Actor Clint Eastwood’s ex-wife Dina agreed to air a reality TV series about the day-to-day lives of the Eastwood household. But given Eastwood’s private nature, it was reported that the reality show might’ve stirred conflict between the actor and his wife.
Clint Eastwood allegedly wasn’t a fan of a reality TV show based around his family
Eastwood’s family once tried to carve out their own niche in reality TV with Mrs. Eastwood and Company. The show would center around Dina Eastwood and her children and air on E! network. It was also going to feature appearances from the band Overtone, which Dina was a fan of and heavily invested in.
Although Dina’s show would share a lot in common E!’s Keeping up with the Kardashians, Dina asserted they were far from the same show. She also warned audiences that the Unforgiven star wouldn’t feature much on the show to temper expectations.
“But if the viewers tune in thinking that we’re similar, the viewer is going to be disappointed just like I say if viewers tune in to get an in-depth look at Clint Eastwood they’re going to be disappointed,” Dina once told The Futon Critic. “The way we live is quite different. The similarities with it being an extended family with a strong mama at the helm is similar but I think the day-to-day is quite different. We are low-key and there’s a whole episode where I don’t want the kids carrying around [designer] labels. There’s not a lot of flash and glamour in our family. The fact that the Kardashians are glamorous is their trademark and it’s awesome.”
The show only lasted for one 10-episode season, however. Sometime afterwards, Eastwood and Dina would separate, finalizing their divorce in 2014. The couple gave no specifics as to why they broke up. But a source once claimed to People that the reality show didn’t help matters.
“Clint was furious about the show,” the source said. “It went against everything he stands for: he’s incredibly private, and she put his kids on TV. It was not a happy time for them.”
In an interview with Daily Beast, Dina asserted that Eastwood needed a bit of convincing to agree to the project.
“Yeah, I had to twist his arm, you bet,” she said. “I would never want to put Clint’s career in jeopardy. That’s my worst nightmare. But Clint is untouchable. I’ve read so many mean things about me, and I think it’s entertaining because the Internet brings out the worst in people a lot of times.”
‘Mrs. Eastwood and Company’ was initially supposed to focus on a boy band
Dina shared what helped spark the idea of the show in the first place. Originally, the show was going to focus more on the band Overtone. Dina was a huge fan of the group, so much so she became their manager.
“You know, I guess I thought so in a moment of insanity,” she said. “When I pitched the show, it was sold to Bunim/Murray, the production company, and was just the band and me as their manager, we were the only characters. The original show concept was about these six guys coming to this country and how insane it all was. We got in a car accident, I ended up in the ER getting stitches and the next day it was something else and my friend and I were taping them the whole time so I thought it was a really fun show and I started pitching it as such.”
However, plans for the show changed when she introduced the rest of Eastwood’s children to the show’s network.
“So I had these guys, me and my brother [Dominic] and we were doing these preliminary interviews to get to know the characters and there were no girls and I’m obviously double the age of a girl that E! would want – they didn’t say that but I know that in the TV world – and I said you should meet my kids, I have really funny kids and they said ‘Bring them in,’” Dina recalled. I brought in a load of Eastwood children and they all interviewed, they all went on camera and Jeff Jenkins was like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re kidding me!’ Some of the kids wanted to do it, some didn’t and this is what the project boils down to.”
Was ‘Mrs. Eastwood and Company’ canceled?
Mrs. Eastwood and Company wasn’t as big as Keeping up with the Kardashians. Still, the first season seemed to do well enough for E! to request a second season. But according to Eastwood and Dinah’s daughter Morgan, the family simply opted not to return.
“We tried it for one season but we realized it just wasn’t going to work. They wanted/want us to do another season but we said no for right now! its just kind of too much for us,” Morgan Eastwood once wrote on tumblr.