TLC reality show visiting Cape next month

The Roloff family of the reality television show "Little People, Big World" will be coming to Cape Girardeau in early July to film a vacation, according to a recent news release from the Red House Interpretive Center.

The family will arrive via the riverboat the American Queen and visit three sites in Cape Girardeau: the Red House, the Glenn House and Fort D.

"I have no idea why" they chose the Red House, said Brenda Schloss, chairwoman of the board for the Red House. "We hope they'll pass the word along that it's the place to come."

"Little People, Big World" is a reality television series that chronicles the lives of the Roloff family. Three of the six family members, the two parents and a son, have dwarfism. The show sometimes focuses on the Oregon family's experiences from the perspective of a person with dwarfism.

However, TLC, the network that broadcasts the show, does not want to attract attention to the visit to Cape Girardeau and would not confirm the date or time of the family's arrival; the network wants to be able to film their arrival as a real family vacation and do not want fans to disrupt the filming.

"They want things to be as natural as possible. This is a regular family going on a regular vacation, getting the same tour as anyone else on the American Queen," Schloss said.

Chuck Martin, executive director for the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said a lot of people were interested in witnessing the filming of the movie "Killshot" when that film's crews were in Cape Girardeau roughly two years ago, which had the potential to cause problems for the film crew.

"The only reason it worked out last time was because John Madden was so accommodating," said Martin, referring to the film's director. As a result, Martin said, a lot of people did get to see the filming.

But the reality show presents a more delicate issue because the crews want to preserve the element of realism in the family's vacation to Cape Girardeau.

A member of the production crew, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak for the show, said the family was accustomed to having two cameras and a sound crew follow them everywhere but not throngs of fans.

tthomas@semissourian.com

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