Mark Wahlberg's Teamsters Reality Show In Pre-Production

Forget Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters Union is getting a far more telegenic representative. Oscar-nominated actor Mark Wahlberg is lending his name to a new reality TV show based on the union.

In Boston, preproduction is underway on the pilot of a reality show about the The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a a union representing mostly blue-collar transportation and factory workers that's likely best-known for the infamous disappearance of its president, Hoffa, nearly 40 years ago.

Wahlberg, who produces the HBO show Entourage, is co-producing the project. According to the Boston Globe, the show will "focus on the lives and struggles of members of Boston’s Teamsters Local 25."

For decades, the Teamsters were considered the nation's most corrupt union -- with deep ties to organized crime -- until a federal intervention in 1989 forced out more than 200 officials accused of corruption.

Wahlberg, who's father was a Teamster, also has a somewhat shady past. As a teenager he was arrested numerous times and spent 45 days in jail for attempted murder. In more recent years, he's acted in films that play on his working class Boston background, including "The Departed," a Martin Scorsese-directed thriller set in Boston, starring Jack Nicholson as a powerful Irish mobster. More recently he played a working-class boxer in "The Fighter," which takes place in a hard-scrabble neighborhood similar to the one where Wahlberg grew up.

Teamsters Local 25 has a colorful history of its own, especially when it comes to the entertainment industry. In 2003, the previous president of the local, George Cashman, pled guilty to conspiracy charges, and was allegedly involved with shakedowns of movie producers.

Earlier this month, the Teamsters local put out a statement stressing that it has now cleaned up its act:

Acknowledging that some critics would say the organization as a whole has had a storied past, [local President Sean] O'Brien said that his union has worked hard to restore a level of integrity and professionalism that is shared throughout the 11,000 member organization. "The Teamsters Local 25 members of today are proud, hardworking citizens of the community. We take pride in being a voice for working people."

A&E is producing the show, and appears to be counting on the Teamsters' and Wahlberg's colorful past to draw viewership. From their press release announcing the show:

Set in the real-life world that provided such color to films as The Fighter and The Departed, ‘Teamsters’ will give viewers a first hand glimpse of the most legendary union in the most aggressive and territorial city in America: Boston. Here, the Teamsters Local 25 battle for the rights of their 11,000 members

But some labor advocates are concerned that the show may harm the cause more than it helps.

"There’s some risk that previous Hollywood conceptions of blue-collar Boston will get all moshed together in ways that will not necessarily enhance labor’s image, increase public understanding of what unions do, or even boost Brother O’Brien’s upward mobility in the IBT," writes lawyer and reporter Steve Early, who lives in Boston and has actively supported the Teamsters, in In These Times, a non-profit progressive newsmagazine.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Mark Wahlberg grew up in the neighborhood where "The Fighter" was set. It also incorrectly stated that Wahlberg won an Oscar. He has, however, been nominated twice.

Comments

[Erdgeist]

11:50 AM on 03/25/2012

I am a retired Teamster. I love the Union - I say, "Teamsters" with pride. The only kind of Union that bothers me is the one which makes secret deals with big business at the expense of its Union members. Not good. It almost goes with saying this, but a Union free of corruption is far better than any corporation. Until corporations are willing to treat Unions as coequals the war will continue. I am still a soldier for Unions.

[jezzgeo]

11:28 AM on 03/25/2012

what attracts viewers to reality shows is drama.

i hope, as a service to all viewers in educating us about unions, this drama is aimed at the cause for which unions fight, and not drama internal that will end up as a public ridicule of unions.

the kardashians are the butt of every late night joke, as was jersey shore and paris hilton before them. i don't want unions to be perceived in the same light. i hope it won't go that direction.

[kinogod]

09:49 AM on 03/25/2012

Yo Wally give the suits hell

[Cynthia Shore]

09:11 PM on 03/24/2012

Marky Mark, you are better than that. A good Catholic, the unions were good 100 years ago, now they ruin our companies.

[jezzgeo]

11:23 AM on 03/25/2012

with jobs being outsourced overseas, corporations rushing to pay lower and lower wages, a race to the bottom, standards of living lowering while costs of living rising, and cheaper labor imported in, now is when unions- in general- are needed, even still.

[Erdgeist]

11:55 AM on 03/25/2012

You've been listening to the corporate media. The corporate MSM will always be on the side of huge salaries for management and slave wages for those below as if those below deserve it. A Union gives us pride and protection. Workers can become powerful through Unions. We are still at war with corporate America. It hasn't stopped since the Gilded Age. And it won't stop until the workers are treated like free human beings and not like wage slaves.

[Y2KCockroach]

02:55 PM on 03/24/2012

The history of the Teamsters makes for great drama. The current Teamsters are simply boring, and no more worthy of watching than the sad folks featured on "Storage Wars"....

This is not to denigrate the hard working people in the Teamsters; it is to note (and lament) the vacuous and vapid entertainment wasteland that "reality shows" have brought us.

[Bootinureye]

09:17 AM on 03/24/2012

Great. An entertainment leech representing a business leech.

[sculptor]

03:35 PM on 03/24/2012

My dad was a warehouseman that belonged to the Teamsters union and they did right by their members regardless what you think. It wasn't quite a middle class existence but we had the basics such as medical insurance, sick leave, a paid vacation and his modest pension was a big help after he retired. So, all I can say is that mocking unions is mocking the aspiration of blue collar workers to make a decent living.

[jezzgeo]

11:24 AM on 03/25/2012

nicely said. thank you for speaking up.

[tobynsaunders]

08:51 AM on 03/24/2012

awesome

[tnlcallen]

06:12 AM on 03/24/2012

The worst PR that organized labor can have is a reality show. That being said, I think it will be interesting.

[Red Russet]

04:46 AM on 03/24/2012

Isn't he busy? Isn't he flying around in planes just in case the flight needs saving from terrorists?

[oldwolf49]

01:14 AM on 03/24/2012

enough of the reality shows, reality is enough reality, make a show about something we'd all like to see, something about alien babies and porn stars.

[newworldman777]

11:30 PM on 03/23/2012

Wahlberg should stick to roles that he is qualified to play. When you take an uneducated hood off the streets of Boston and dress him up as an actor, the believability factor just isn't there when he takes on professional roles and such. He simply lacks the intellectual creds, and it glaringly comes out in his often-garbled street dialect. Just sayin'...

[Red Russet]

04:46 AM on 03/24/2012

He's yuck. Not cute, and really dumb.

[jenniferkizzy]

11:03 PM on 03/23/2012

is he qualified too do a show about teamster's just asking

[rjakjr]

03:12 AM on 03/24/2012

Entourage would say yes, he's qualified to produce a show based on that show's success.

[jenniferkizzy]

11:35 AM on 03/24/2012

yes i know but aren't teamster's a cautious lot

[Areyoukiddingg]

10:35 PM on 03/23/2012

Good for you Wahlberg, you're the MAN! Regardless of your job we all need to get behind restoration of UNION JOBS! The power of the union is why we have a 40 hour workweek, reasonably safe working conditions, and any benefits at all. I'm glad to see he's smart enough to understand this, he's a great guy!

[rjakjr]

03:14 AM on 03/24/2012

Exactly, the irony is that the majority of all GOP that are anti-union HAVE weekends thanks to the unions they consistently trash for more votes of their own.

[tnlcallen]

06:16 AM on 03/24/2012

Unions are a mixed bag. Yes they helped usher in better working conditions, but they also brought a lot of bad with that good. That is one reason why they are not so popular in the private sector. The employees got tired of them.

[Areyoukiddingg]

09:58 PM on 03/24/2012

That's exactly correct-I think most are too stupid to know this

[RVU]

10:24 PM on 03/23/2012

Mark-

How much of the cut has to go the unionists? In the end , is this actually costing you money?

[Carroll27]

10:19 PM on 03/23/2012

Say hi to your mudder for me, OK?