Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends
Starring	Louis Theroux
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	16 (1 Special)
Production
Executive producer	David Mortimer
Running time	50 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC Two
Release	October 1, 1999

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends is a television documentary series, in which Louis Theroux gives viewers the chance to get brief glimpses of things they wouldn't normally come into contact with. In most cases this means interviewing people with extreme beliefs of some kind, or just generally belonging to subcultures not known to exist by most or just frowned upon. It was first shown in the UK on BBC2.

Louis Theroux's view on weird weekends.

Weird weekends sets out to discover the genuinely odd in the most ordinary setting. To me, it's almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended. The show is laughing at me, adrift in their world, as much as at them. I don't have to play up that stuff. I'm not a matinee idol disguised as a nerd.

Episodes

The episode titles here are taken from DVD releases of the show in the UK, and may differ from the US versions.

UFOs

This episode follows several people who believe in UFOs. One of these is a man called Thor Templar, the self titled "Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate". He claims to have killed more than ten aliens by chopping their heads off.

Porn

Is being a porn star really the dream job for any man? This episode offers a look at very different sides of the porn industry, as Louis interviews countless male and female porn stars. He reveals the problems a lot of porn actors face, be it not getting a job in straight porn and therefore having to do gay porn, or not getting an erection when it is needed.

Swingers

Louis meets a couple from Southern California who have been hosting swinging parties for countless years. He visits one of these very popular parties to find out what drives couples to want to swap partners. This program also offers a brief look into other kinds of swinging through an organisation that has a database of members that are rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Under this system, you can only visit the parties of people of your level and lower.

Wrestling

Louis takes a look at different types of wrestling from the high profile WCW to people organizing events in their spare time. He also visits the WCW Power Plant, a training facility where some of the WCW wrestlers started out. The training he receives there from Dwayne Bruce shows him that some wrestlers will not break kayfabe (the illusion of fiction being fact) and will take exception when their profession's authenticity is questioned.

Gangsta Rap

This episode shows Louis going to New Orleans to have a look at the gangsta rap scene known as the "Dirty South". He starts his own Gangsta rap, having a CD cover designed for him as well as getting the rappers Reece and Bigelow to write a song for him to perform on a rap radio show. Other parts include him interviewing a pimp turned rapper, as well as rap superstar Master P.

Televangelists And Religious Cults

In Dallas, Louis meets TV evangelists Marcus and Joni Lamb, and joins a group of hardline Christians called The Family as they visit the Deep Ellum entertainment district.

Head For The Hills

In Idaho, Louis meets military enthusiasts and right-wing patriots who are preparing for a global catastrophe, including trips to survivalists' store Safetrek and a mountain refuge for conspiracy theorists called Almost Heaven. Louis also visits the Aryan Nation Church and helps to build a straw-bale home. The episode focuses on the survivalism movement and communities formed around it. The fact that several self-proclaimed survivalists were also hippies and environmentalists is a recurring theme.

Infomercials

Louis attempts to become a presenter on Florida's Home Shopping Network TV channel and meets the people who invent, sell and make a fortune from products such as the Win Gym.

Black Nationalism

American black nationalist groups have been branded anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist and even racist by the mainstream press. Louis Theroux goes to Harlem in New York to meet its proponents, and meets the Reverend Al Sharpton, the main point of contact in the black nationalist movement. Theroux also meets Khalid Abdul Muhammad, dubbed by the media 'the most dangerous man in America' and visits the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge, who believe that blacks are the true Israelites and that all English monarchs until early modern times were black. Theroux also joins Al Sharpton on a march on Wall Street to protest at the shooting by New York police of Armadou Diallo, who was shot 19 times.

Demolition Derby

Louis has to overcome his nerves to enter a demolition derby in car-mad Michigan.

Off-Off Broadway

Louis meets the hordes of out-of-work actors in New York as they try to land a part – and even goes on an audition himself, for a job on a Norwegian cruise ship.

Hypnosis

Louis meets a Las Vegas hypnotist who claims he can make dreams come true and meets a California man who teaches chat-up techniques.

India: Enlightenment

Louis meets astrologer Deepak who studies meditation, an Indian guru, Mike, who is a follower of Swami G, and Amma who claims spiritual powers through hugging people. He joins her on a pilgrimage with 400 believers on their three-month tour of India. He also meets Swami G, but is not convinced that the Swami's techniques differ from those of magician David Copperfield.

South Africa

Louis meets white separatists who dream of building non-black communities in post-apartheid South Africa, including Nazi leader Eugene Terre 'Blanche.

Body Building

Louis travels to California, home of the body beautiful, to see if he can join the world of extreme body building. After working out with Guy Grundy, a leading amateur, he soon realises he is not cut out to be a muscle man and goes off in search of another role in the body-building world. Theroux travels to Charles Peeple's farm in Connecticut, where Peeple's has transformed his farm into a playboy mansion for female body builders. While here, Theroux gets a part in a female muscle film being made at the farm.

Looking For Love

Louis visits a Bangkok marriage agency where Western men meet Thai brides.

Christmas Special

Louis is reunited with some of the people he met in earlier programmes.

Book

In 2005 Louis released a book called "The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures" where he revisits people he previously interviewed for the Weird Weekends documentaries. Some of the people he tracks down 7 years after the shows include JJ Michaels (porn star), Thor Templar (alien resistance commander), Mello T (pimp turned rapper), Lamb & Lynx (the singing White Nationalist twins - aged 8) and others.

DVD release

Weird Weekends has been released on DVD in a number of best-of sets. Originally, 1&2 and 3&4 were released as two 2disc sets, before being split.

• Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.1
  • Porn
  • Survivalists

• Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.2
  • Wrestling
  • Hypnosis
  • Bonus Episode - When Louis Met...The Hamiltons

• Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.3
  • Swingers
  • South Africa

• Louis Theroux: Best Of Weird Weekends - Vol.4
  • Gangsta Rap
  • UFOs
  • Bonus Episode - When Louis Met…Jimmy

Trivia

The show had sufficient success that its title was parodied. FourFourTwo magazine's Louis Massarella writes a column under the title Louis' Weird Weekend, where he recounts a matchday or weekend spent in a usually unseen area of football (soccer).

Links

• Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends from TV.com
• Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends Episode Guide from BFI.org