Welcome to the Block Party, where its all about the love. Yes, it’s around Valentine’s Day now...and those of you who didn’t send me birthday presents...shame on you! As I sit here, thinking about being in love, being loved and all that gushy stuff....these questions come to mind...why are most dating/relationship shows failing to produce long term happy relationships? But, why are so many shows still on the air?

I mean, it doesn’t look good for Bam Margera. He just got married to his childhood friend, Missy Rothstein in Philadelphia. He has turned the show into a reality show called “Bam’s Unholy Union”. But if you look at the couples from other MTV shows such as “Meet the Barkers” (Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler), Newlyweds (Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson) and "Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen + Dave (Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro) ...all of them have ended up in ugly divorces.

And of all the Bachelor/Bachelorette combinations (the bane of Chico Alexander's existence) only one person has stayed married and that is Trista Sutter. Every other couple has gone their separate ways. Rob Mariano and his wife Amber are still together and are about to play on “The Amazing Race–All Stars” edition very soon. Even us geeks get a show or two.
So, to answer the 2nd question first–everyone in the general public is a closet romantic. Everyone wants to see love, or in some cases a hot date, happen. Most of the dating shows from The Dating Game to Love Connection to the more recent examples of Next, Exposed, Flavor of Love and others give the fantasy that you can find true love through a casting agency on TV. It rarely happens, but it is the perception.

The first one is kind of easy. The people who appear on most of the shows today look like they come out of central casting. The producers edit the shows as a competition instead of what a relationship truly is which is organic. Love is never easy, especially when you are trying to force affections down people’s throat in front of a 24-7 TV Crew. Love happens naturally and it is the rare time that a TV relationship works. What these shows do is a) make both men and women look very shallow in how they view relationship and b) treat love as a sport rather than as the delicate emotion that it is.

So with people overpaying for gifts that they could get for less on February 15, realize this. The love that you see on TV is not real. It is a fantasy. People do like it, but the emotions that are shown on TV are not the beautiful things that thousands of people who are not on camera experience every day. That’s love.

And as Haddaway asks, “What is Love?”; the answer isn’t on a TV dating show.

You can join the Block Party at jb.regis@verizon.net.