VH1 Completes the Celebreality Circle of Life

In the beginning, there was Behind the Music, an intimate and comprehensive look at celebrities grappling with the overly clichéd lifestyle of “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll.” Celebreality took us one step further, into the resurrection of our celebrity ‘heroes’, with a little help from Ant and Harvey Walden IV. And now, VH1 is closing the curtain on the rock opera of celebrity life with Famous Crime Scene, a show that takes an in-depth look into the deaths of famous artists.

Famous Crime Scenes will feature DNA evidence, interviews with toxicologists, witnesses, investigators, and reenactments of the stars’ last moments. Episodes will reportedly investigate the untimely deaths of Biggie Smalls, John Lennon, Anna Nicole Smith, Selena, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson in all their sordid, mesmerizing, scene of a car crash, details. Behold, the morbid lovechild of E! True Hollywood Story and 20/20

Don’t get me wrong—some of the products of Celebreality have been real gems, ones that only manage to sprout into brighter ones. Without The Surreal Life, there would be no Strange Love, and without that? Well, for one Flavor Flav would never have turned into the Reality TV powerhouse he currently is…the loss is unthinkable.  That said, I have a hard time buying into this one. It seems like a flailing VH1 is trying to insert a legitimate program based on “facts and research” in between Daisy of Love reruns and Undateable in the hopes of dragging in the CSI crowd. However, unless they’re bringing in William Petersen,  I predict another VH1 fail.

Another potential pitfall: What is this show going to tell me about these widely discussed, widely covered events that I don’t already know or can’t find on Wikipedia?  Or will it be like the CGI Tiger Woods video? (One can hope!) Let’s go to the VH1 Blog!

“VH1 has rounded up the witnesses and investigators who were there to give viewers the intimate details from the initial 911 call to the investigators’ final determination to help piece together what really happened. Using expert interviews and true-to-life reenactments, as well as advanced computer graphics, viewers will witness full recreations of these historic events. They’ll tour virtual crime scenes searching for clues and learn the science behind the investigators’ findings: ballistics, fingerprints, DNA evidence, toxicology, profiling and more.“

But who knows? If VH1 truly finds an identity in investigative television, can we hope for the return of Megan in a future episode?

The first of 7 half-hour episodes will be an in-depth look at the murder of Tupac Shakur, and airs Feb. 12th at 9pm.