• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 1, 2016

Some TV networks are relying so heavily on non-scripted shows about ordinary people that it doesn’t seem to dawn on them that sometimes, the stories of ordinary people can be dull.

I don’t mean to diminish the importance of every person’s life story. To each individual and their circle of friends, relatives and co-workers, the stories being told about them on TV are possibly a lot more interesting than they are to the rest of us.

Just to be clear, I include myself in this category. If there was a reality show about me, it would require that you watch a guy on TV sitting around all day watching TV, or staring at a computer screen and typing -- with occasional breaks to get something to eat. Sound interesting? Of course not.

Of slightly greater interest -- at least to some -- are the travails of marriage and relationships. But here again, it seems to me that the stories have to be extraordinary to really interest those who are disinterested -- i.e., the great many of us who don’t personally know the people involved.

This is the challenge presented by a show such as “What If We Get Married?” -- the latest contrivance of a reality series from the well-meaning folks at TLC. The premise: Two people who have long had a close friendship with no sex, or a steamy sexual relationship with little or no real friendship, decide suddenly that they are made for each other and should get married.

This is, of course, of extreme importance to them. To us, not so much. If you were to affix the word “so” to the front of this show’s title, you would then approximate the feeling you get while watching this show: So what.

In the premiere episode airing Friday night (April 1) on TLC, the two couples are Amanda and Christian, who have been friends since they were 14. They have come to the sudden realization that they’ve grown so close that they should probably stop seeking companionship elsewhere and tie the knot. (That’s Christian proposing to Amanda in the photo above.) They’re both nice kids (about 30 years-old) and I wish them well.

The other couple is Amy and Mike, 39 and 35, respectively. They’ve decided to get married after having a strictly sexual, “friends with benefits” relationship for 13 years. Can these two whose relationship has been entirely physical for more than a dozen years make it as a married couple?

This is the question posed by the show. To learn the answer, you’ll have to sit through this one-hour episode in which, for the most part, people sit (or stand) around talking to each other. That’s about it.

TLC’s aim with this show seems to be to create another show about marriage and weddings that might be compatible with its other shows on Friday nights that have long been more or less bridal-themed. Most notable among the shows on TLC on Friday nights is the long-running “Say Yes to the Dress” franchise in which brides-to-be accompanied by groups of female friends and relatives select their bridal gowns.

To give the TLC schedulers their due, this one-hour premiere of “What If We Get Married?” is hammocked between episodes of “Say Yes to the Dress” starting at 9:30 p.m. Eastern -- itself an unusual time to start a one-hour show. And in order to conform to the evening’s wedding-dress theme, the brides in “What If We Get Married?” are seen participating in the dress-selection process as well.

This new show is another entry in a growing group of shows in which marriages begin inauspiciously, including TLC’s “90-Day Fiance,” in which prospective immigrants to the U.S. need to find an American to marry in 90 days to stay in the country; and “Married At First Sight” on FYI, in which people get married first, then get to know each other later.

Incredibly, people agree to actually do this just to be seen on a TV show.

“What If We Get Married?” premieres Friday (April 1) at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on TLC.