City wants no part of Shep Rose’s new show ‘RelationShep’ (btw, is this ‘Shep-shaming’?)

The Isle of Palms city council apparently doesn’t want to have any sort of “RelationShep” with Hilton Head Island native and “Southern Charm” star Shep Rose.

And yet they keep saying things that make the Bravo spin-off (it’s not a spin-off!) super-linked to their town.

This past week, the council, after having given Shep and Co. a firm no on their request to film his new dating series on the island, again expressed its disgust with the franchise after a production company representative further narrowed the request to just interior shots of cast members’ homes, The Moultrie News reported Wednesday (scroll down for the good stuff).

The newspaper reported that council member Carol Rice told the representative: “I appreciate your predicament, I really do, but I just can’t support anything that’s even remotely like a distant cousin to ‘Southern Charm.’ It just shines us in the absolute worst light. It has been really a black eye, I think, on our area.”

Something tells me that Carol doesn’t understand Bravo fans. We are good people, Carol. We’re also wicked smart. We know that while “Southern Charm” is ridiculous, Charleston is not. It might surprise you to know that we can hold two distinct and opposing thoughts in our heads at once. It might surprise you that we also watch “Top Chef,” which the council deemed classy enough to film there (there are more F-bombs on that show than on “Southern Charm,” I promise you).

By the way, she also doesn’t appear to understand distant cousins ... I am NOTHING like Fred, Carol.

“Saying that it has anything at all to do, in any way shape or form or 1 percent, with ‘Southern Charm’ makes it a negative as far as I’m concerned,” council member Barbara Bergwerf said in an earlier meeting, according to The Moutlrie News. “I mean, that’s been a horrible representation of Charleston, and if it fell off the earth and never showed up again in anyone’s Netflix I would be pleased.”

Good lord. “Southern Charm” isn’t even on Netflix. Also, thank you, Barbara, for wishing away other people’s guilty pleasure. I would repay you the favor, but I have no idea what you’re into.

Shep, for his part, expressed his disappointment in a particularly Shep-ian way. The Moultrie News reported that he issued a statement that, in part, said: “No one argues that Charleston is changing rapidly, but roadblocking commerce out of pettiness or misplaced nostalgia is a dangerous precedent to set. We all love it here, due in no small part to there being a sense of generous spirit.”

I think it’s time for the Isle of Palms city council to buy a case of SkinnyGirl and then head out for a weekend glamping trip, so they can get relax (party in Mayor Dick Cronin’s tent!) and watch every episode of “Southern Charm” until they truly understand that this show is just a bunch of silly friends filming their silly conversations in various Charleston restaurants that fans later Google so they can go there and feel special about it.

I know it’s a long shot, I’ve seen their council photo page, so maybe I’ll just suggest some light reading on “Southern Charm” instead — like my season 4 recaps.

This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 12:30 PM with the headline "City wants no part of Shep Rose’s new show ‘RelationShep’ (btw, is this ‘Shep-shaming’?)."