But the wall-to-wall, unadulterated joy seen on TLC daytime has been pretty well matched by the ratings. TLC's daytime lineup is No. 1 in cable for women aged 18 to 34, and very close to the broadcast networks on some days, according to Bennett. (It's "way ahead of Lifetime," she points out, "even though they're supposed to be the channel for women.") More than 9 million viewers tune in to watch the daytime lineup in an average week, and the block is a huge hit with teenage girls, college students and gay men (although "Trading Spaces" accounts for much of that viewership). Fan sites for the shows have also boomed, boasting a collective 12 million page views per month.

"I guess what happened was partly accidental," says Bennett. "But it also came out of a deep understanding of viewers. The audience, particularly in daytime, wants to get to know real people's stories. And then we thought, what are those real stories of people's lives? Take some pivotal, life-defining moments that are really essential and nearly universal. You're taking a plunge into being a new parent, and we capture that feeling everybody has, that feeling of great joy and great terror. It's a life and death thing, having a baby -- thankfully it's not as dangerous as it was before -- but it's still a struggle to be born. We show very joyful moments, but they are also very emotional and very intense."

Arguably, the life-defining moments featured in "A Makeover Story" are somewhat less intense than childbirth, although Bennett insists this show is not about vanity, but about life and transformation: "The people who get the makeovers are people who need to move on in their lives." Subjects for the show are nominated, she explains, by friends or family members. "Like a mother and daughter will nominate [each other] because something has happened, a divorce or a breakup or a big new job."

On "A Makeover Story," a twosome submits to the dictates of a fashion stylist (who often acts and sounds suspiciously like a small-town boutique sales clerk), a hair stylist, a colorist and a makeup artist before attending some personally meaningful social event. Sometimes, the pair consists of a mother and a daughter, a husband and a wife or a father and daughter. Most often, the pair are best friends, formerly fabulous gals turned frumpy stay-at-home moms.

Each show features a segment in which family members harp on some aspect of the participant's appearance ("I want to see her with bright red hair!" says one dark-haired mother of her dark-haired daughter. "She's too Goth or something"), and another in which the two participants go through each other's closets and mock their clothes. ("Overalls, overalls, overalls!") For life unscripted, it's pretty formulaic. Not that this detracts from the fun of watching 31-year-old mom after 31-year-old mom act as though she has never worn a dress and high heels before, or a hair stylist explaining that makeovers are "about grabbing the spirit that gets lost inside and bringing it out."

On "A Dating Story," couples are volunteered for the show by a matchmaker friend or mutual acquaintance. Perhaps because "A Dating Story" does not set the couples up itself, the show lacks the mean-spirited and depressing tone of, say, "Blind Date."

As Bennett remarks when I mention this, the couples on the show aren't desperate. "They don't have to go on this date, they choose to," she says. "On 'Blind Date' you're in a cattle-market situation. You're being shoved onstage. This is a documentary; it's more intimate. And it's more of a matchmaking situation. You haven't volunteered yourself to go on the blind date, somebody else has, and they're a trusted friend -- at that moment."

The newest addition to the "Personal TLC" lineup is "A Personal Story." Though Bennett says these shows are about reconstructive surgery, transformation and physical rituals (one episode, I'm told, features a small child having a disfiguring facial tumor removed), the two episodes I caught were about cosmetic dentistry and liposuction. In fact, the opening credit sequence I saw consisted of a bikini-clad woman posing lithely as a string of superimposed words floated by her -- "liposuction," "self-esteem," "eyelift," "admiration," "reconstructive," "confidence," "pride," "breast augmentation," "dignity" and "rhinoplasty." Not that I'm complaining. Who can resist an extended close-up of 10 pounds of yellow fat coursing through an extra-slender canula during a "power-liposuction" procedure? I, for one, can't get enough. Liberty, dignity, rhinoplasty!

Still, after several seasons of reality programming, now mercifully on the wane, the relative modesty and down-to-earth demeanor of most of the participants in TLC's daytime shows is refreshing. Damn it, these people are cute! But who are they? Why do they choose to participate? And why do they all seem so happy? (There's no money involved.)

Some of them volunteer through the network of Web sites, while others are recruited by network scouts. "There are certain types of people who celebrate life," Bennett somewhat cryptically explains. "You get a certain self-selection of people who -- although they know we don't manipulate [the stories] -- have to be willing to have a camera in their face. That takes a certain personality."

"A Wedding Story," in particular, makes me think of the one good line in that otherwise horrid Jack Nicholson-Helen Hunt vehicle "As Good as It Gets." Hunt makes a comment about how everybody's life is difficult, and Nicholson replies that it's not true. Some people's lives are filled with good times, family, friends and noodle salad. Maybe that's what TLC daytime is offering: a whole lot of noodle salad.

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