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ABC's 'Supernanny' Brings Some Discipline to Elk Grove

Posted on: Saturday, 18 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Alison apRoberts, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 18--Listen up, boys and girls. "Supernanny" is in the neighborhood. We don't think you want to do anything that will inspire her to peer over her glasses and tell you, as she has so many children, "Your behavior is very naughty." No one was naughty when Jo Frost, the nanny herself, on Thursday made her trademark entrance - neat as a pin in a purple suit, carrying a big bag and wearing her sensible glasses - to knock on the door of a home in Elk Grove. Of course, there were no children around for this initial shooting session. The 35-year-old star of the ABC reality show (9 p.m. Mondays on Channel 10) is here to work her reality-TV-meets-Mary-Poppins magic with her first Sacramento-area family. The front of the house is neat and tidy, but you can be sure there's plenty of disorder within. All that is being revealed so far: This is her first family in which there is shared custody and two households; and there are two boys in the family. "They're dealing with very severe issues with behavior, and the parents are not being consistent," Frost says. The finished local episode will probably be aired sometime in May. Thursday morning was the easy part of production - no tantrums or confrontations. It was just Frost being taped arriving in a London Taxi International limo and knocking at the front door. There was the usual hurry-up-and-wait of TV production for the crew of about a dozen people as the limo was dusted off and Frost's hair was neatened and mud on the heels of her shoes was wiped off with a paper towel. The arrival in the car was shot three times; the knock at the door several more. The whole drill took about an hour and will account for about five seconds on the finished show. Camera crews will spend 10 to 12 days with the family; Frost will be on the scene about half that time. She will not be spending the night with this family, although she does when there are nighttime behavior issues. Altogether, there will be more than 100 hours of tape shot for the one-hour show. After the morning shooting was finished, Frost took a few minutes to chat. She was just as sensible and appealing in person as on the show. And she good-naturedly performed her trademark peering over the top of her glasses, giving that look that makes kids know she means business. She's also very good at keeping a stiff - and closed - upper and lower lip.

"I plead the Fifth," she says when she is asked if she's still getting marriage proposals from strangers. She received hundreds of e-mails from aspiring suitors after she talked of being single (and childless) on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last year. She's equally mum when asked whether the British or Americans make worse parents. "It's something I'm constantly asked," she says, laughing. "I love the way everyone has to recognize how unique their families are." Since filming in the States began in 2004, Frost's London lingo is being instilled in American families: "Naughty" and "faffin' around" (for messing around) and "unasseptable" for unacceptable. American children seem to understand her very well, and they are also very accepting of the way she simply materializes. Some, she says, seem to think the London cab limo flew her here like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. "You can have magic with the children," Frost says. Frost wasn't always a star; for 15 years she was simply a professional nanny. "Supernanny" was first produced and shown in Britain. "I knew it was going to hit a raw nerve," Frost says of her show. "The scale of it I couldn't have told you." Frost now heads a veritable nanny empire, complete with competition from "Nanny 911," the Fox show that features four British nannies. She also has a book out, "Supernanny: How To Get the Best From Your Children" (Hyperion, $14.95, 224 pages), published in January 2005). Season 1 of the ABC series will be released on DVD on May 16. The show is always looking for more families to help. You can call (877) NANNYTIME (877-626-6984) or go to www.abc.com to submit an application. Frost shows no signs of faltering in her quest to fix the sorts of behaviors that parents' nightmares are made of. Within hours, she will be meeting her Elk Grove family in person for the first time, geared up to win yet another domestic battle for peace at home. "You certainly go through the rough and tumble," she says, looking perfectly happy at the prospect. "Just keep bringing the families." ON TV Supernanny 9 p.m. Mondays on 10

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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