For those who watched, the fun of first catching young Alana on TLC’s reality series Toddlers and Tiaras was that the then-5-year-old pageant contestant was the ultimate long-shot. Chubby and moon-faced, with a manic energy that was the opposite of her too-perfect opponents’, “Honey Boo Boo Child” was appealing because her confidence seemed so utterly unreasonable, given her humble background and lack of polish. The chasm between Ms. Thompson’s princess dreams and her apparent reality was double-wide, but her childlike, un-Vaselined smile was wider still.

And her fairy tale may be just beginning.

Aided by her fairy godmothers at TLC, Ms. Thompson, now the star of her own show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, landed higher ratings among the key 18-to-49 demographic than any cable or broadcast network’s coverage of Paul Ryan’s address to the RNC. The third-highest-rated show on the network, it’s become popular enough to get its own Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas specials, as well as to earn a South Park parody (a coveted sign of cultural touchstone-dom). And the family that once subsisted on a chalk miner’s salary is now rolling in it, comparatively speaking: According to TMZ, a recent raise brought their take per episode—of which there will be many more—to between $15,000 and $20,000. And there’ll be many more episodes. Though we need her right now, Ms. Thompson’s show ended its season just over a month ago. “We want to make sure there’s her school,” said the President of TLC and Discovery Networks Eileen O’Neill of her pint-sized star. “We need to make certain we manage audience expectations as series comes back in the spring.”

For those who’ll be jumping into the series then, the Thompson clan lives in rural Georgia. In addition to Alana and her mother, they include dad Mike “Sugar Bear” Thompson, a pet piglet named Glitzy, and three older girls. “Pumpkin is the craziest,” as Alana puts it. “Anna is the pregnantest. And Jessica is my favorite—like my BFF.” The family gathers for a portrait in the credits sequence of each episode, rather like the Kardashians of cable network E!, who brazenly pretended to be famous until they made it. But, skewering any hint of pretension, someone in the family (Mama gets the blame) then passes gas. The Thompsons may be crass, yes. But have you ever even seen a Kardashian sweat? (Outside an unauthorized sex tape, that is?)

In an exhausting era in which the ego reigns supreme for every would-be star (which is, basically, everyone), it’s refreshing to see people so comfortable with themselves. It’s not the class distinction that separates the Thompson family from the rest of us; it’s their self-belief and lack of shame. New York neurotics, hammered by economic uncertainty and lashed by storm waves, have a lot to learn from Mama June and company.

Between Alana’s mugging, her generosity of spirit (Glitzy can be gay “if he wants,” she declared in one episode) and her unorthodox cuisine (heavily caffeinated “Go-Go Juice,” and spaghetti in a ketchup-and-margarine sauce), she’s sui generis. Her catchphrase, “You better redneck-ognize!” could not be more apt.

We do redneck-ognize, Alana. We do.

Since, say, the end of Roseanne, popular television has shown America what it wants to be: the affluent urbanites of NBC’s Must-See lineup from Frasier to Friends, not a one of them worried about making the rent; the doctors and lawyers of an endless parade of hourlong dramas; even the wealthy “Housewives” who migrated from an ABC soap (where they were Desperate) to Bravo unscripted TV (where they were Real) without losing a single spangle off their miniskirts.

You don’t get much more real than Mama June, who was revealed to have once been arrested for contempt of court stemming from a charge regarding an older daughter’s child support. But she’s handled the press revelations with characteristic savoir-faire and minimal rumination, owning up to a past mix-up and moving past it.

While young Alana may not quite realize it—or care—her popularity heralds a welcome validation of a long-term strategic shift for the network she calls home. The onetime “Learning Channel” has, over time, morphed into a window onto the surprisingly bizarre lives of everyday Americans—or maybe onto the surprisingly mundane lives of various cultural outliers. Whatever it is, it’s working.

Not for TLC are those outsized, high-living housewives of Bravo or the garish, entitled Kardashians. Everything about TLC’s various hit series is fundamentally normal—but for one little twist. For instance, the typical suburban mom at the center of the program may have eight kids and is undergoing a divorce, as with Jon and Kate Plus Eight’s Kate Gosselin, the network’s first true breakout star. Or the suburban mom may be a national politician who unwinds by felling the odd caribou, as with Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Or she practices polygamy, as on Sister Wives. Or belongs to a small religious sect (Breaking Amish), or has weddings just a bit more over-the-top than the ones to which we’re accustomed (My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding) or conducts breezy chats with the dead (Long Island Medium).

Whatever their unusual lifestyle situations, what these characters have in common is their wonderful banality. Honey Boo Boo is at once TV’s only utterly normal child (sorry, Modern Family kids, but you’re in the uncanny valley) and its greatest comic creation. Her self-acceptance is practically revolutionary. (At one point she reminds her mother to be sure and spray the tan-in-a-can “under my fat roll.” Lena Dunham couldn’t have said it better.)

After four years of economic stagnation, it’s starting to look like aspiration has lost its sparkle. While the flailing broadcast networks continue to focus on unreasonably wealthy and sophisticated young adults (even CBS’s 2 Broke Girls live in a nice loft), cable has increasingly showcased characters whose financial struggles mirror those of their audiences. Walter White only “breaks bad” and begins cooking and selling meth because he lacks the money to pay his medical bills and support his family. When the once-chic idlers on Downton Abbey face the Great War, they do so in the spirit of shared sacrifice, allowing their dresses to go out of fashion and their house to be overrun with soldiers. The Girls of HBO are all underemployed, and Hannah can’t even count on her parents’ support anymore. And even the surface aesthetic comforts of Mad Men paper over the fact that its central protagonist was born a poor farm boy and faked it till he made it. Dick Whitman became Don Draper; Alana Thompson became Honey Boo Boo. Both have achieved the American dream, but Don Draper’s is flavored with ennui. Maybe he just needs to take a trip due South.

How did we find this angel? Reality TV, at least on TLC, wasn’t always so in tune with the zeitgeist. “The management prior had moved toward a formatted, contrived, celebrity-oriented area,” said said Ms. O’Neill, the TLC/Discovery executive (the corporate siblings are based in Silver Spring, Md.). Jon and Kate were the key to a whole new strategy. In 2008, when the suburban Pennsylvania pair were plucked from TLC’s corporate partner Discovery Health and their show’s title changed from Surviving Sextuplets and Twins, they became personalities and not just medical test cases. When Jon and Kate announced they were separating, the show set the all-time record for TLC programming, with 10.9 million viewers, despite the fact that, sadly, the split wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary for the American family.

The “old TLC” spotlighted home decor, clothing and weddings (some examples, like What Not to Wear and Say Yes to the Dress, endure). But shows like A Baby Story and A Wedding Story, which feature a different cast enacting essentially the same 30-minute narrative on each episode, don’t ring nearly as true as Honey Boo Boo heaving herself down the “redneck slip ’n’ slide” or Theresa Caputo, with her blonde bob and long French-tip nails, delivering a spontaneous psychic reading on a strip-mall sidewalk.

TLC’s programming has not been universally embraced. Some viewers find it exploitative and crass. The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman called Honey Boo Boo “peculiarly reprehensible,” even by the standards of “this country’s most socially irresponsible channel.” Time critic James Poniewozik referred to the series as “fartsploitation,” noting banjo music cues he found insulting, and claimed that an unnamed TLC producer was “shaking his head smugly” at the Thompson family. (He had praise, though, for the wit and charm of Honey Boo Boo herself, and her “Coupon Queen” mother.)

TLC’s general manager Amy Winter dismissed such criticisms. “We’re not mean-spirited in our approach with people on our air and the content we have,” she told The Observer. “There’s a distinction between making fun of people and having fun with people. For the most part, if there’s some sort of comedy or something humorous, the people involved in that realize that there’s something funny in that.”

Maybe it’s the critics who are condescending, then, in refusing to recognize that the series’ subjects are in on the joke.

“The way that we appeal to our audience—we appeal to the type of person who is curious about lives that are unlike theirs,” said Ms. Winter. “They’re open-minded and open-hearted about that. Going into gypsy culture, to a family of polygamists, family from rural Georgia—you have to be intrigued and curious, because there’s something very different about each of the characters. Once you dig in, people do fall in love.”

Sooner or later, they have to. As the deeply perceptive Mama June—who washes her hair in the sink but still thinks she’s looking good—said after an etiquette coach proposed remaking the family into one befitting a future Miss America, “I think that she’s what we call a ‘square,’ and we’re kind of like a lopsided, obtuse, triangle, oval all put together like a, like a deformed shape.”

So too, right now, is the squeezed, stressed-out and now waterlogged TV viewer. Alana isn’t likely to become Miss America. But for a role model with an unshakable belief in her own potential, our down-in-the-dumps electorate could do a lot worse than this kooky 6-year-old.

The future of America (ABC)

http://youtu.be/qorkigPPbvU

Considering that Honey Boo Boo definitely has more cultural cache than Lindsay Lohan, this should definitely lock up the election for Obama in the red states. Why even bother holding it now?

On a different note, has June Boo Boo (or whatever her last name is) been getting media training? She was surprisingly well-spoken and completely intelligible in this segment. They didn't need to have subtitles or anything!

Alana, or "Honey Boo Boo Child"

The summer's reality juggernaut, TLC's pageant-queen-at-home series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, has been renewed for a second season as well as three of what the network is terming "HOLLAday specials" for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has made an impact on the culture perhaps not seen for a TLC series since the halcyon days of Jon & Kate Plus 8. While that series focused on a family in disarray as they faced public scrutiny, the Honey Boo Boo clan, as evidenced by a ride-along profile on Gawker today, are united and relatively sanguine in the face of fame.

"Reality TV don't last more than three years," the matriarch, June, said to Gawker's Rich Juzwiak. "People have a good run for about three years. Some people fizzle out within a couple of weeks. We've had about 10 weeks and if it stays for the next three years, great."

Don't forget to tip your driver and look out for bikes. (NYC DOT)

(NYC DOT)

Last week the city's Department of Transportation (in partnership with the fed's Department of Transportation) unveiled new LOOK! crosswalk decals and bus banners to remind pedestrians and drivers to pay attention to each other while making their way across the busy cityscape.

Now the department, along with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, has unveiled new stickers that will adorn the doors and windows of the city's 13,000 cabs. They implore occupants to "LOOK! for cyclists." These are accompanied by a new 30-second spot in everybody's favorite ad-viewing venue, Taxi T.V.

“This safety campaign takes the message to New Yorkers and visitors that you need to take a second and take a look around whenever you get out of a car,” Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a release. “The best protection that bike riders and pedestrians have is our attention, and there is one thing everyone can do—look.”

The idea is to make cab riders, especially those who might not be from town, more aware of their surroundings. The city has recorded seven deaths because of dooring incidents over the past five years.

Like all good taxi ads, TLC commissioner David Tassky said these new spots will really get people's attention: "We believe the stickers and video will really resonate with riders and inspire them to pause for that critical second before they open the door and exit the taxi. It’s that moment of pause that could make all the difference in the world to both a bicyclist and the taxi passenger alike.”

London's new ride, with access for all.

The Bloomberg administration continues to fight efforts to make all of its Taxis of Tomorrow accessible. But a funny thing just happened. Our perennial rival London just unveiled its own new version of their iconic black cabs. It just so happens to be designed by Nissan, and looks very much like our own. But as Capital New York deftly points out, theirs is different in one important one: The cabs are handicapped accessible.

While taking credit for inspiring the design, the Taxi and Limousine Commission dismisses the possibility of making our own cabs accessible, instead blaming federal regulations:

“We love the fact that the London version will be using many of the passenger amenities that we achieved in the design process with Nissan, but its design and engineering standards are radically different from the vehicles we’ll be getting here in New York City," said Allan Fromberg, spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission. "For one thing, it’s not ADA compliant."

According to the TLC, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires taller cars and more gently sloping entry ramps, to accommodate more kinds of wheelchairs, scooters, and the like.

"The bottom line is that, if the goal is to provide great taxi service to everyone who wants it, we’ve got that covered between the New York Taxi of Tomorrow, and the 2,233 wheelchair-accessible taxicabs that will be available through our new accessible dispatch system that lets people ‘hail’ an accessible cab five different ways—by phone, app, email, text or web site,” Fromberg said.

And yet, the mayor has no problem lobbying Washington for stricter gun rules and looser Wall Street regulations. Why not get a waver or exemption to make it easier to make our own cabs accessible? Making the entire fleet accessible would certainly be more in the spirit of the ADA than saying it complicates matters and throwing up our hands. (To be fair, there is a dispatch system, but that sounds more like separate but equal than just good old equal.)

And now, here we stand four months later, as a fare hike is approved. And not a small one, either.

Via the New York Times CityRoom Blog:

The Taxi and Limousine Commission voted on Thursday to raise taxi fares by an average of 17 percent, the first major increase in eight years. The new fares are expected to go into effect in September.

The rise in prices is a break for cab drivers, whose income has generally gone down with the rising price of gas (which they pay for) along with the declining value of the dollar. Fleet and cab owners are looking into their legal options to challenge the price hike. Meanwhile, riders—assuming those challenges are unsuccessful—are going to be indisputably hit where it hurts: In the wallet.

How hurt? Bloomberg food critic and The Price Hike blogger Ryan Sutton explains one of the harsher implications of a 17% increase, a ride between JFK Airport and Manhattan:

Taxi fares will rise by an average of 17 percent, while the set price of taking a cab from Manhattan to JFK will jump $7 to $52, the New York Times reports. That means the REAL COST of your airport ride will jump to $67 after tolls ($4.80) and optional tip ($10). Those paying cash might just hand over $70 and call it even (remember, all NYC cabs take plastic). Your best bet for a proper flight out of Kennedy is still the $13 LIRR + AirTrain fare or the $10 NYAS bus from Grand Central.

We've always been convinced the quickest—and most worry-free—way to get to JFK involves taking the E through Queens to the AirTrain at Jamaica Center: If everything's working, an hour flat, maybe less, and it only costs $7.50 ($5 if you get a monthly MetroCard). Cab money is always best spent when you most need it: For those times when the buzz of incoherent drunkenness is on the line, the shelf-life of which a subway ride can kill instantaneously.

As opposed to paying a bunch for a cab, which only hits you the morning after you've done it. Which, to be fair, is about to become even more of a reason to just keep drinking.

Or walking. That, too.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Well, we now know what he meant by "immediate horizon." And it wasn't "for the next year."

It was probably more like "in the next month or so."

Today, Yassky told the New York Daily News that it is "reasonable" that a group of taxi cab fleet owners and drives would want an increase of "between 16% and 20%," which is going to be discussed at a public hearing on May 31st.

Before you start keying cabs, a few things to keep in mind:

Livery Drivers: Last month, taxi cab drivers (who have to have medallions issued by the TLC) had to deal with the news that livery cabs could be legally hailed in Northern Manhattan and the other four boroughs, beginning this summer. Livery cabs could take away from Yellow Cab drivers' business, especially when they're trying to pick up hails in the outer boroughs, which already isn't consistent (and which is why drivers hate taking you to Brooklyn from Manhattan). If taxi drivers have more competition and 10% less business because of it, they're going to naturally want to charge more money.

Medallions Are Still Prohibitively Expensive and Crazy Valuable (for Drivers): At the last Taxi Medallion auction, the average bid for corporate medallion owners was $1,237,189.51. The average price of a Taxi Medallion from one owner to another in May 2004 was $323,000 for a corporate license, and in April 2012, it was $1,000,000. Most taxi drivers—because they don't own medallions—only take home a cut of what they make, after taxes, credit card charges, and the money they pay to lease the cab from its owner. Even if the value of an NYC Taxi Medallion falls because of the influx of livery cabs, if any of them aspire to move up and own their own business (or: cab), quite simply, they're going to have to make more money. Even if they do, it might not matter in the end (because of what Felix Salmon at Reuters sees as a Medallion Bubble). It might benefit drivers to simply make more money now at the meter, than in the future with a Medallion.

Gas Is Expensive: Here's the price of Gas in New York over the last three years.

Someone's gotta pay for that.

The Dollar Sucks (or: Inflation): You probably hear the word "inflation" a lot, but a quick refresher? Sure: It's what happens when the government puts a bunch of money in the economy, and the dollar becomes worth less, so prices adjust (i.e. "go higher"). And guess what's happened to the dollar lately? It buys less than it used to. To be fair, it almost always does. And higher gas prices (see above) are supposed to be deflationary (because more expensive gas slows down the economy and the need for more money to go into circulation). But in New York, it doesn't work that way when cab drivers have the same amount of business as they always do—when was the last time you had no problem whatsoever hailing a cab on a rainy day—and yet, everything around them is still expensive.

Basically, at the very least, drivers want to continue making the same amount of money (though at those numbers they're proposing, they're looking to make more for the moment, bargaining hard, and/or know how not-often the opportunity to be taken seriously for a fare increase comes up).

Either way, (A) they're probably going to get some kind of increase, and (B) locals' and tourists' best option alike still remains a Metrocard and decent walking shoes. Also, a bike (which the city is already trying to capitalize on). If you're looking for a positive spin, here, it's that fare increases present a decent reason for you to feel significantly less guilty about telling your cabbie to take you over a bridge, away from Manhattan. So there's that.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Taxi! (Ford)

It will be at least two and a half years—a traffic jam between now and then holding things up would not surprise—before the Taxi of Tomorrow hits the road. Instead of the futuristic Karsan model that New Yorkers loved, the Bloomberg administration went the soccer-mom route and picked Nissan's souped-up minivan. But the other runner-up, Ford, maybe be the winner, at least for the time being.

If anything, this is an impatient town, no one fitting that description more than our beloved, bemoaned cabbies. They have been agitating for a new cab now, apparently, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission has assented, approving the Ford Transit Connect for use at least until the Nissans are ready, according to The Journal.

“With the phase-out of the Crown Victoria, another vehicle needs to fill the gap…between now and then,” said TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg, referring to Ford’s iconic older model. “That doesn’t mean all the other cabs have to be junked” when the new standards come into effect, he added.

Unlike the Nissan vehicles, which are just going into production, the Transit Connect is an existing model in use throughout the country, according to a Ford release. Mark Fields, Ford's president for the Americas, said, "For decades, Ford has been synonymous with New York City taxis, and we are pleased residents and tourists now will benefit from our next-generation vehicle." Well, for the next three years at least.

mchaban@observer.com    ::    Follow on Twitter @MC_NYC

All of a sudden, a limo pulls up. Perfect, you think. I'll look like such a classy guy. But much to your surprise, this is not a limo at all, but rather a fake, license-less, potentially dangerous gypsy cab.

It's an epidemic! The New York Post reported today, in an exclusive, that skeevy drivers are ripping off enough drunk young people that an investigation is underway.

Enforcement has been ongoing for months, but only recently have the NYPD and TLC ramped up their crackdown on cars that are unlicensed or respond to street hails, sources said.

On Dec. 11 and 12 -- a Saturday night into Sunday morning -- officials seized 21 unlicensed vehicles and nabbed 70 vehicles responding to hails that are for licensed cars only.

Surely fake limo drivers are not the only scam artists operating in the Meatpacking District, but this is a promising start. Can we get a referendum on astronomically priced bottle service next?

Click For Scandal Report: Parka-Clad Stars Sundance the Night Away

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

The TLC is taking these charges seriously. The agency announced that they will seek to revoke the hack licenses of some 633 drivers who were caught overcharging passengers by an average of $5 per trip. Some of the drivers were particularly greedy: According to the TLC, 88 cabbies overcharged passengers 500 times each. They did so by flipping a switch that calculated the higher fare that cabbies can charge when they travel into the hinterlands of New Jersey, Westchester and Long Island. The more egregious offenders may be subject to criminal investigations.

Cabbies are, in their own way, ambassadors of New York City. They're often the first point of contact for visitors who land in J.F.K. and LaGuardia airports-which, let's remember, are safely within the city's boundaries. If they can't be trusted, visitors may be wary of the rest of us (which, in some cases, may actually be prudent).

But it's also important to point out that not every cabbie has been implicated-far from it-and that most of us don't find their job enviable. They work tough hours, don't make a lot of money and, as the New York Post revealed in a recent investigation, can become victims themselves. The Post reported that some hotel employees demand cash kickbacks from drivers in exchange for giving them passengers bound for one of the area's airports or other high-fare destinations.

It sounds as though the taxi industry needs some TLC. The agency's commissioner, former councilman David Yassky, promises action. Government regulators have been known to make a mess of things, but in this case, oversight clearly is needed, and welcome.