"Everything's Bigger in Dallas"
Inside Marie Reyes' home, friends and guests drink wine and Champagne. Reyes runs around, turning on all the TVs in the home, while her husband, Angel, mingles with guests.
"I just saw a preview for the show," one guest tells Reyes. "It's like the Super Bowl," she says. "It's your Super Bowl!"
It's the premiere night of The Real Housewives of Dallas and friend-to-the-cast Reyes is hosting a viewing party. She tells us she worked until 6 p.m., which might have been a mistake, because now there's little time to prepare for the party.
She finally settles into a chair in the media room. For some context, Housewives is a show about five “housewives” and their friend, Reyes, trying to make it in this world. Or get drunk, donate a little to charity, and fight with one another.
The series premiere begins with Brandi Redmond making breakfast for her two daughters. We learn Redmond's husband proposed twice because the first time Redmond had just gotten back from Mexico and had the runs, and it was “so not romantic.” So there you go, ladies and gentlemen. It’s the first poop reference of the season. If you remember, the ladies warned us this was coming over sushi.
The next scene we see LeeAnne Locken and Tiffany Hendra head to Vintage Martini, a vintage clothing store that won our Best Vintage Clothing Store category in 2015. Locken adorably pulls the door even though it says push and laughs at herself for 10 seconds too long. Store owner Ken Weber is perfectly standing there, not staged at all, we're sure, and they begin shopping and gossiping.
We spoke to Weber and he tells us that scene was shot about a year ago in March 2015. He met Locken and Hendra through the Dallas social and fashion scene and says the duo stops by the store about three to four times a year. Nothing had to be reshot, he says, and filming felt natural. “They never stop and say, ‘Do that again.’”
All of this begs the question: Is the show The Real Housewives actually real?
During Reyes' viewing party, Reyes watches this scene with a room full of friends. When Locken asks about a dress and Weber tells her it won't fit, Reyes laughs out loud. And when Locken is explaining her past and says, "The carnival life kind of prepared me for life in Dallas society," the entire room, including Reyes, erupts in laughter.
When it comes time for the first charity event of the episode, we find ourselves at housewife Cary Deuber's home. If this show feels strangely centered around a lot of charity events, you have to remember the show was originally pitched as a show about women juggling their personal lives along with their lives in the charity world, Reyes told us back in February.
The event is a trunk show of Shona Gilbert's jewelry — SHONA, House of Jewels — and 10 percent of the proceeds went to the Doris Daniely Outreach, a nonprofit that financially helps women going through reconstructive surgery after breast cancer. We spoke to both Gilbert and Carol Autry, founder of the nonprofit, and they also tell us shooting was natural.
During the commercial, Reyes says, "I have a feeling all of Plano is going to boycott all our Twitter feeds."
tweet this
In the kitchen during the event, Redmond and Stephanie Hollman are joking about poop because of course they are. Locken gets a whiff of this (do you get it) and says, "It's a little Plano in here."
That's right. She has officially dissed the great city of Plano, so looks like Collin Creek Mall and other Plano staples need to put Locken on an official ban list because that doesn't fly. Reyes' viewing party had a mix of loud laughter and booing. During the commercial, Reyes says, "I have a feeling all of Plano is going to boycott all our Twitter feeds."
However, when we spoke to Gilbert, she told us the drama that night was definitely real. “I was in the dining room and they kind of had me cornered off and there were definitely some moments where people would come look at the jewelry and go, ‘It’s getting really hot in there right now. It’s really building up. It’s intense.’ Not knowing Brandi [Redmond] very well, I have no idea what they were discussing, but I know LeeAnne [Locken] well enough to know she’s definitely a … I don’t know how to frame this … she’s loud. I’m trying to frame this nicely. She’s very loud. And she’s very intense and she loves the spotlight and she loves to kind of take things to their edge, so to speak."
Everything starts to calm down in a new scene when Hendra and her husband, musician Aaron Hendra, head to the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, which is in Fort Worth. That’s right. Fort Worth. So call 911, write a letter to your congressman, tell your pastor, because God created The Real Housewives of Dallas, not The Real Housewives of Fort Worth, and we are only
But the real drama of the episode happened at the No Tie Dinner and Dessert event, which raises money for AIDS Services of Dallas, at Reyes’ home. During this dinner, Locken and Redmond get into it because Redmond does a pretty funny impression of Locken and Locken is less than amused. Things go from zero to 100 quickly because they begin talking about their pasts and insecurities and it’s suddenly clear drinking red wine is hard.
"She intimidates people and bullies them," Redmond says about Locken. Reyes' viewing party begins applauding.
During the commercial break, Reyes says to me, "I knew something had happened because all four camera crews rushed to the other room. But I didn't know exactly what they were talking about."
The previews for the rest of the season roll and the entire viewing party quietly watches and laughs at Locken and hisses when Hendra yells at Reyes. If this viewing party made anything clear, it's to watch the rest of the season and pay close attention to Reyes and Locken's relationship.
Poop/fart references episode 1: 6
