A & E

Maybe Philadelphia should consider changing its slogan from "The City That Loves You Back" to "Keeping It Real." That's because it continues to be a reality TV player.

From providing contestants such as Heidi Bressler, who competed on Season 1 of "The Apprentice," to being the site of a "Real World" season, the city has long had a seat at the reality TV table. And if anything, its presence is increasing.

Earlier this month, the new "American Idol" season debuted with the auditions that took place last summer at the Wachovia Center, a stadium right off I-95. And cable's A&E channel is currently in the midst of offering "Parking Wars," a weekly look at what is, inarguably, the town's most-hated municipal bureau, the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

Each half-hour episode focuses on various authority employees -- parking enforcement officers (the despised ticket-writers), tow-truck operators, those who apply the "boots" that immobilize scofflaws' cars and employees at the city's impound lot which.

"Parking Wars" also features some members of the driving public unfortunate enough to have to deal with the parking authority and its minions.

Daniel Elias, the executive producer of "Parking Wars," is an unabashed Philly-ophile who can't get enough of the city and its denizens.

"It's fantastic. I'd love to find another series to follow this," says Elias, 40, the London-born co-founder of New York's Hybrid Films, which specializes in reality programming based on unusual -- and unusually stressful -- jobs. Its portfolio includes the popular and now cancelled "Dog The Bounty Hunter" series.

"For a New York-based producer, (Philadelphia) is a great thing. It's a metro area, with interesting locations, great food, it's close to New York . . ."

Elias is particularly enamored of the Philadelphians he found for "Parking Wars."

As a reality-show producer, he says, "You want to do a place where people have strong opinions and are happy to speak up. And that's Philadelphia. Some (subjects) are very much cut from the cloth of being staunchly Philadelphian.

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