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Fillmore family survives 'Wife Swap'
Jake Zaring, driver of the World Champion Dixie Chopper Pulling Truck, is put to a new endurance test when he and wife Debby appear on the reality TV show "Wife Swap" on Wednesday, Feb. 6.
The Zarings, who reside in Fillmore are paired with the Tony and Corrie LaBrie family of Michigan in the "Wife Swap" episode that airs at 8 p.m. on ABC.
This is how ABC promotes the Feb. 6 episode: "This week in 'LaBrie/Zaring,' a wife whose obsessed, competitive truck-pulling husband hasn't finished fixing the kitchen after seven years, swaps lives with a wife whose main concerns are her appearance and partying like a rock star."
Each week on "Wife Swap," two families with very different values are chosen to take part in a two-week long challenge. The wives from these two families exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover just what it's like to live another woman's life. It's an experiment that often ends up changing their lives forever.
The Zarings are a family of competitive truck-pullers. Debby, 47, and Jake, 46, both work two jobs, as well as running the family's cattle farm. Everything Debby does revolves around her husband. She works in a school cafeteria and runs a hairdressing salon, and Jake still expects her to run errands for him and deliver his lunch. In the Zaring home, everything inside the house is woman's work, and Jake doesn't lift a finger -- even to finish the kitchen renovation he started seven years ago.
Jake is used to winning on the track and in life. He captured the 6,200-lb. 4x4 Modified Truck Class world title last February at the World Championship Truck and Tractor Pull during the 2007 National Farm Machinery Show at Louisville.
And competitiveness runs in the family: kids Jordan, 19, and Izaak, 17, both juggle jobs and chores, as well as competing in dance and kickboxing competitions, and -- of course -- truck pulling.
They don't call him "Crazy Jake" for nothing. Zaring is constantly on the road for truck pulling, and he has missed important moments in his kids' lives, like the birth of son Izaak. None of the kids has ever even had a birthday party. Jake's love of his trucks has also overshadowed his relationship with Debby. They never take vacations as a couple, and 20 years after her wedding, Debby is still waiting for her honeymoon.
Debby leaves her life of diesel and rubber for Michigan, where rock and roll radio DJ Tony LaBrie and wife Corrie, both 34, reside. The LaBries are all about looking good, spending quality time together and living for the moment -- whether it's throwing parties for their friends in their basement lounge or going out.
Corrie is a stylish, professional engineer by day and sexy rock chick by night. She calls herself "high maintenance" and spends an hour and a half every morning applying makeup and doing her hair. Tony does 95 percent of the domestic duties and treats Corrie like a queen, which gives her more time to pamper herself. Corrie sees herself as a laid-back mom, and daughters Tuesday, 15, and Hunter, 8, don't help much around the house, even if asked.
Tony married Corrie three years ago and finds his role as step-dad challenging, so he leaves the disciplining to Corrie and doesn't feel able to communicate with feisty Tuesday, who, instead of participating in sports or activities, spends her free time sleeping, texting and messaging in Internet chatrooms. Meanwhile, Hunter is learning to be an independent child, getting her own breakfast and walking herself to the school bus in the mornings.
In the first week of the swap in Indiana, it's Jake's way or no way, as Corrie works tirelessly and thanklessly to keep up with Debby's two jobs, housekeeping, running errands for Jake and catering Jake's truck-pulling competitions. She goes head to head with Jake about his priorities when she sees that he puts truck-pulling first, over Debby and the kids.
Meanwhile in Michigan, Debby focuses on herself for a change, primping and getting her hair done for a LaBrie party night. She realizes that Tony and Corrie need to focus more on the kids, who have to look after themselves and lead very independent lives.
In the second week of the swap, when the wives change the rules and turn the tables, all hell breaks loose when Corrie tries to shut down Jake's machine shop. Jake digs his heels in and breaks Corrie's rule changes. After Corrie fails to make Jake appreciate his family by asking him to fix Debby's kitchen and throw a birthday party for the kids, she walks out of the house.
In Michigan, Tuesday storms out of the house when Debby takes away her cell phone and computer and replaces them with a wind-up baby. It's up to Tony to step up to the plate as a father and get Tuesday back.
At the end of the swap, when the families are reunited, will Debby confront Jake and make him appreciate her more? Will Corrie add more structure and responsibility to her kids' lives?
"Wife Swap" is an RDF Media production. It was created by Stephen Lambert ("Faking It" and "Junkyard Wars") and is produced by Stef Wagstaffe and Michael Davies ("Who Wants to be a Millionaire").