Living the Dream (Scripted, English)
Genres: Drama, Comedy
Status: Ended
Premiered: 2004-08-10
Ended: 2004-10-12
Network: TVNZ 2
Country: NZ
Airs on: Tuesday
Air time: 20:30
Runtime: 60 minutes
What would you do if your entire world turned out to be fake? If a group of writers, producers and actors spent six months creating TV's most elaborate experiment all around you? If they plotted your every move, recorded it 24 hours a day and put it on national television... well that's exactly what happened to Sam Chambers in Living the Dream. The star nine actors are: Sarah Thomson as Tiffany, the rich bitch; Stephen Hall as Mule, the ex-SAS soldier; Jason Fitch as Mick the prick; Victoria Blackman as Mary, the virgin; Awanui Simich-Pene as Rima the schemer; Jeremy Birchall as Billy, the gay guy; Charlie McDermott as Ben, the best mate; Kirsty Cooke as Betty the new age flake, and Mark Ferguson as the smarmy host. Over the coming weeks, Sam and his eight housemates compete in increasingly bizarre challenges - all of them designed to push the actors and Sam to the limit, and to parody real reality TV shows. Can a bunch of actors step up to the challenge of remaining in character 24/7 and convincing Sam they are real? As well as challenges and the sheer astonishment of living with such extreme characters, each episode features an elimination. Although these are also set-up, Sam's real vote often threatened to affect the outcome- so behind the scenes the producers and writers were continually rewriting the actor's stories.