Is Lizard Lick Towing Real or Fake?

A lot of viewers are wondering whether the reality-based TruTV show Lizard Lick Towing is real or fake. Its portrayals of a towing company and scenes of repossessions seem a bit hard to believe, like when shots are fired or six men beat up one of the show's central figures, yet the cameraman doesn't even flinch as he continues to record the action.

Is Lizard Lick Towing real or fake? Read on for the answer.

About Lizard Lick Towing
Lizard Lick Towing and Recovery is a real company, as are its employees, Ron and Amy Shirley and Bobby Brantley - but that doesn't mean the show itself is real.

The show films them while they repossess vehicles in rural North Carolina. Nearly every repossession ends with a violent confrontation, as people yell and scream and sometimes use force to keep their vehicles from being impounded.

Inevitably, Ron and Bobby manage to get the car away, and the individual shows up at the towing company the next day ready for a fight. The Lizard Lick employees never bother calling police; instead, they simply use their brawn to intimidate the angry customer and force him or her off the lot, while tossing in hilarious, off-the-cuff Southern phrases like, "I'm happier than a shoe fly in an outhouse."

Far-fetched? No doubt about it.

Statement from TruTV on its real-life shows
Those who believe Lizard Lick Towing, All Worked Up, and the other similar shows on TruTV are real seem to be overlooking this statement, which comes right from the FAQ on the TruTV website:

"Q: Is truTV a reality network?
A: No. Our focus is on series that feature real-life situations. That is why we're using the theme 'Not Reality. Actuality.' for the network. The goal is to let people know that truTV programming is different from typical reality shows, which often involve contests or other highly staged events."

That statement is intentionally convoluted and confusing, but it basically confirms that TruTV does not offer reality programming but instead features shows like Lizard Lick Towing that show "real-life situations."

In other words: Scripted.

The verdict: Lizard Lick Towing is fake
Those who believe the show is real point to the fact that the Lizard Lick towing company itself is real, as are its employees. But that proves nothing. Just because the company actually exists doesn't mean that TruTV couldn't hire its workers to act in a fake reality show. The same is true of another TruTV program, All Worked Up. The show is fake, even if its actors used to be actual repo men.

All it takes is a little common sense to realize the show is not real. Like the scene where Bobby is left alone inside a tattoo parlor with six angry men who proceed to jump him and beat him up badly. Isn't it funny that none of them laid a finger on the cameraman who was documenting the entire thing? Or that nobody bothered to call the police during or after the incident?

If these scenes were real, the police would be called nearly every time. I find many of these scenes insulting - both to my intelligence, as well as to the people of the rural south, who are being portrayed on this program as uneducated hicks who constantly take justice into their own hands. That's not fair to the folks of that region.

Bobby is also portrayed as being single, when he's actually married with children. I wonder how the folks who think the show is real can explain that one.

Reaction to Lizard Lick Towing being fake
Sadly, there are quite a few folks who still believe the show is real. Scanning the show's Facebook page, you can see that while many commenters criticize the show for being fake, others insist the action is legitimate. Presumably, these are the same people who think professional wrestling is real.

On the TruTV message boards, there is constant debate about whether the scenes are real. In one recent poll, 62.5% of respondents truly believed the show was real, while only 37.5% thought it was fake, a poll result that is hard to believe.

There's nothing wrong with the show being scripted. It's only wrong when viewers are misled into believing they are watching reality when they're not. Unfortunately, that's the case with Lizard Lick Towing and most of the other TruTV programs.

Is Lizard Lick Towing Real or Fake?: Sources
http://boards.trutv.com/forumdisplay.php?84-LIZARD-LICK-TOWING
http://www.trutv.com/about/faq.html