Astrologer Kelly Lee Phipps and his family agreed to participate in ABC’s popular show Wife Swap a few months ago, and the episode that they are in is set to premiere tonight at 8:00 PM ET.  Kelly, his wife Christine, and their son Adrian are billed as “the new-age Brazenwood family from North Carolina,”and they were apparently swapped with some sort of conservative “cowboy family” from Texas.

Apparently the episode was originally scheduled to air in July, but then it was moved up to April 24th shortly after filming was finished, presumably because it contains enough hilarious or cringeworthy moments that the show’s producers thought would boost ratings for the prime time show.

Kelly gave us the heads up about the show a few weeks back and shared some of his experiences over on the Myspace forum, although its still not clear at this point if this is going to be a good thing for the astrological community or if it is just going to end up being more bad press.  Some of the previews seem to indicate the latter, but I guess that we will see.

In the last Wife Swap type show that featured a family of astrologers the astrologers actually came off looking pretty good when compared to the crazy Christian woman that they got swapped with.  Check out this clip from the end of that show when the wife that was living with the astrology family returned home:

What was interesting is that this woman actually became a sort of entertainment personality for a few brief moments after the show aired, doing an appearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and even recording some sort of album (seriously).

It seems like they may have leveled the playing field a bit with this episode due to the relative wackiness of both families though, and the press release that came out a few weeks ago seems to guarantee that there were enough fireworks between the two families to make for an entertaining 30 minute show:

A cowboy family who believe men should ride the plains while women stay home swap lives with a vegan family of astrologers who talk to planets, on ABC’s “Wife Swap”

“Brazenwood/Taylor” – A meat-loving cowboy family with traditional values swap lives with a free-spirited vegan family who consult the stars, on “Wife Swap, ” FRIDAY, APRIL 24 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. Each week two very contradictory families from across the country participate in a two-week-long challenge: The wives exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover daily life in another woman’s shoes. This astonishing experiment repeatedly changes lives and redefines families.

The Taylor family from Texas own a cattle ranch and live for the good old fashioned American rodeo! World Champion Team Roper Dad Calvin (33), and his wife, Heather (34), have four children, Claire (12), Caroline (9), Cameron (6) and Calvin Jr. (4), who are tough rodeo competitors themselves in barrel racing and roping. The Taylors are raising their kids to be hardworking winners. Calvin strives to lead by example and spends most of his time outside with the animals, while Heather prefers to stay at home, “barefoot and pregnant.” Calvin expects hot dinners of meat and potatoes but refuses to do any housework. To ensure Calvin Jr. follows in his footsteps, his father takes him out for meals alone, leaving all the Taylor women behind. Even if it upsets his daughters, the girls aren’t allowed to show any emotion because the Taylors believe crying makes you weak. They believe their traditional values are creating well-grounded, practical children, which is important to the cowboy way of life.

Meanwhile, the new-age Brazenwood family from North Carolina live in a world of their own, literally. Astrologist Dad Kelly (37) wrote a fantasy novel about a fictional world named “Thandoria” starring a boy named Arian Brazenwood, which is the name he later gave to his real-life son here on planet Earth. Adrian’s step mom, Christina (28), is an energy healer who lets her astrological chart dictate her days because she believes it puts her in touch with the meaning of life. She enjoys spending time outside talking to her friends the plants, and isn’t afraid to rub dirt all over her body or even have a taste of it while communing with nature. When she’s not one with nature, she dons funky costumes and teaches a dance class called “soul shaking.” Back at home, Kelly wears a towel wrapped around his waist instead of pants and loves to run around and to pretend sword fight or play in fantasy worlds with Arian (13). When it comes to domestic duties, they all chip in, and they prefer a vegan diet. To help unify the family, they chant “om” before every meal, which is the sound of the universe being created.

In the first week, Heather leaves behind the rodeo for the world of fantasy. Kelly begins by giving her an astrological reading, but pragmatic Heather claims she doesn’t believe in all the “fluff.” Though she tries to talk to plants like Christina, she finds it difficult to have a true conversation. With so much focus on astrology and the world of make believe, Heather worries the family doesn’t know the difference between work and play. Meanwhile, in Texas, Christina Brazenwood notices the plants on the ranch are far less inviting than the friendly foliage back at home. Like the plants, she thinks the family has difficulty expressing emotion and is saddened that Calvin chooses to spend time with his only son and leave his daughters behind. After spending time with the Taylor girls, Christina confronts Calvin about his lack of emotion and chauvinistic attitude, but Calvin maintains he’s happy living life by his cowboy code.

In the second week of the swap, when the wives change the rules and turn the tables, Heather rules that Kelly has to trade in his skirt and star-gazing for spurs and become a real cowboy. For Heather, that means eating like one too… after 17 years of abstaining from meat, Kelly has to chow down on chicken fried steak and cheeseburgers. Although Kelly tries to man up and follow her rules, he eventually melts down and tosses his burger off the balcony, leading Heather to believe he’ll never grow up. Meanwhile in Texas, kooky Christina bans rodeo, ranching and riding in favor of poetry, writing and painting. However, before she can even finish reading her rules, Calvin stages a walkout and takes his kids for a meat dinner. After the explosive rule change, Calvin takes the whole family to live in a trailer. Christina decides to persevere anyway and tries to introduce the family to interpretive dancing, but Calvin continues to shut her out, claiming, “real men don’t dance!” After two weeks in another home, can Heather Taylor bring the eccentric Brazenwoods one step closer to reality? And can Christina Brazenwood help the no-nonsense Taylors get in touch with their emotional sides?

Yeah…  Let’s hope that it is not too bad…

Post your comments about the episode below and let me know what you think.

Article tags: astrologers, astrology in mainstream media, Kelly Lee Phipps, television, Wife Swap

About Chris Brennan

Chris is a practicing astrologer from Denver, Colorado, USA. He is the former President of the Association for Young Astrologers, as well as the former Research Director of the National Council for Geocosmic Research. He offers personal consultations and teaches online classes through his website at www.ChrisBrennanAstrologer.com.