I’m lovin’ “The Locator.” I’m not sure how I ever missed this one before, but Troy Dunn is amazing in WeTV’s reality show, which links long-lost family members and friends.
I don’t know how he does it (I’m sure they don’t show the unsuccessful cases), but Dunn manages to find birth parents who haven’t seen the children they gave up years before. He can unite organ donors with the people they helped to save. And he does it in a way that, although it’s a little corny, makes you want more.
They say it’s a small world, and I truly believe it after watching Dunn unite a grown brother and sisters with a sibling they had only fleeting memories of as children.
Yes, it’s a tear-jerker and by now most of you know I’m a sucker for a good story. But trust me. This one is much more realistic than “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and the plots are thicker than the brief backgrounds given on “America’s Got Talent” that suck us in for a season.
Why does he do it? According to the show’s Web site, Dunn first got the itch to help link loved ones when he helped his mother locate her biological family. She had been given up for adoption as a child.
While Dunn’s no stranger to national TV after appearing on several high-profile morning television and syndicated talk shows, I had never heard of him and am amazed at his ability to disappear into the shadows after making a successful reunion. There’s no celebrity ego.
He knows it’s not his place to get in the way of family and friends trying to reconnect and simply slips away while they hug, cry and begin to swap stories.
Be prepared — you’ll need a box of Kleenex for this one.
Do you have a loved one you’d love to reconnect with? Visit the show’s Web site, www.WeTV.com, and enter Dunn’s contest for a chance to have him help you in your search.
The show airs at 9 p.m. Saturdays and is worth checking out at least once, even for you macho guys.
In other reality news, here’s one I don’t recommend — although I don’t think it will come up when most of you are channel surfing since it premieres at midnight Saturday on Fox Reality Channel.
In a bad idea for a series, the network has created “Gimme My Reality Show!” It features desperate wannabe celebrities who just want their 15 minutes (or is it seconds?) of fame.
On the upside, if you’ve got a bad case of insomnia, perhaps it will put you to sleep.