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One Big Playground

NYC Prep's Executive Producer Lenid Rolov gives you the behind-the-scene scoop, and tells you what to expect this season.

June 23, 2009

 

In a way it’s a marvel that NYC Prep is on the air. Many production companies and networks had attempted to produce a show about kids who attend exclusive upper east side prep schools and came up empty. The UES (Upper East Side) is such a small, insular and private community that finding a group of high school kids who would allow a camera crew intimate access into their lives and are also extraordinary and colorful individuals had in the past proven to be an impossible task. So when I heard that two producers who grew up in the heart of Manhattan and attended pristine preparatory schools themselves had put together a cast and gotten the green light from Bravo to begin production, I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it.

I too am a product of a New York City upbringing, but my story is very different from the kids you see on the show. My parents and I immigrated to Manhattan from Latvia in the early 80’s. I arrived in the city without knowing a lick of English and my parents did not have a dime to their name. We lived in a small Washington Heights apartment with friends for the first few years and my Dad (who was a professional drummer in Latvia) got a gig driving a taxicab. I was in complete awe of Manhattan from the moment I set foot on the Island and many years later that feeling has only strengthened.

I always thought of NYC as one big playground where kids from different communities and economic brackets live within blocks of one another and hang out at the same parks and corner stoops. So even though I attended public school, I would encounter private school kids quite often… and I was awestruck by them. I grew up a very shy, insecure and quiet kid and I was always impressed by how confident and well put together the private school kids were. I imagined their lives to be perfect… full of cool friends, fun parties, exotic vacations, weekly shopping trips, and a predestined future running a fortune 500 company… in my mind their lives were a cross between “Dynasty” and “Leave it to Beaver.” With NYC Prep, I was handed the golden ticket… entrée into a world I have seen from the outside since I was a kid, but now I could experience it from the inside… and it did not disappoint.

Comments

24 Comments

The reality is these are young children who will learn and grow through this. Insecurities, low self esteem, and immaturity, is the reality as is with most teens. I hope that they come away with this being an eye opening experience. People no matter what age love to be able to peek into how others live. I say bravo to Bravo and take this for what its worth pure entertainment!

Finally caught the show. I hate to say it, but you guys let diamonds slip through your hands. That girl that Sebastian was on the date with, Remy, is known all over NYC. I've seen her at every fashion show. She has a blog for 17 Mag because she is so connected in the fashion world. My friends and I were comming out of Pastis last week and we walked by the Gaansavort and there she was getting out of a Maybach with a bodyguard, dressed to kill in a pair of ridiculous Louboutins. Last week, friends of mine saw her with Lucy Liu. The week before that with Madonna's daughter Lourdes. Then I googled her because I've become a total fan and she was in LA for a Charlotte Ronson event hanging with Jeremy Piven and every other LA celeb. I met her once at the Marc Jacobs show, and believe it or not, she is actually nice - and so beautiful in person. Bring her back! She is so much more interesting. If I wasn't gay I'd marry her! PS: PC is Hot!

Hey!
I love NYC Prep and I live in Washington DC. I have noticed that in DC there are a lot of teenagers just like in New York. I go to a prep school just outside of DC and all we do is shop at Gucci and other high end stores or have dinner parties at nice places in DC. All the prep schools in and nearby DC know each other.
DC Prep would be a great addition to Bravo.

Please take this show off the air and put more housewives on tv. Its not real life....

Isn't this show already on another network. Gossip Girl. Which is much better than this show.

When I saw PC in the preview commercials for the show I thought ..oh I have to see what this kid is all about. Whatever 'it' is he has it..I'm hooked on the show just to make sure everything turns out OK for him

Why aren't the guys blogging???? Are they too scared to see the audience response to their spoiled, egotistical behavior????

Not really feeling this show at all. I prefer watching housewives shows (sans orange county) which are more adult like. But I suppose it has a niche with teens who are enamored with the lifestyle they lead.

I am completely at a loss for words. These CHILDREN (!!!!) are being exploited by Bravo and their own parents! Disgusting! Shame on you!

So true!!! For all you people out there not from NYC you will never understand!! Kids like this actually exist, and even though I despise kids like this, deep down I feel as though I would've loved to have gone to schools like they did. I go to a public NYC high school. I hear mainly about the drugs, sex, clubbing OD, the usual, etc. In college, I finally met someone from this elite community and told her what I felt about it as a NYC public H.S. student. She got mad and told me "Yea, we party hard, but before that we worked hard! We worked our asses off in high school." So before you all judge, remember that the schools these students attend cost more then $30,000 a year, and that’s starting from kindergarten! Imagine paying all that money for grades K-12 for all of your children! Then after that college! And these schools are extremely difficult to make (and they claim to accept people from all socioeconomic classes, but I can only LOL at those claims, since most of the schools have a majority white student body). The college guidance counselors these students have really are top notch, and I guess all that money you pay is for that fact alone (since the counselors have the Ivy League connections).

I truly think that this show is entertaining. Mostly because the teenagers are being exactly what they think they are expected to be. People need to relax and not take this show so seriously if your teens were on a show that is based on the most popular tv show at the moment they would be acting as outrageous as this group of kids are. They want to live up to the status that people put NYC Prep schools, and the Upper East side in. As a teenager myself I can say that I am not thinking of these kids as role models or anything like that. This is only a show to watch during the summer so people need to chill. Bravo is doing this because with all the reality tv shows it now has many teenagers are watching the channel, and it is definitely a very smart move. This is the New York version of Laguna Beach, and parents should not be worried.Just like the adult women watching Real Housewives of New Jersey won't flip a table in the middle of a dinner party, teenagers watching NYC Prep will not start drinking,smoking, and going to clubs every night just because that is what the these kids are doing.

I find this show incredibly amusing- looking forward to the next episode.

hey len
i love you

This is a boring version of the reality show gossip girl... please bravo stick to the housewives way more interesting to watch then some snobby upper east side kids.

Are you kidding me...this show belongs on MTV. Bravo loses major cool points for this boring show. It's just a bunch of spoiled rich kids…like we have not seen this before – so unoriginal. Seriously, I love this channel, but this is a waste of air time.

I have a concern about Kelly's living arrangements. It just seems like neglect, to me, for parents to put their child in an apartment in the city while they live in a completely different location and only see each other for a few hours a week. Have authorities been notified? Don't you think this should be a concern? I'm pretty sure that any of us middle/lower class people who did that to our children would have Child Protective Services after us, and probably have our children taken away. Nevermind the techinicality of living with an 18 year old brother. I'm guessing that wouldn't be such a disapointment for Kelly's parents, save the embarassment of all their rich friends knowing their children were taken by CPS. What horrible parents. I hope they are ashamed of themselves.

To me, bravo is the only network that shows real shows that keep you interested and tuning in every week. i applaud you for showing more nyc ... I love it... Keep up the good work..

I adore this show already! I've been dying to see the New York social scene through the eyes of teenagers since reading GG! It's even better :)

It is unbelievable to me that this is even on the air, but it should not be a surprise. Bravo is quickly becoming the network of the upper-class voyeur. I can deal with the Housewives, as in bad taste as I think these shows are, but now to involve high school kids? I'll pass. The last thing I need is to watch a bunch of spoiled rich kids who have no idea what it's like to deal with issues a little more important than going out to be seen in the club or buying the next great purse.

Why to show the rest of the world how materialistic American is Bravo.

Wow awesome blog! Can't wait to see more. Please keep writing entries!! I love loved the first episode, amazing view of an amazing world. I love Camille and Taylor already to pieces so looking forward to where they'll go this season.

I love the show but i don't like PC because he is not all that.

I am a realty show fanatic, I will watch almost anything that is realty TV(thats pretty much all thats on TV nowadays anyway). But I have to say that this one is quite different to say the least. It is hard to accept these kids as "real." I am fully aware of the fact that this is actually how these kids live but it is honestly ridiciulous to see these young kids pretending to be mature and living these adult lives, it makes me really wonder about their parents and why this was even chosen as an idea for realty tv. Some of these kids will be the kids you hear about on the news that have too much money for their own good, have no real sense of responsibility and all they now is drinking and partying which results in some drastic mistake costing someone their own life. I dont see this being a long lasting show and as a final thought, these kids and their parents need counseling!

I watched this "show" for the first and last time this evening. I cannot believe that the way economic times are today that something like this is on the air. These kids are totally clueless about the real world. I would hope that when their parents see the show and realize what they are becoming that they do something about it. I guess that probably won't happen though, since they are the ones that raised them. That is of course except for the ones that are leaving their 16 and 18 year old alone unsupervised. I would love to see these children taken out of their life of privilege and see what it's really like out there, then maybe they would appreciate and be a bit more humble about what they do have.

I think it is totally irresponsible to show underage drinking. I am disgusted that Bravo would green light this hot mess. Bravo has lost a viewer.

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