Forget for a moment cops, lawyers and plastic surgeons.
The hot new job on reality shows is bounty hunter.
Eccentric bail bondsmen operating family businesses on islands at opposite ends of the country are featured in two new cable series.
Though it sounds more like an Animal Planet series, “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” which premiered at 9 p.m. Tuesday on A&E, profiles a Hulk Hogan lookalike from Hawaii named Duane “Dog” Chapman who was in the news last year for crossing the Mexican border to arrest convicted rapist and Max Factor heir Andrew Luster.
Over in HBO land, “Family Bonds,” which gets a prestigious Sunday night slot when its 10-episode run premieres Sept. 19, profiles Tom Evangelista’s bail bonds business in Queens, N.Y. Like Chapman, his family is full of tough-guy employees, who are often family members; big bleached-blond wives who are in on the action; sons eager to break into the business; and lots of tattoos, jewelry and colorful language.
Meant to be just as interesting to TV audiences as the chases and captures of the “bad guys” is the eccentric lifestyles of both families.
Kin are often involved in the business, Chapman says, because “usually you can’t trust anybody but family. And if you need someone to back you up, it’s better the family be there.”
The show is populated by his wife, Beth Smith, who became a bail bondsman to woo Chapman after meeting him.
“The fastest and easiest way to get his attention was to become a bail bondsman,” she says. “And in the end, I caught the bounty hunter.”
Their young children stay home and cheer on their dad, but his 27-year-old son is by his side, as is his 21-year-old nephew. Across the country in Medford, Long Island, is Tom Evangelista. A lot of “Family Bonds” has to do with what’s happening with the family as well.
And because it is on a night built by “The Sopranos,” there are a lot of similarities to that drama, including a look inside a dangerous family business populated with colorful characters, such as the women who hang out at the “Classy Lady” nail salon speaking frankly about their sex lives when they’re not at home trying to teach their kids how to ride a two-wheeler.
Evangelista says that’s how his family really lives.
“Either you like it or you don’t,” he says.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Victoria Rodriguez (vrodriguez@tribune.com)
