AUF WIEDERSEHEN “PROJECT RUNWAY” – HELLO “BIG SISTER”
What I Would Like to See on Reality TV
By Robyn Hall
July 2010
Part 3

Welcome back to the newest reality TV show, Big Sister.  Check out the final seven episodes of the first season below.  The baby sisters are learning their last lessons from the Big Sisters and are finding ways to cope with their tumultuous 40s.  In the Season One finale, the 40-somethings will get a surprise gift from their 50-plus mentors and will be on their way to becoming Aging But Dangerous. 
7. Celebrity Cry Club – The sisters are all together for “Movie Night” in the family room.  While the baby sisters cry uncontrollably (because that’s what you do when you are in your 40s – you cry not just during chick flicks but even during the 4th of July parade with its stirring music and at your son’s soccer games because he moves like a beautiful animal), the Big Sisters surprise them with some real life chicks from the flicks – Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, and Jennifer Aniston  – who come and shed some tears as fellow 40-somethings.  Oh, it feels so good to let it all out!  
8. So You Think You Can Shop? – The girls all go on an outing today – to the local Walgreen’s – where the Big Sisters take the baby sisters shopping to find all of the new medications they will need to deal with the changes in energy, hormones, weight, sleep, incontinence, allergies, sex, etc. 
9. Yawn Stars – The Big Sisters convene in the kitchen to create a loud “wake-up call” for the baby sisters because all they want to do is sleep!  The baby sisters have complained of constant exhaustion (they pray they are at the right place at the right time for the right child when they show up at teachers’ conferences!) and need to get their groove back.  So, after a good breakfast full of anti-oxidants, the 40-somethings are led on a hike to the top of a mountain, where they are picked up for a helicopter ride, during which they watch in awe as the 50-plussers parachute out of an airplane as part of their annual “Martini Jump” ritual. (Join Suzanne and Jean at this year’s jump on August 28, 2010!) 
10. Sex and the Suburbs – Coming off of last week’s episode about exhaustion, the baby sisters get energized over a new topic and confront the Big Sisters at the start of the show.  They want to know when they will get their sex drives back!  The 50-plussers treat the 40-somethings to a pseudo-bachelorette party; they learn about sex all over again from striptease teachers from The S Factor, experts in toys and lingerie, and from some young “cougar” trainers.  Growl!
11. Survivorwoman – One of the baby sisters gets bad news – her real-world youngest sister has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  This trauma turns the whole episode into a healing session, and the baby sisters learn about the headaches and heartaches that go with death, disease, divorce, and other disasters that hit in your 40s.  It can happen to you, your friends, your parents, your children.  What will you do?
12. Keeping Up with Each Other – One of the final lessons that the baby sisters need to learn is that it is time to stop focusing on “keeping up with the Jones, Kardashians,” or anyone else.  It’s time to put away the egos, stop faking it, and focus on honest relationships with peers/sisters.  Most of the 40-somethings admit that they were type-A midlife mamas who couldn’t be perceived as less than perfect, who would never in a million years disclose how much suffering they were going through, who had to maintain happy faces all of the damn time.  But no more – the Big Sisters have taught them how to let their hair down.
13. The Real Housewives of America – Graduation ceremonies are the highlight of the final episode of Season One of Big Sister.  The Big Sisters hand their baby sisters the keys to a fabulous house located in the hills of Costa Rica, where they will become the Big Sisters in 10 years, when they have become 50-something Aging But Dangerous divas themselves.  The moral of Big Sister is to pay it forward; one of the responsibilities for the baby sisters, now that they have been given this knowledge and the lessons on life in your 40s, is to share it with those who need it.  Go forth and heal, girls!