http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/arts/television/branson-famous-explores-the-baldknobbers-jamboree.html 2014-12-26 19:48:52 ‘Branson Famous’ Explores the Baldknobbers Jamboree This reality show on TruTV goes backstage in Branson, Mo. === Reality television series that rely on Southern and backwoods stereotypes work best if they keep you guessing: Is this show serious, or is it a sly parody? “Branson Famous” is a backstage look at the The jamboree is not exactly high art; it features, among other things, a guy wearing fake buck teeth and an idiotic hat. The family has apparently realized that the But not too sexy. Even before the auditions are over, Megan, who had been what qualifies as a hottie in Baldknobber land, is complaining about one candidate, Heather, who is hotter and, she fears, will steal her beau, Brandon, whom she herself stole from someone else a few years before. And here is where “Branson Famous” winks at itself. These and other family dynamics are conveyed through musical vignettes sung directly to the camera — cheesy couplets parodying the musical melodrama that still defines country music for a lot of people who don’t know the genre. “Megan came in like a sweet rain, then she tore through my family like a hurricane,” Brandon’s mother, Patty, sings. “She latched on to my son, now she’s got him convinced that she is the one. All she is is pain.” It’s pretty hilarious, and it’s made more so by a side plot involving a Mabe daughter, Breezy, who wants to sing in the show but has a voice that could set off a boom in the earplug industry. So there you have it: a television show about a stage show that is looking to modernize, ostensibly by freshening its stage presentation but actually by capitalizing on the reality-TV genre and the fame it can bring. Are these bumpkins as lowbrow and unsophisticated as they appear? Don’t bet on it.