I watched the television show with the Abbotts, and after watching both shows, was convinced this family were fruitcakes.

Then, through a link on the aol message board(of all places, huh), I found the website the Abbotts made to defend their family, and refute the editing practices of Fox. What I read has made me really stop and reconsider my knee jerk condemnation of this family who is quite different than mine. I am not stupid, I realize that through editing anyone can be portrayed as anything the editors wish. But it really seems that Fox went overboard in their portrayal of the Abbott family.

I honestly thought the parents(Abbotts) were controlling. I also wondered how and why the heck a family who eschews furniture and tv would have applied for a reality show in the first place!!

Reading Luke's letter about preconceived notions of what is the 'norm' in America made me think. He is absolutely right about that.

I am glad I found this website, and read the family's websites on their television appearance. I no longer find them even strange, and I feel awful for thinking they were fruitcakes, now that I have heard the behind the scenes story on this.

I won't stop watching the show, but I know that now I will be breaking out the Morton's with each episode, and will consider the show to be entertainment more than reality. I am sure with almost 200 hrs of footage, I could be made to seem absolutely frightening!!(well, especially in the mornings!).

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this show with people, I am now going to browse around the rest of the site and actually take a few moments to broaden MY horizons, by seeing what some of your true belief system entails.