Buried Life Preview

'The Buried Life' Preview: Authenticity, Optimism -- and a Run-in with Robert Pattinson

Fresh-faced, optimistic, and totally earnest, the four twentysomethings who created and star on MTV's 'The Buried Life'have a lot of things going for them: Hunky, all-American good looks (although they're actually Canadian). More than half a million "friends" on Facebook. And a successful show on MTV which relies entirely on their personalities, on-camera chemistry, and real-deal authenticity.

Now in its second season, the show's premise is deceptively simple: The stars -- Dave Lingwood, Ben Nemtin, Duncan Penn, and his brother, Jonnie Penn -- ask each other (and thus, their viewers) 'what do you want to do before you die'?

Each episode follows them on a cross-country quest to cross one of the items off their list that answers the question, from capturing a fugitive to getting married in Las Vegas to, in this week's edition (Monday, October 25 at 10:30 pm/ET), stealing a lock of Robert Pattinson's hair.

Since crossing the border for the bright lights of Hollywood, the four friends have begun to settle into budding fame, public lives and an ever-growing horde of fans, most of whom communicate with the stars directly through Facebook. But despite the heavy shoot schedule, media obligations and wealth of admirers, 'The Buried Life' stars' style is a far cry from some of their network bedfellows. Translation: This is no 'Jersey Shore.' Instead of hot tubs and hookups, 'The Buried Life' is all hope and inspiration.

And where young reality stars sometimes get lost in Hollywood hubris, 'TBL''s foursome have remained faithful to their core mission, and to each other. As they hit the midway point in their second season, TV Squad caught up with Duncan and Dave to find out to their secret to unwavering optimism, which shows have been the toughest to pull off and if President Obama (with whom they've shot hoops) has had anything to do with it.

You and your friends met in school, made a documentary and then brought it to MTV. Could you talk a little bit about that process?
DUNCAN: We're all from the same small island in Canada, on the west coast of Canada. ...We were coming out of high school and felt kind of disillusioned with what to do with our lives and got together and started talking, and eventually came up with the question, "what do you want to do before you die?" and the importance of asking yourself that question. And from there we came up with the list, and went out, borrowed my uncle's RV, and just started filming. It was supposed to be a documentary at first, but we came back from that, ad had all this footage, and that point we were approached to make a television show, which we ended up turning down, because they wanted to take away some of the creative control, and we weren't ready to give [it] away.

So, jump forward two years from there, we raised all this sponsorship money, and hired crew out in LA and started filming, going after more list items. And when we came back from that tour, we looked at our footage, and said it's time to make a television show. And making a television show was one of the things on the list. Number fifteen. The time was right, and that's when we connected with MTV.


MTV has a number of shows that dove-tail nicely with 'The Buried Life.' But it's also the same network known for shows like 'The Jersey Shore' and 'The Hills.' Where do you see your show fitting in with that wider set of programming?
DUNCAN: That's a good question. When we went to MTV, they were going through this change. They really wanted to offer both the more fun side of programming, like 'Jersey Shore,' but also offer shows with more of a message. And that's why we were so enticed to be with them, and we became good friends with Tony DiSanto [the president of programming and development for MTV]; he wanted to see 'Buried Life' stay authentic.

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xoxo
Carrie