The Bachelor - The Greatest Seasons – Ever - Discussion

Let the voting begin! Pick your all-time favorite seasons of #TheBachelor and #TheBachelorette !!! The Elite Eight will be airing soon!!!

— Mike Fleiss (@fleissmeister) April 22, 2020

GuardianAngel wrote:It looks like this will eventually happen. I'm not sure if that's what they are calling it, The Elite Eight? For now I've put that in the title of the thread.

Let the voting begin! Pick your all-time favorite seasons of #TheBachelor and #TheBachelorette !!! The Elite Eight will be airing soon!!!

— Mike Fleiss (@fleissmeister) April 22, 2020

https://twitter.com/fleissmeister

I would like them to start off with Trista and Ryan followed by the married couples.

veg_out wrote:@GuardianAngel, maybe MF is referencing NCAA's March Madness basketball tournament and its competition bracket sorta like they now have Bachelorette/Bachelor brackets.

I agree with you:
Trista & Ryan
JP & Ashley
Sean & Cat
Des & Chris
Rachel & Bryan
(I'm leaving out Jason & Molly and Arie & Lauren b/c of the switches. Maybe an edited version with their weddings and updates added?)

Non-married: I'd love if they took it back to the older seasons since the recent ones are still fresh, imo.
Meredith
Jill
Andrew Firestone
Brad 1.0

No interest in rewatching Bachelor Pad or Bachelor in Paradise though the season with Ashley and Jared could be in competition, imo. It might also make sense for them to air Juan Pablo's season to reacquaint the audience with Clare and her story.

How fun!

Premiering on June 8, the 10-episode event series, titled “The Bachelor: The Most Unforgettable – Ever!” will revisit some of the most iconic seasons from the franchise’s 18-year history. Each three-hour episode will cover a full season from the dating show archives, highlighting some of the most devastating rose ceremonies, passionate proposals, unexpected new arrivals, dramatic meltdowns, biggest breakups and most romantic moments that Bachelor Nation has ever witnessed.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/the-bachelor-new-summer-series-bachelorette-coronavirus-shutdown-1234591220/

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss has been tweeting about doing some kind of Bachelor best-of series since March. How did the idea come about?

CHRIS HARRISON: As soon as we were quarantined and people were clamoring for content, Mike and Rob and I were talking, probably every day, like, “Okay, what can we do?” We really didn’t have anything immediate, but there is this appetite for our old seasons, for shows back in the day. Whether you weren’t watching or you’re maybe just young and you got on the train too late, you don’t know what made the show what it is today — and that is those classic seasons of Trista Rehn and Jason Mesnick and Bob Guiney and Sean Lowe. A lot of people missed those seasons, and so we wanted to go back and not just show the seasons.

Think of it more as a podcast, a tip of the cap to Bachelor Nation. It’s going to be one full season in one night. It’s not going to be this long, drawn-out, 10-week thing. It’s going to be one night [per season]. I’m going to be narrating and giving my opinions. We’re going to call the characters that were involved and talk to them. I think it’s a fascinating way to do it. It really will be more of a podcast, with categories – like the craziest moments, the most impactful people, or maybe who was the villain, what was the wildest thing that happened. And then we’ll go back and see where these people are now, and we’ll talk to them. Are they married? Did they have kids? I’ve lost touch with a lot of these people, so it’s going to be great for me to go back and watch this. There were some seasons that you’ve gotta see. You’ve got to see Trista Rehn’s season. That was the lightning bolt that legitimized this franchise. I know people talk about it and know who she is, and did she see it? You’re going to watch people dating and talking in 2002, 2003. It’s not the same. The show, the fashion, the makeup, it’s all very dated.

True. Your suits are very large in season 1.

[Laughs] I made a joke, I posted a picture from season one a long time ago and [the caption said], “I stole my dad’s suit.” My dad actually called me and said, “Was that really my suit?” I said, “No, dad, I was just saying it was super big. I wasn’t wearing your suit.”
The Bachelor frame grab
ABC

Beyond season 18 of The Bachelor, which introduced future Bachelorette Clare Crawley, are there other seasons you definitely want to include?

There are a couple of seasons that you have to show. Trista, you’ve got to show the first Bachelorette. Sean Lowe’s season I think is unanimously a classic that everybody loves. Kaitlyn Bristowe was a great Bachelorette, and a lot of people came out of that show. There were some seasons that were pivotal for a lot of reasons. Out of Juan Pablo’s season, you had [season 10 Bachelorette] Andi Dorfman, and you had Clare. Those are the seasons that will definitely stand out. But we’re going to get a lot of them — we’re going to do 10 of these [episodes], if not more, so that’s a lot of seasons that we’ll be able to revisit.

Do you have a sleeper pick that you’d really like to include?

Man. There’s probably two of them. One would be Jillian Harris. I love Jillian, that was a really good season of The Bachelorette. Another would be, and this is just a sentimental moment for me, would be [season 2 Bachelor] Aaron Buerge, because that to me was a pivotal moment in the franchise. The first season of The Bachelor was in the spring of 2002, and Aaron Buerge was the fall. By fall 2002, my life had changed, and the show was the number one show on TV, there were 33 million viewers. That was the tipping point for The Bachelor. That would be an interesting season to go back and revisit.

Lieutenant Andy Baldwin — that was a huge season. I think Jake Pavelka’s a season that you’ve gotta see again.

Will we see any Bachelor Pad or Paradise?

Right now, no. Bachelor Pad and Bachelor in Paradise are not on the docket. But if this gets expanded, which I think it will, maybe we throw in a Bachelor Pad season 1. A lot of people don’t even know that show existed.

Or how about the Pad season 3 finale, when Nick kept the money instead of sharing it?

That was amazing. That was actually one of the greatest moments in the franchise’s history, with the prisoner’s dilemma — he just shook the world and took the money and ran.

What’s it been like putting all of this together under such challenging circumstances?

I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s been wild. It’s been life-changing. Everybody’s out of work. I know when people think of the show, they think of Hannah or Colton. But there are hundreds of people who I work with and have worked with for almost twenty years now. That’s a long time in your professional life. So I know that my makeup artist, Gina [Modica], and Cary [Fetman], who does wardrobe, they’re out of work. Our producers, and photographers, and audio and the art department — these people are just sitting at home out of work. So the best part about The Bachelor: Most Unforgettable is we’re going to put as many of them to work as we possibly can. It’s not everybody, but we’re going to do the best we can.

"I think this is really going to make Trista and Ryan more relevant -- I know Colton [Underwood] and Hannah [Brown] think that they are hot stuff right now
https://www.etonline.com/chris-harrison-breaks-down-new-bachelor-highlight-show-how-hell-still-film-amid-coronavirus-145939

GuardianAngel wrote:

"I think this is really going to make Trista and Ryan more relevant -- I know Colton [Underwood] and Hannah [Brown] think that they are hot stuff right now
https://www.etonline.com/chris-harrison-breaks-down-new-bachelor-highlight-show-how-hell-still-film-amid-coronavirus-145939

He should add IMO How rude!

10 epi's!! I'm going to enjoy looking back at fashion makeup and speech! No "likes"

Astrobach wrote:

GuardianAngel wrote:

"I think this is really going to make Trista and Ryan more relevant -- I know Colton [Underwood] and Hannah [Brown] think that they are hot stuff right now
https://www.etonline.com/chris-harrison-breaks-down-new-bachelor-highlight-show-how-hell-still-film-amid-coronavirus-145939

He should add IMO How rude!

10 epi's!! I'm going to enjoy looking back at fashion makeup and speech! No "likes"

Well, maybe that’s because THEY were able to negotiate different terms to their contracts and made it at the top of SM and are playing by their own rules and are NOT bending to the ‘ omnipotent’ TPTB. If Colton and Hannah used their notoriety as leverage to get other opportunities or renegotiate contracts, good for them, and I get that would irritate the ‘Underlord’ of BN.  
JMO