By KERRY McAVOY
The Leader-Herald
AMSTERDAM - To an observer, it might have looked like a typical family party with family, friends and laughs. But for the McCaslin family, it was a chance to celebrate their network television debut.
Wife Sandi, husband Zane, and daughters Sarah and Kerrigan McCaslin of Tribes Hill participated in the ABC reality television show "Wife Swap."
On Friday night, more than 50 family members, friends and fellow powerlifters gathered at the America's Best Value Inn on Market Street to watch the show together.
Powerlifter Sandi McCaslin headed to Virginia to trade lives for two weeks with Donna Deeken, a professional children's tea party hostess.
On the show, two families trade wives for two weeks. The first week, each wife had to live by the host family's rules. In the second week, things change and the wives get a chance to introduce new rules.
Sandi McCaslin said she was happy with how the show came out. The McCaslins got a chance to view the episode before her appearance on The Rachael Ray Show today.
"I thought they nailed it," McCaslin said of the TV program. "We live for our friends and family, and I thought they presented that very well."
Kerrigan McCaslin watched the show with her friend Shawna Trigg. The two girls laughed cheered and talked about what was being shown on screen.
"It was a fun experience," Kerrigan said. "It was weird having to have a tea-party mom."
"I think she took a big risk by doing it," Trigg said of her friend's mother.
Kerrigan said she learned how to be more "girly" from Deeken, although she did not enjoying wearing a frilly, rose-print dress to school under Deeken's rules.
"Wearing the dress was the worst part," she said.
William Bonner of Fultonville was certain of the part of the program he liked best, seeing McCaslin in a puffy, white dress to host a tea party.
Bonner also got a chance to be on the small screen, since he was working out at the family's gym, Iron Asylum, when Deeken first entered the gym.
"It was pretty cool [to be on tv]," he said.
Friend Lisa Johnson said the show was a joy to watch. She finally got to see what Sandi did in her two weeks away from the family.
Johnson met the family at their gym, where her son Johnny trains. She said Sandi took her son under her wing.
"[The TV show] was a real account. They're really fun people," Johnson said.
Johnson said she did not realize how much went into making the show until she saw it being filmed.
"It's a very long process, but I think the girls enjoyed it," Johnson said.
The family also is popular with producers at the ABC network and a part of an online contest of sorts.
"One of the great things about the McCaslins is they were such a positive, supportive family," said Wife Swap Executive Producer Mike Gamson. "On top of that, the two daughters are powerlifters as well. It's extraordinary that the whole family does it."
Gamson said an ABC "Favorite Family" contest to determine what families will participate in the show's 100th episode may be on the horizon for the McCaslins. Viewers can go to www.abc.com and vote for their favorite family. The voting will help determine which two families who will participate in the 100th episode, Gamson said. Right now, the McCaslins have a definite shot at winning, Gamson said.
"The McCaslins are one of the most admirable families that we've ever had on the show," he said. "They're in the running."
The McCaslin family has changed somewhat since the show. Sandi said her girls now help her clean up around the house more, and her husband does more little things to let her know he cares.
She said the family will have many good memories of the experience. The success won't go to their heads, though, said Sandi. She said things won't be much different for the family.
"But we'll have to wait and see what happens when I'm at Wal-Mart tomorrow," she said, laughing.
Reporter Kayleigh Karutis contributed to this story.
