Years and years ago my wise nine-months-older-than-me cousin said: “Cara, there are no original stories left to tell. Everything has already been written and anything new is a copy of that.”

Just like the majority of things he told me, I believed him. I tried to come up with original stories to tell him, but he said I was wrong and they weren’t new. With everything going on in Hollywood these days, I’m starting to worry that all the writers and producers heard what my cousin said and they believed him; there are less and less original stories and ideas every year.

In fact there is a whole website devoted to sequels, prequels, remakes and any other recycled story lines in film. While I could easily devote this entire blog entry to criticizing these upcoming projects, I am far more concerned with one particular copy-cat idea on the small screen …

Brighton Пляж ( Brighton Beach , the Russian-American’s answer to the Jersey Shore ).

The casting call reads:

Are you the Russian Snooki or The Situation? Are you a super outgoing and fun-loving Russian-American that sometimes sneaks kalbaska, pel'meni and vodka from the fridge? Can people hear the Euro/Techno/Russian music blasting from your car before they see you pull up? Do you attend birthday parties at Russian restaurants every weekend? If so, we may want to cast you for a new reality TV show that centers around a group of Russian-American strangers living together in a house on the shores of Brighton Beach for a summer. The cameras will roll as you do what you do best — eat, drink and PARTY.

As a native of New Jersey I understand the guido/guidette way of life shown on Jersey Shore (as merely an observer). When Snooki and Jwoww say they aren’t all Italian and the whole cast tells whatever TV host they are being interviewed by that they are not representative of Italians and are not perpetuating negative stereotypes, I believe them. To be a guido/guidette in New Jersey does not necessarily mean you are an Italian (even though it might be very likely).

This casting call for Russian Snookis and Situations is doing the exact opposite of what the Jersey Shore cast have been trying to do since the premiere of their show. Plus they are recycling ideas 100%. And, c’mon Brighton Beach there is only room for one Snooki and one Situation in the reality TV world.

Is every single ethnic group in this country going to get their own reality show where they perpetuate stereotypes and anger the National Society of (insert ethnic group here)-Americans? Do they expect to see the same success as Jersey Shore?

You can’t really blame any production company for wanting to have the same level of popularity that MTV had with Jersey Shore . But you can blame them for having unoriginal ideas that blatantly feed into ethnic stereotypes. While I never read the casting call for Jersey Shore — and it may have been just as blatantly stereotypical as Brighton Beach’s — they have learnt their lesson and have told every single media outlet that they don’t aim to represent ethnic stereotypes. Brighton Beach hasn’t learned from them (or from copy-cat reality TV shows — see Extreme Makeover vs. The Swan and America’s Next Top Model vs. The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency).

Russian-American’s: If you want a show I would suggest you find your own outlandish personalities, not only look for Russians (or former USSR member ethnicities), and not base your reality TV show around a beach town. Maybe then, with an original idea (as hard as that may be, especially in L.A.), you’ll realize what it’s like to have a hit TV show on your hands.