Most people would never dream of going on a TV show to discuss their sex lives.
One Dallas couple, Jarric Tucker and Taylor Bell, went on a TV show and had sex.
The controversial series, which premiered last week on We TV, is called Sex Box.
Imagine how Tucker, 24, reacted when his wife signed them up for this rather extreme form of couples therapy. "I was shocked," he says. "I was like, 'What kind of show is this?'"
Suffice it to say that Bell, 23, persuaded him to go along. Their episode, filmed in November, airs at 9 p.m. Friday.
The premise of Sex Box: Couples having relationship and romance issues discuss their problems, on camera and in front of a studio audience, with a panel of experts. Then the couple is encouraged to step into a giant soundproof cube for a session of lovemaking.
After that comes a frank discussion of what went on inside the box, the theory being that the moments immediately following this level of intimacy are when couples are at their most honest and trusting.
The hour feels like a cross between a Jerry Springer Show episode and a game show, especially when a clock is timing the couple's stay in the Sex Box.
Tucker and Bell, who will celebrate their second wedding anniversary later this month, say it helped them.
"The three judges - I mean therapists - actually gave us a lot of good advice with our relationship," Tucker says in a telephone interview. "So it was definitely worth going on there."
Says Bell: "One of the main issues in our relationship was that my confidence level was way down after giving birth to our son. I didn't feel good about my body. I'm still working on that. And we needed to communicate more.
"Before the TV show, our communication was nonexistent," she continues. "If he was mad or if I was mad, he would go sleep somewhere else in the house and it never was talked about. But later the old arguments would arise again. So we've gotten on the right track with our communication."
The hour feels like a cross between a Jerry Springer Show episode and a game show, especially when a clock is timing the couple's stay in the Sex Box.
The launch of Sex Box last week was greeted with protest from the Parents Television Council, an advocacy group that objected to the show's "outrageous, disgraceful" content. The PTC says it gathered more than 38,000 signatures in an online petition urging We TV executives to reconsider airing it.
The network countered with an ad in the Hollywood Reporter and a plea on its website asking viewers to watch the premiere before signing.
"I think We TV went about it the right way," Bell says. "They said, 'Please view the show first. Then, if you want to sign the petition, we'll give you the link to it on our website.'
"I feel like the show has opened up a whole new discussion forum about relationships. I don't see it as being anything wrong. The therapists are trained to analyze people's problems and help figure out a solution. And viewers can learn a lot when it comes to their own relationships from watching other people putting their vulnerability on the line."
That said, there's one household in particular that Bell doesn't want watching.
"I'm going to go to my parents' house and set the parental control block on the We TV channel," she says, "just so they won't see their daughter all grown up."
David Martindale, Special Contributor
Sex Box
9 p.m. Friday, We TV. 1 hr.
