From our extensive research, we already know that Wahlburgers is a restaurant co-owned by Mark Wahlberg, and that a “Smahlburger with Wahlsauce and Government Cheese” is something that you can actually order there (seriously). We also know that a reality show about the restaurant is coming to A&E. In a recent interview with Vulture, Marky Mark himself explains that he knows that the whole thing sounds silly, but that that’s exactly what his wife first said about Ted, and look how well that turned out.
Wahlberg reassures Vulture that his show isn’t just lowbrow reality TV: “I wouldn’t spend twenty-something odd years building my career up only to throw it all out the window by doing embarrassing reality television,” he told us yesterday, at a lunch hosted by Peggy Siegal in honor of his upcoming Navy SEAL drama Lone Survivor. “It’s a docu-series about building a business that happens to be from the center of a family.”
Not to mention, we’re going to get to meet the real-life Johnny Drama and “Nacho” Laun and follow them as they order burgers named after the Wahlbergs’ childhood! How could that be anything but highbrow docu-journalism?
“People are going to be surprised, I think, in a positive way.” In fact, he’s glad the expectations seem generally low. Then, explaining by way of example, he told us about that time his wife insisted Ted was a dumb idea.
“When I told my wife on the way to the Oscars that I was doing a movie about a talking teddy bear, she said, ‘You’re the dumbest guy in the world, this will be the last you’re ever going to be at the Oscars, and you’re going to ruin your career.'” He worked to persuade her. “You try to pitch it in a way that they get it: You know, The bear is really cool, and it’s edgy, and it’s this kind of bromance. And she’s like, ‘Yeah, whatever. Dumb idea.’ Right? I felt the same way when I was pitched it. It’s hard to wrap it up in a bow, but then you know what? It was a nice surprise; it was the most successful movie of my career and the most successful original R-rated comedy of all time, in the world. So I think [Wahlburgers] will be one of those things that surprises people.” [Vulture]
If Marky Mark’s wife thought he was going to ruin his career by doing a movie about a talking teddy bear, I wonder what she had to say when he signed on for Transformers 4, a sequel to a movie about giant robots that turn into cars and sometimes they go to heaven and remember how that one Transformer had testicles? Let’s be honest, we’re talking about a guy who nearly blinded an old Vietnamese man while calling him racial slurs, then became a model known for grabbing his balls, transitioned into another career as a terrible rapper, parlayed that into a workout tape (POW!), then won a role in a movie where he fingered Reese Witherspoon on a roller coaster, then somehow got from there to an Academy Award nomination, and is still a respected actor after he told everyone he would’ve stopped 9/11 and opened a burger joint with a pun on his name. Lady, if anyone’s career is unkillable, it’s your husband’s.