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TV celebrities to the rescue

With years of experience in England, Jo Frost brings her expertise to help a Trinity family.

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Jo Frost, right, star of the ABC hit, Supernanny, talks with production manager Laurz Segal after filming a scene in the LTI London Taxi while on location at a Trinity home Tuesday morning. The show will air between December and March, and the name of the family Frost is here to help will be a highly guarded secret until then.

TRINITY - Remember that scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie claws his way up the slide and through the elves to get to Santa to beg for an official Red Ryder carbine action, 200-shot BB gun?

That's sort of how it was on Tuesday to get a few moments alone with Jo Frost, the real life Supernanny of the wildly popular ABC TV reality show of the same name. She and her crew came to Trinity to film a segment to be shown sometime this winter the family's identity will remain a closely guarded secret until just before the show is aired.

You had to work around filming crews, planning crews, reporters, photographers, the shiny black London cab that brings her to each chosen household, and an occasional minivan mom who spotted the Supernanny on the sidewalk and hopped out for a quick chat.

After all, Ms. Frost has become something of a cultural phenomenon since her show debuted in the United States in early 2005 following its blockbuster success in the United Kingdom the year before. She's the wise-beyond-her-years English nanny who seems to turn almost impossible-to-endure households into something, well, quite pleasant, all in a matter of moments.

But it's much more complicated than that, starting with Ms. Frost herself. Spend five minutes with her, and you can begin to understand that she really does connect with people in a special way.

Sure, sure. She has her stock answers to stock questions, and she's supercareful not to say anything that could conflict with the show's image or with anyone involved in it.

But get her talking about her core interest - families - and you can almost hear a click as her "official" stance switches off and her "genuine caring" attitude glides on. Ms. Frost truly believes the child-rearing techniques she teaches make a difference. She's watched it happen time and again.

In fact, long after she has gone on to the next town, she stays in touch by phone, mail and e-mail with many of the families who feel their lives have been turned around with her guidance.

No, it's not deep therapy; she's had no formal child therapy training. Ms. Frost's approach comes after more than 17 years being a real English nanny, who had to deal with difficult situations as they came up.

She's never seen an episode of The Andy Griffith Show - you know, the ones back when Opie was just a kid - but her child-rearing philosophy sounds eerily like that of Sheriff Andy Taylor: just plain common sense.

And it's not quick. She goes in, observes what's going on, then spends four or five full days (nights if the situation warrants it) with the family.

"I give families tools and advice," Frost said. Then she leaves and "they use the techniques." As she heads for the next assignment, a filming crew stays behind to see how it's working, then Supernanny comes back to fine-tune what she's done.

The process starts when a casting crew sifts through thousands of applications to choose and then check out potential families to be on the show. The 11-page application asks about any criminal convictions, domestic violence calls, physical or sexual abuse or drug use, as well as more benign background details. It asks pointed questions about the family's child-related problems.

Once the family is chosen, an advance crew goes to the area and gets everything set up - housing, food, the London cab, a book with the house layout, and every detail the filming crew will need to know when it finally arrives on the scene.

Only four people fly from location to location with Ms. Frost: her hairdresser, director, production manager and the head supervisor. In the past few weeks, they've gone from Hawaii (they were there when the earthquake struck) to Alaska to Florida. Next up is Wisconsin, then Salt Lake City and then who knows where.

The members of the filming crew, many of them hired locally, work on an episode for a week or more, while the advance crew goes on to the next location.

The family is filmed almost around the clock.

"These are courageous parents," Ms. Frost said. "When I leave, it's up to them."

Barbara Fredricksen can be reached at (727) 869-6262 or e-mail at fredricksen@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 25, 2006, 08:09:25]