In Part Three of this six-part exclusive Huliq series, Ice Road Truckers’ Dave Redmon wonders how so many people trust what they see on reality television shows, and discusses what was real for him in Alaska: his dislike for fellow trucker Tony Molesky.
Dave says it surprises him that so many people believe what they see on reality television shows, when the people they see week-to-week are simply characters created by the networks.
“That’s all I was,” he says. “I tell people on the Internet, ‘Yeah, and you believe that J.R. was shot on Dallas and Jenny’s gonna have a baby on One Life to Live.’ This is how fake the show is.”
Background: ‘Ice Road Truckers’: Dave Redmon opens up about reality television
Dave is not alleging that everything was faked. His dislike for Tony was real, and he does not try to deny it.
But, the emphasis that the producers put on the relationship between the two truckers was portrayed from a one-sided angle, Dave says, in order to paint him in a negative light, while having Tony appear to be in no way provoking Dave’s frustrated responses.
“They knew Tony was like an OCD, compulsive, safety freak,” Dave says. “They’re going to stick me with him, knowing that this is gonna be bad.”
But, the actual TV time was one-sided, he claims. “They didn’t show me riding with him for 18 hours [with Tony saying], ‘You see that piece of trash on the road?
Some guy from the lower 48 left that.’ ‘You see that driver that went by us too fast? That’s a lower 48 driver.’
[Tony] is obsessed with everything in the state of Alaska, all of the problems are because people from the lower 48 come up there.”
Ironically, Dave says he tried to help Tony at one point, thinking Tony would be made into the bad guy with what he was saying, and suggesting to him that he tone it down a few notches on his “lower 48” attitude.
“I know how post-production works,” he says, “and I’m like, ‘This guy’s screwed. He’s gonna be the most hated man on the planet.
Production loves this—the bickering, talking bad about other people.
[I’m thinking that] they’re gonna use this footage, and every time Tony’s mouth opens, it’s gonna be, ‘I hate the lower 48.’”
But, as IRT fans know, it didn’t happen that way. Why? Dave claims that Carlisle had a contract that none of their regular drivers, like Tony, could be portrayed negatively.
“I saw the contract,” Dave states. “Harry, the owner of Carlisle, had it in the contract that he was to approve all of the tape before it was to air.
So, he really had a grip on what was to show on TV, and that’s why they didn’t show anything that the drivers did to us on a day-to-day basis.”
According to Dave, producers had 18 hours of audio and video of the drivers per day at their disposal, but, “Every Sunday, you saw me on TV for two minutes, doing negative stuff. And, it was all chopped up stuff that they just made.”
The show strongly focused on Dave’s disgust at being referred to as a “rookie” throughout his time in Alaska.
Yes, it was his first time on the Dalton, he concedes, but, as a driver with more than two decades of experience, he quickly grew tired of being treated like a driver new to trucking, period.
He had no objections, he said, to being evaluated and given a run-down of the route by Carlisle trainers. Dave, a former driving instructor himself, defended his position.
“I did not like being told how to go from point A to point B. I wasn’t there to be taught how to drive.
I was there to be evaluated. … Basically, to be shown the route. … Tony would not let me turn a turn signal on without Congressional approval.
I mean, I couldn’t turn into the parking lot without him telling me six steps.”
In Part Four of this exclusive six-part series, Dave discusses making Lisa cry in Bolivia, and reveals how the producers tried—and failed—to use the two ladies of Ice Road Truckers, Lisa and Maya, against each other. Part Four will be published on Huliq tomorrow, Jan. 27.
