Bay Ridge Gets Its Own Jersey Shore-esque Reality Show

[abayridgeguy]

Snooki & Co. have gotten a little too mainstream, so it's time to get back to the roots of scripted reality television, with some fresh meat. The latest in the attempt to recreate the "magic" of Jersey Shore comes from the Oxygen network, who are pointing their cameras at a group of girls from Bay Ridge. The show will be called Brooklyn 11223, and the NY Post reports that it will follow a "once tightknit group of girls from the Brooklyn ’hood [who] are still at each other’s throats over an alleged heinous act of betrayal years ago."
Spoiler: there will probably be hair pulling.

The show will start airing on March 26th, and will feature feisty ladies like Christie Maria Livoti, a 23-year-old "who is as tough as the R train." Apparently some guy named Joey Lynn did her wrong, and now her and her pals keep running into him on 4th Avenue. The loose theme of the show is "betrayal," and producer Michael Hirschorn says that it really brings out “The Bay Ridgeness [of the characters]."

Will it do better than the Brighton Beach answer to Jersey Shore: Russian Dolls?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

[bklyngirl]

The show will be called Brooklyn 11223,

um bay ridge is not 11223 zip code. So I guess this means they took a bunch of people who live in the 11223 area but filmed their scenes here.

[Laura]

I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one of those chicks waiting tables at the diner on 3'rd.

[domitir]

11223 is Gravesend and Avenue U.
But there's no night life there, so I guess really there's no place else for them to go.
I predict it sinks faster then the Costa Concordia
When will this whole bada-bing-bitch-slap-thing die?

for the record I do watch Mob Wives, yes I said it...*hangs head*

[VirginiaDave]

Why do they keep running into this guy on 4th Ave when most of the places here are on 3rd and 5th?

[Wez]

11223 is Gravesend and Avenue U.
But there's no night life there, so I guess really there's no place else for them to go.
I predict it sinks faster then the Costa Concordia
When will this whole bada-bing-bitch-slap-thing die?

for the record I do watch Mob Wives, yes I said it...*hangs head*

Hey!, never been to the My Way Lounge?, the Wrong Number?, Joes of Avenue U?

[daniele831]

Is your wife on the new show?

[sweepea]

Joey bartends at No Quarter on 80th.

Joey is a girl.

[naked rev. trish]

Christie Maria Livoti, a 23-year-old "who is as tough as the R train."

so many ways to go with this.........

like does that mean she rarely comes?
comes late?
shuttles on weekends?
never hooks up with the N?
her cars need remodeling?
washes with ammonia?
has her own personal homeless stank?
need a metrocard to ride her?

[krakenblood]

maybe she has experience with trains?

[sweepea]

Baby got caboose!

[beerman]

has a wide tunnel
neede to paya toll to get on n off

[naked rev. trish]

FROM GENTILE:

JOIN ME ON FRIDAY TO TELL THE OXYGEN NETWORK: “TAKE THIS SHOW OFF THE AIR!” The Oxygen Network is producing a new reality TV show called “Brooklyn 11223”. The show has been called “trashier than Jersey Shore but filmed in Bay Ridge.” (We’re not sure where they got the “11223” from, as that zip code belongs to Gravesend and Coney Island, but, hey, never let the facts get in the way of a trashy quasi-reality TV show, right?) “Brooklyn 11223” will debut on the Oxygen Network on Monday, March 26th and, judging from the trailers and previews we’ve seen, it will be gratuitous, classless and heavy on the stereotypes. That's why this Friday I am joining with the women of Bay Ridge to let the world know that the REAL Bay Ridge will not stand for this sort of “entertainment” that will serve only to denigrate and disparage our hard working, middle-class community of creative, smart, proud, cultured and compassionate people. Join me and tell the Oxygen Network that their new show “Brooklyn 11223” has it all wrong; they’re wrong on the zip code and wrong on their portrayal of Bay Ridge! This Friday, February 24 at 11 AM, outside the new “Beyond Dance” studio at 8717 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209

[VirginiaDave]

Go get em, Vinny!

[maggies]

Go get em, Vinny!

Another slur.

[MQS1110]

I'll be there in spirit!

[sweepea]

I'll be there WITH spirits!

Drinking kind not the other kind.

[PuffinJ]

Don't they need a permit before filming a TV show on the streets? Seems like that would have been a good time to raise any objections. Maybe NYC allows pretty much anything to film if the location is available, I don't know anything about that process, but I'm thinking about Hoboken's recent denial of a permit to the Snooki and JWoww show.

[italiana71]

Join the FB page, even if you can't protest in person: https://www.facebook.com/events/114906721972474/

[naked rev. trish]

that's an event page.....

is there a group page.

not that I plan on joining cause I think this is all way over the top......and I'm really cool with finding out I'm Polish.

[italiana71]

Nope, that's all that was sent to me. It is a little over the top and personally I think it's only going to give the show more attention than it deserves but when do we ever have a protest in Bay Ridge?

[naked rev. trish]

I would think protesting at Oxygen would be more to the point.....but

[bklyngirl]

FROM GENTILE:

JOIN ME ON FRIDAY TO TELL THE OXYGEN NETWORK: “TAKE THIS SHOW OFF THE AIR!” The Oxygen Network is producing a new reality TV show called “Brooklyn 11223”. The show has been called “trashier than Jersey Shore but filmed in Bay Ridge.” (We’re not sure where they got the “11223” from, as that zip code belongs to Gravesend and Coney Island, but, hey, never let the facts get in the way of a trashy quasi-reality TV show, right?) “Brooklyn 11223” will debut on the Oxygen Network on Monday, March 26th and, judging from the trailers and previews we’ve seen, it will be gratuitous, classless and heavy on the stereotypes. That's why this Friday I am joining with the women of Bay Ridge to let the world know that the REAL Bay Ridge will not stand for this sort of “entertainment” that will serve only to denigrate and disparage our hard working, middle-class community of creative, smart, proud, cultured and compassionate people. Join me and tell the Oxygen Network that their new show “Brooklyn 11223” has it all wrong; they’re wrong on the zip code and wrong on their portrayal of Bay Ridge! This Friday, February 24 at 11 AM, outside the new “Beyond Dance” studio at 8717 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209

bahahahaha! Yes, let's bring more media attention to this show -- a show that many people probably would not have even heard of/come across because of the channel it's on, but now you'll get people who will tune in just to see what the ruckus is about. Brilliant.

[VirginiaDave]

Bay Ridge: We hate this show and think it will be an embarrassment to our town!!!!!!!!

Stupid Americans who think the Whoredashian's are interesting: You don't say?

[abayridgeguy]

Oxygen to premiere “Brooklyn 11223″
22 hours ago by Kevin Ritchie





U.S. cable network Oxygen will next month debut Brooklyn 11223 (pictured), a reality series set in the Brooklyn, New York neighborhood of Bay Ridge.

Set in the zip code best known as the setting for the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever and the surrounding area, the docu-series promises to give the net’s youth-skewing viewers a “voyeuristic” look into the lives of two childhood friends and the drama and betrayal which is “tearing their circle of friends apart,” according to the network.

The series will premiere on March 26 at 11 p.m. EST and is produced by Ish Entertainment. Michael Hirschorn, Wendy Roth, Ethan Goldman and Lenid Rolov serve as executive producer.

Wouldn't a better title have been "Brooklyn 11209?"

[naked rev. trish]

https://www.facebook.com/Brooklyn11223

For those asking about the show's name: the cast actually lives in a few different Brooklyn neighborhoods, but the two main cast members the show follows live in 11223, which is why we went with the title Brooklyn 11223. Also, once the show comes out, you’ll see that Bay Ridge is where a lot of the action takes place – i.e. one of the cast members works at a bar in Bay Ridge and it is also the backdrop for many of the interactions between the girls

[VirginiaDave]

I do get a kick out of stupid, obnoxious trash who wants to be famous for being such.

[bigwillthechamp]

11223 is Gravesend and Avenue U.
But there's no night life there, so I guess really there's no place else for them to go.
I predict it sinks faster then the Costa Concordia
When will this whole bada-bing-bitch-slap-thing die?

for the record I do watch Mob Wives, yes I said it...*hangs head*

I briefly dated a girl from that area that her and all her friends went to Salty Dog.
And yes, she's just as trashy as you're picturing...

[BacciMia]

i think joey is quite nice and friendly but quite an idiot to participate in this garbage.

edit to say, maybe i'm the idiot. she's prob going to make some decent dough if this pans out, though minus her dignity.

[Laura]

Can you really put a price on dignity?

[Observateur]

I do get a kick out of stupid, obnoxious trash who wants to be famous for being such.

What you're famous for doesn't matter anymore. "Famous" is all that counts.

[abayridgeguy]

Gotham Gossipist: Bay Ridge Residents Outraged Over New Reality Show
February 24, 2012 12:32 PM


By Kimberly Rae Miller

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – I was just thinking to myself, “You know what the world needs more of? Reality shows that stereotype the Italian-American community as trashy, foul-mouthed, thugs.”
I mean, it worked for MTV and Jersey Shore.
It looks like the powers that be at the Oxygen Network and I are of the same mind, their new show Brooklyn 11223 is basically the JS set to Bay Ridge.
(Bay Ridge’s zip code is actually 11209, but who cares about little things like reality when it comes to reality television).

The show follows life long Bay Ridge residents, Joey Lynn Tekulve , 24, and Christie Maria Livoti, 23, as they systematically wreak havoc on one another’s lives. The ladies were best friends until Joey seduced Christie’s boyfriend. Slap some theme music on these ladies and call them stars.

According to the New York Post, the show is based on the characters portrayed in “Saturday Night Fever” — which, you know, was in made 1970s – and fictional. Still Oxygen thinks it has a winner on its hands, noting that “Bay Ridge is a small hamlet divided into rival girl gangs.”

The residents of the community aren’t too happy to have their neighborhood made a national laughing stock.

According to The Huffington Post, a meet up for residents is being organized at Beyond Dance Studio in Bay Ridge, where residents can get together and complain about the show.


“This is not what Bay Ridge is about, what Bay Ridge wants or needs..."
Bay Ridge Councilman Vinnie Gentile is also making his opinion known via The Politicker:
“We all need to take responsibility – parents, TV studios, advertisers, journalists, policymakers and even teenagers – for what is being watched by the younger generations,” Mr. Gentile’s spokesman told the political site. “There is no redeeming social value or positive takeaway from the perpetuation of these trashy and classless stereotypes that serve only to degrade, denigrate and objectify women and Italian-Americans We refuse to stand by and let ‘Hollywood’ portray the smart, hardworking, proud, cultured, creative and compassionate residents of Bay Ridge in this light.”

It’s so nice that there’s a network out there geared toward women’s entertainment that does so much to encourage female empowerment, positive female role models, and self-worth. Thanks Oxygen.

[Observateur]

What bothers me is that someone(s) actually will watch this thing.

[BacciMia]

idiots love company.

[beerman]

wasn't there a show called Beverly hills 90201 part 1 then part 2 ===== bay ridge 11209

[noreaster]

A buddy of mine told me that Seaside Heights has become completely unbearable post-Jersey Shore. I really hope the Bay Ridge show doesn't get popular. Fingers crossed.

[Laura]

A buddy of mine told me that Seaside Heights has become completely unbearable post-Jersey Shore. I really hope the Bay Ridge show doesn't get popular. Fingers crossed.

It won't. It's on Oxygen network. That's like a third world nation in cable terms.

[italiana71]

I'll be honest I can't see this show making it past the pilots.

[abayridgeguy]

B’klyn ‘Ridge’ brawl
‘Shore’-like TV furor
By JENNIFER BAIN and RICH CALDER/ Last Updated: 5:49 PM, February 25, 2012

Brooklyn has a message for all the guidos out there: stay in Jersey where you belong!

Politicians and other borough leaders declared their hatred for anything having to with gorillas, meatballs, tanning or hair spray yesterday, as they demanded that a television network pull the plug on a “Jersey Shore”-style reality show set in Bay Ridge.
“They’re crass, crude and cartoonish about Bay Ridge, and they couldn’t be more wrong about Bay Ridge women,” said City Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn). “It shows women who act and speak as if they were in the era of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ ”

Gentile is so worried that the new Oxygen network series — called “Brooklyn 11223” — will spawn a new Brooklyn version of Snooki that he led a rally against the program yesterday.
“This is not what Bay Ridge is about and this not what Bay Ridge wants or needs,” he said. “We refuse to stand by and let Hollywood portray . . . Bay Ridge in this disparaging light.”
Gentile was not the only borough pol who was definitely not DTF — down to film, that is. State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Brooklyn) called on local restaurants and nightclubs to snub the show, which she fears will feature the kind of drunken guido foolishness featured on MTV’s low-class hit “Jersey Shore,” which popularized terms like gorillas and meatballs for the big-haired “guidos” and “guidettes” on the show.
“People in Nebraska and Indiana will watch this, and the image across the country will be that Italian-American women fight over men and desecrate themselves,” she said.

“This is not the Jersey Shore, this is Brooklyn; we fight back!”

About 30 local women, mostly in their 30s, joined the pols to voice concern over the show — which particularly rankled residents because the name of the program gets Bay Ridge’s ZIP code wrong. Gravesend is 11223, while Bay Ridge is 11209.
“I feel that this show misrepresents Bay Ridge,” said Bina Valenzano, co-owner of BookMark Shoppe. “They’re representing the bars and the clubs, but I guess the community groups and the bookstore wouldn’t hold enough drama for them.”
Responding to the criticism, Oxygen in a statement said, “Viewers can decide for themselves” when the show premieres on March 26. “We meet this authentic group of friends set against the vibrant backdrop of the great and diverse borough of Brooklyn,” the network added.

Kristen Pettit, 38, co-owner of a social-media consulting business, said she has no desire to watch the show.
“My fear is that people outside of New York and this neighborhood will watch this show, and it only portrays us as stereotypes,” Pettit said.

[noreaster]

...does anyone recall when Jersey Shore first aired and Italian Americans were calling MTV execs and threatening to beat them senseless for portraying Italian Americans as belligerent goons?

Should our community really be responding with "Hey we have a book store!!!"?

Does it make me feel like Geraldo Rivera to end all my replies with question marks?

[Observateur]

Should our community really be responding with "Hey we have a book store!!!"?

No. It's silly. The whole protest + railing against "Hollywood" comes across as overreactive, misguided and hokey -- and as a cynical way for politicos et al to score personal p.r. points. It also draws more attention to an intentionally-dumb show that otherwise would have suffocated on Oxygen.

Get real. Why would anyone do a show about community groups and a bookstore?
(And the misuse of "desecrate" is a hoot. Women can "desecrate themselves" only if they're houses of worship or objects of religious or religion-like veneration.)

[noreaster]

(And the misuse of "desecrate" is a hoot. Women can "desecrate themselves" only if they're houses of worship or objects of religious or religion-like veneration.)

Don't you know a woman's "no-no place" is a sacred gift from God and the Baby Jesus?

[Observateur]

(And the misuse of "desecrate" is a hoot. Women can "desecrate themselves" only if they're houses of worship or objects of religious or religion-like veneration.)

Don't you know a woman's "no-no place" is a sacred gift from God and the Baby Jesus?

And Bay Ridge is citywide-famous for its overwhelmingly "cultured" population, which beats down the doors of its one (1) small bookstore and requires that community groups have open-air meetings, since no space can contain the throngs.

[the ghost of dave]

maybe she has experience with trains?

pulling them?

[beerman]

has anybody seen Shameless, what do you think the Irish people of Chicago are saying

just saying

[the ghost of dave]

no one can understand what the irish are saying.

[naked rev. trish]

has anybody seen Shameless, what do you think the Irish people of Chicago are saying

just saying

we tend to laugh at ourselves when no one else will.

Grandma Gallagher is out of jail!

[bruklinboy]

and until recently, lip wanted to be a father to his baby

[Laura]

(And the misuse of "desecrate" is a hoot. Women can "desecrate themselves" only if they're houses of worship or objects of religious or religion-like veneration.)

Don't you know a woman's "no-no place" is a sacred gift from God and the Baby Jesus?

So THAT'S why he keeps yelling out "oh god. Oh Jesus." for a moment I thought he may have been fantasizing about the gardener.

Should our community really be responding with "Hey we have a book store!!!"?

No. It's silly. The whole protest + railing against "Hollywood" comes across as overreactive, misguided and hokey -- and as a cynical way for politicos et al to score personal p.r. points. It also draws more attention to an intentionally-dumb show that otherwise would have suffocated on Oxygen.

Get real. Why would anyone do a show about community groups and a bookstore?
(And the misuse of "desecrate" is a hoot. Women can "desecrate themselves" only if they're houses of worship or objects of religious or religion-like veneration.)

I basically came in here to say this. Should have known you 'd beat me to it.

[bklyngirl]

A buddy of mine told me that Seaside Heights has become completely unbearable post-Jersey Shore.

um when was it ever bearable?