STUDIO: A&E
RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2008
FEATURES: Unaired scenes

If you’ve ever gotten a parking ticket, you know exactly what it feels like to walk out of a store only to see that dreaded piece of paper on your windshield. Sometimes the parking "cop" is standing right there filling out the ticket when you arrive. For some who have let their ticket violations build up over time, it shouldn’t be a shock when you get to your car and it’s gone, jacked by the parking repo police. Whichever relatable scenario you can identify with, it all makes for great parking drama, which A&E capitalized in with their reality series Parking Wars.

I’m a huge fan of A&E’s new generation of programming. In recent years the cable network has given fans a truly unique blend of reality and entertainment. From the Growing Up Gotti, Gene Simmons Family Jewels and Dog the Bounty Hunter to the grittier Intervention and The First 48, there’s no other network that produces the same type of reality on TV. When Parking Wars hit the airwaves, it filled an appropriate void left behind by the defunct Airline, which got the axe earlier in 2007. Much like Airline, which chronicled the daily dynamics inside Southwest Airlines from both passenger and employee perspectives, Parking Wars follows suit as it tracks the workers of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the many who have yet to pay their parking tickets. Seriously. How could you not get drama, conflict and entertainment out of that? Misery as entertainment is a big business, and it works.

On a different note, I’ve never really understood why people get so worked up over speeding tickets. I’ve seen people lose their minds over getting a ticket. And they were speeding, too. Parking tickets, though, especially in Philadelphia, that’s whole different kettle of fish. In A&E’s newly released Best of Season One, cameras follow the PPA workers through seven episodes of the season and unaired scenes as they comb the city streets for violators of Philadelphia’s gouging parking laws. Although everyone has a job to do, including Parking Authority workers, it’s not hard to empathize with someone who gets their car towed and has to waste an entire day trying to get their vehicle out of the PPA impound over a few measly unpaid bucks. Given Philadelphia’s lopsided parking laws, it’s a wonder anyone in the city has a car. As the "Best Of" reveals, the laws are so ambiguous for drivers that you could almost park anywhere in the city and get a ticket. I’m not kidding. It’s like a guaranteed revenue stream for the city. The funny things is for the violators shown in the series, there’s absolutely nothing a driver can do except pay the ticket, or unpaid tickets in a lot of cases.

Although a lot of drama and hilarity takes place on the street, much of the show’s humor and conflict takes place in the parking impound where fines are paid and vehicles released. It’s one thing to get a ticket outside of a bar or on a deserted city street, but it’s completely different story when you get to the PPA impound. And if you complain or vent your anger, you can forget about making that all-important business meeting you have scheduled. Then again, if you love seeing people get their just desserts for intentionally ignoring the laws we’re all supposed to abide by, the PPA impound definitely provides sweet satisfaction in terms of entertainment value. The impound workers, the temporary overlords of your vehicle, couldn’t give a rat’s ass who you are.

In one particular episode, two guys puff their chest out at the impound while trying to get their car back, attempting to throw their weight around in an effort to best the no-nonsense PPA worker, only to be brought to their knees by an endless stream of paperwork, which keeps them there the entire day. Brilliant! Like I said, misery is a big business. In another episode, on the flip side of the negative, a guy manages to settle his bill via cell phone on the street just in the nick of time while his car is on the tow truck. Although this is frivolous entertainment, what makes Parking Wars interesting is that you get to see the dynamics of a part of life we can all relate to on many levels. Unlike most "scripted" reality shows, Parking Wars is more real than most. If you’re looking for a digestible, condensed version of the season with a few unaired bonuses, Parking Wars: Best of Season One will satisfy your basic allegorical hunger for "golf ball to the groin" style laughs.