After almost two weeks of filming and months of high hopes, planning and promises, plans for an MTV reality show about Fort Worth justice and life inside the Tarrant County Jail appear to have been shuttered.
Sheriff Dee Anderson and department officials who were working with producer Endemol Entertainment say a production crew filmed inside the jail for about 10 days last fall, but officials haven't heard back from the crew in months.
The last word was that MTV brass loved a demo tape previewing the series and that, as of early December, MTV wanted 60 days to find a space for the show, called Inside, on their schedule.
"It's in total limbo," Anderson said. "I don't anticipate it happening now, with this length of time going by and no movement on it, but stranger things have happened."
Janelle Fiorito, an executive producer for Endemol, did not return a phone call last week seeking comment.
Anderson's executive administrator, Terry Grisham, asked the executive producer for a status report in email sent shortly after the Super Bowl but never received a response.
Producers who approached Anderson last year pitched the show as a Scared Straight-type reality series intended to show the gritty, unglamorous side of jail life to deter young people from choosing a life of crime.
The production company is also behind such shows as Fear Factor and Big Brother.
Grisham said the demo tape he saw "did come out exactly like they presented it to us." The demo included interviews with Anderson, inmates and jail officers, footage from inside the jail and information about Fort Worth.
But Anderson said if the show is dead, he won't be disappointed.
"We felt like if it would help show jail life, that it's a tough place and people should avoid it, it would have been worthwhile, but it wasn't anything I had a great burning desire to do or not do," he said.
Anderson said last year he agreed to accommodate the crew because he thought the show would spread a positive message and that the potential to deter crime would offset any inconvenience to jail workers.
"I did want a director's chair with my name on it," Anderson joked. "I could just see myself wearing a beret, barking orders at people with a megaphone, but I guess it's not going to come to pass."