'Wife Swap' shows off opposites
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
If you ever thought that people are kind of the same, ABC has a show to dispel that.
Donna Svennevik • Associated Press
"Wife Swap" takes opposite lives, then switches them for two weeks. City meets country, strict meets lenient, animal-lover meets animal-hater.
Jodi Spolansky, left, moved in with Laura, Brad and Hannah Bradley in rural New Jersey while Lynn Bradley moved in with Spolansky's husband and three kids in uptown Manhattan for ABC's "Wife Swap."
And in the regular-time slot debut (9 tonight), Lynn Bradley meets Jodi Spolansky.
Bradley lives in rural New Jersey and works a lot. She drives a school bus, gardens and does housework. She's also a wood craftsman. With her husband, she raises two daughters (13 and 12) and runs a firewood business. She says she was ready to swap lives with anyone: "I thought maybe I could use a vacation."
Spolansky, on the other hand, is a multimillionaire and lives in Manhattan and doesn't have a job. Before the show, she spent an hour a day with her kids, ages 7, 6 and 2. After all, she has four nannies to do that.
"I actually have three nannies and a housekeeper, just to correct you on that," she says.
She also has a lot of "me" time. She works out, she spends her days at salons, lunching with friends and shopping.
They swapped lives for two weeks in a show that puts a spotlight on how people live.
9 tonight ABC
This isn't "Trading Spouses," the Fox knock-off. ABC's show is based on a British hit, with the same people producing.
'Wife Swap'
During the first week, the wives must live by each other's rules, covering everything from budgeting and parenting to socializing and shopping. But during the second week, they can run their new households however they see fit.
The contrasts come in all forms.
In tonight's hour, that involves money. Spolansky and her husband (who owns an importing company) have a lot of it; Bradley and her husband (who clears lots for builders) have some. Spolansky and her husband eat out six times a week. Bradley cooks.
Still, Lambert promises this won't be a monotonous theme.
"This is probably the only (episode) where there's a huge contrast in wealth," he says. "It's much more about a contrast in values."
One woman, in an episode that ran Sunday, values pets and has 25 of them. She swapped lives with someone who hates animals.
One mom is lenient and she stepped into a different world, Lambert says. "It's a family (in which) each child has a leather strap on the back of the bedroom door. If they step out of line, it's used."
And yes, people change.
Spolansky says she's not really the me-centered person viewers see. She has a master's degree and has held jobs in the past. She now spends more time with the kids.
Bradley emerged from her Manhattan adventure with a layered hair cut from Spolansky's stylist ($500 for the cut, $65 for upkeep) and a husband who has seen the difference in wives and lives.
"He's been helping me out around the house," she says. "He appreciates me a lot more."
