005-11-05|publisher="The Guardian"|accessdate=2008-07-13]

Flav's friend and fellow Public Enemy member Chuck D accused VH1 of "Flavsploitation" in a [http://www.publicenemy.com/index.php?page=page3&item=87 journal entry] regarding the March 27 episode which showed a tense conflict between Flav, three of his children and their mother.

"Peeps will let the Bridgette ["sic"] thing perhaps slide, but not the wild statements and what seems like a disrespect conflict on camera with his children and their mother. Last week, it was that same part of his family who went on Wendy Williams' program and launched the worst on-air diatribe ever directed at a father by his children." [cite web|url=http://www.publicenemy.com/index.php?page=page3&item=87|title= FLAVploitation? |last=D|first=Chuck|date=2005-01-28|publisher=publicenemy.com]

Flav responded by saying,

"I want "Strange Love" to be a mirror for them. I want them to see themselves, because they did disrespect me also. But that's their mother. When children grow up without both parents, there's an imbalance — and what you see on the show with my kids is an imbalance…But I love my kids." [cite news|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/publicenemy/articles/story/7223184/chuck_d_flav_square_off|title=Chuck D, Flav Square Off|last=Ford|first=Tracy|date=2005-03-28|publisher="Rolling Stone"]

A petition was set up in conjunction with Chuck D's criticisms in hopes of convincing VH1 to pull the show off the air, yet VH1 continued to broadcast the program for its entire run.

References

External links

* [http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/strange_love/series.jhtml Official VH1 website]
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