Local reptile fans to appear on ‘Wife Swap’ reality show

BLAIRSVILLE — Amanda Hess has been wild about pets — both warm-blooded and cold-blooded — for most of her adult life. More recently, she’s become a fan of the TV show “Wife Swap.”

Both of those interests dovetailed last year, when the Blairsville woman, her husband, Paul, their blended clan and their houseful of animals took part in filming for the popular reality series. The resulting episode is set to air at 9 p.m. today on the ABC network.

“I loved Wife Swap before,” Amanda Hess said. “I enjoyed the show.” But, “I had never in my wildest dreams imagined I would be on TV.”

Not just a dream, her TV debut is set to become reality tonight — when viewers across the country will see her trade places with a Kentucky woman who is focused on designer fashions and finds sharing a home with pets distasteful.

In each episode of the show, wives from two American families with contradictory lifestyles exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) during a two-week challenge.

In the first week, each transplanted wife agrees to follow a manual in which the departing wife has set forth the rules of the new household. During the second week, the tables are turned and the new wife gets to run her adopted home her way.

In hindsight, Hess noted the show’s producers, RDF Media, did a good job matching her family with a household that was as far removed as possible from their pet-friendly way of life.

After later reviewing profiles of others featured in the show’s current, sixth season — including a Goth-influenced clan — she concluded, “We would have liked swapping with any of the other families better than the one we had.”

Still, there were at least two areas of common ground between the Hesses and their paired family, that of Samantha and Michael Adams of Louisville, Ky.

With non-vegetarian diets, “We both ate the same foods, and we both had ‘Kaylas’ about the same age,” Amanda Hess noted.

Amanda’s daughter, Kayla George, 14, is among the younger members of the Hesses’ full house while the Adamses’ only daughter, ‘Chaela — short for Michaela — also was 14 at the time the episode was lensed.

The Hess household also includes another of Amanda’s children, 5-year-old Jimmy Zatek, and Paul’s offspring — Connie, 16, and Paul III, 13.

The 29 non-human residents at the Hess address during the “Wife Swap” shoot included eight dogs and a de-scented skunk named Scooby. There were various lizards and snakes in the menagerie, as well, including a bearded dragon, a blue tongue skink, a boa constrictor, a ball python and some corn snakes.

Paul and Amanda also kept their pet alligator, Croaker, in a 55-gallon tank in their bedroom. The Hesses, who screened their finished episode before tonight’s airing, noted the gator hissed at Samantha Adams when she entered the room, and it was apparent the feeling was mutual.

From reading Adams’ household manual, Amanda Hess learned her counterpart believes animals “are unclean and unsanitary and belong outside.”

That viewpoint held true for all pets, not just the more exotic reptiles the Hess family kept under their roof.

During the first week of taping the show in Blairsville, Adams helped staff one of the reptile shows and sales that Hess and her husband promote in the region.

“I give her credit,” Hess said. “She did attempt to run my reptile show.”

But, for the second week, when Adams got to call the shots, she ordered all of the animals out of the Hess home — including Papillon pooch Lucy and her litter of pups, who were banished to the garage. The family’s three Huskies were already quartered outside.

“The fact that I have 29 animals doesn’t mean I have them running all over the house. They’re in cages,” Amanda Hess pointed out.

In fact, most of the critters the Hess family owns are gone once more from their home. But, this time, they’re in new digs at a Blairsville pet store the couple recently opened.

While in Kentucky, Amanda Hess discovered that Michaela Adams wanted a pet dog and was toying with the idea of becoming a veterinarian, despite her parents’ aversion to animals.

According to Hess, the Adamses were much more keen on Michaela’s other potential career choice: becoming a plastic surgeon.

Hess came to sympathize with the girl, whose regimented daily schedule, dictated by her parents, included a large share of the household cleaning and other chores, with no opportunity to socialize with friends after school.

“I saw how strict she was with her daughter,” Hess said of her counterpart. “I really thought that was wrong.”

So, when Hess was able to take charge of the Adams home, she encouraged the teen to assert her independence, by drafting her own “Declaration of Michaela.” She also ordered a trip to a pet store and a visit with a veterinarian.

Hess launched a more direct assault on her host’s no-animals policy when she brought a dozen creatures into the Adams house, including two boa constrictors, two corn snakes, a ball python and some tree frogs — all in cages.

She had to make one concession in order to keep her slithery friends on the premises. “I slept in the room with the animals,” she said.

Such down time was welcome, she noted: “We were being filmed for 16-hour days.”

Hess indicated that her fondness for snakes and lizards is one of the factors that prompted her to consider taking part in “Wife Swap.”

“I wanted to show the world that reptiles can be good pets,” she explained.

Hess admitted that she, like many others, initially was afraid of snakes, although she had more common pets when she was growing up in the Saltsburg area. “I had about every animal but a reptile,” she said.

Her first husband introduced her to snakes when he bought a pet python. Then, appealing to her general concern for the welfare of animals, he enlisted her help to care for and feed the reptile.

“That was my first experience with snakes,” she said. “I started doing some research and learned about keeping them in captivity.”

Eventually, the couple amassed 65 snakes, which they bred in their Latrobe home, and they frequented the periodic Pittsburgh Reptile Show, operated by Herb and Dolly Ellenbrock.

After a work-related move to Erie, Hess and her first husband divorced, and he got custody of the snakes.

She discovered, “I was really lonely without animals in the house,” so she purchased the reptile show business from the Ellenbrocks seven years ago and also launched her own pet store in Erie.

She met her current husband when he purchased a dog from her. The couple soon realized they shared an interest in more exotic pets.

Having grown up on a farm near Erie, as a young adult Paul Hess owned such pets as an iguana and a red tail boa constrictor. “That was my first snake,” he recalled. “I raised it from a hatchling.”

After marrying in September 2008, they were displaced by a house fire the following year.

Amanda decided she’d like to move back close to her childhood home, so the Hesses relocated to their current Blairsville dwelling. The 1871 fixer-upper is located in one of the town’s older neighborhoods on the site of an old blacksmith shop.

How it all started

Not long after they’d settled in, Amanda Hess’ involvement with snakes opened the door last spring for the family’s plunge into reality TV.

According to Hess, a casting representative for the “Wife Swap” show was “looking for someone in the reptile industry,” and, after coming across the Web site for her reptile show, sent her an e-mail inquiring if she’d be interested in applying.

Once she confirmed that the message was genuine and got Paul’s blessing, she filled out an application to appear on the series.

To win a spot in an episode, the Hess family members underwent screening that included a psychological assessment. They also completed a demo video, for which they were filmed with a komodo dragon at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

On May 9, Amanda Hess boarded a plane in Pittsburgh to leave for her two-week “Wife Swap” assignment.

Like other participants in the show, she didn’t know anything in advance about the family she would be joining. She was kept in the dark about their lifestyle and even the city where they lived.

“I had no idea where I was going,” she said. But, “It was an adventure, and I was ready for it.

“I’ll try anything once.”

Initially, she thought her destination was Chicago, where she caught a connecting flight.

When she finally arrived in Louisville, she immediately was driven to a hotel and was placed in a room where the phone had been removed.

Making the separation complete from her life and family in Blairsville, she noted, “They confiscated my cell phone, and I wasn’t allowed to leave my room.”

She arrived at the empty Adams residence at 6 a.m., and the film crew recorded her first impressions of the house.

Before Hess read about the family’s passion for name-brand fashions, documented in Samantha’s household manual, she gained a clue when she caught a gander of Michael’s footgear: “He had 15 pairs of Timberland boots, all in different colors.”

Michael was quoted in the manual as saying that “fashion is more important than air.”

Hess noted the guide also described looking constantly “fabulous” as one of the family’s goals, along with career success. Michael Adams installs lockers on school campuses, while Samantha welcomes clients into her home office to fit them with wigs.

When the man of the house arrived on the scene, Amanda recalled, “My name brands weren’t right. He had me immediately change into clothing he’d picked out for me.” That included six-inch heels that took some getting used to but allowed the 5-11 woman to stand taller than her 6-foot host.

“That part wasn’t bad,” she said. But she noted the high heels made it more difficult for her to accomplish tasks around the house — which included taking care of one of Samantha’s clients in her absence.

Michael Adams also made Hess change her hairstyle to suit his family image.

As a result, she said, “I really felt unproductive. I had to spend three hours getting ‘fabulous.’ I could’ve done so much more with my time.”

During the latter part of her stay, Hess put her own dress code into effect for the head of the Adams household. For the trip to the pet store, she said, “I told him he wasn’t allowed to wear any name-brand clothes.”

Before she left Blairsville, Samantha Adams tried to impart some of her career- and fashion-oriented values to the Hess youngsters.

She had all of the kids get some new clothes and hairdos. And, based on each of the older children’s interests, arrangements were made for them to complete experiences in related careers.

Paul got to ride in a police vehicle, and Kayla went to a local recording studio to try her hand at voiceovers for cartoons.

Connie, who is the artist in the family, met with a local garment designer — although she later noted she’s really interested in designing buildings, not clothing.

The swap did result in one lasting change in the Hess household, perhaps inspired by the Adamses’ emphasis on chores as a tool for building character and instilling discipline.

Before, Paul Hess explained, the children had the option of completing chores in return for rewards: “They had to build up points to go to the movies.”

Now, chores are a requirement for all of the kids. “It’s not voluntary,” he said.

Connie is responsible for caring for the family’s pets. Kayla keeps the dining room and stairways in order. Paul cleans the living room and takes out the garbage. When he’s not cleaning up his toys, Jimmy “helps me do whatever I have to do,” Amanda said.

Even with their new responsibilities, she said the youngsters deserve time to have fun.

“They’re all getting passing grades at school and they don’t get into trouble,” she said.

“If they want to be kids, they should be kids.”

Hess and her husband both found themselves outside of their comfort zones at times during the two weeks they were apart for filming of their “Wife Swap” episode. But both agree they’d be willing to participate again in the series — or, perhaps, in some other reality show — if the opportunity presents itself.

“Now that we know what we’re in for, we’d do it again,” Amanda Hess said of “Wife Swap.” She added that she also wouldn’t mind following in the footsteps of the late “Crocodile Hunter” star Steve Irwin.

Next time around, Paul Hess kidded, “I’d like to be on a show that’s in the middle of nowhere, where it’s nice and peaceful — like ‘Survivor.'”

For more information about the Hesses’ own animal-related ventures, visit www.pghreptileshow.com and www.firehousepet.com.