Duggar Family-Inspired ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Promo Takes Look Inside Twisted Mind Of Michelle Duggar Stand-In [Video]
The Duggar family’s woes provided inspiration for the November 4 episode of Law & Order: SVU, and now fans can see the Duggars’ stand-ins in action in the NBC show’s latest promo.
The Television Promos YouTube page recently shared a short promo video that shows the SVU team getting their first glimpse of the family of reality show stars based on the Duggars. They look harmless enough, but according to the episode description for “Patrimonial Burden,” the fictional family’s headline-making scandal is even darker than the secret that the Duggar family kept from their adoring fans for over a decade.
“The SVU investigates an unraveling web of secrets when the virtuous 13-year-old daughter of a famous reality TV family discovers she’s pregnant,” the description reads.
E! News previously reported that the Law & Order: SVU episode based on the Duggar family would feature a family with 10 children, which is far less than the Duggars’ 19 kids. However, the promo video below shows the fictional family getting off a bus emblazoned with the reality show title Baker’s Dozen. The “B” in the word “Baker’s” is stylized to look like a 13, so the family presumably has 13 kids. The promo shows the young pregnant daughter reading a Bible, and Michelle Duggar stand-in Pam Baker (Geneva Carr) doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with the young girl’s situation.
“We don’t see it as a crime. We see it as a blessing,” she says.
The promo and the episode description don’t say anything about who the father of the 13-year-old Baker girl’s baby is, but he could turn out to be one of her own brothers. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the Law & Order: SVU episode is based on the Josh Duggar sexual molestation scandal. This summer, Josh revealed that he had sexually molested four of his younger sisters as a teenager. He was forced to confess to the crimes he was never charged for after In Touch Weekly obtained police reports that described his actions. The reports also documented his parents’ attempts to save their son from facing any legal repercussions for what he did. However, Josh never had sex with any of his sisters or knocked them up — the Law & Order: SVU writers obviously decided to sensationalize the Duggars’ story for TV.
According to E! News, there’s a possibility that SVU will also tackle another Duggar family scandal in the future: Josh Duggar’s connection to the Ashley Madison account info leak. Interest in the Duggar family’s woes was finally starting to wane when Josh’s name was found on a massive list of the cheating site’s clients, but now the Duggars seem to make headlines almost daily. Because of the interest in the family, SVU Actor Raúl Esparza told E! that he doesn’t “think there’s any way the writers room will stay away” from Josh Duggar’s Ashley Madison hacking revelations. However, another star of the show, Peter Scanavino, isn’t excited about the prospect of doing multiple episodes inspired by the Duggar family.
“With the Duggar one, it was like the double-whammy because it was his sisters and the fact — I mean, honestly, I feel like we’re dealing with some topics this season that feel a bit meatier than some lunatic fringe family,” Scanavino said.
“I wouldn’t mind doing one just because I have never been so infuriated with someone’s level of hypocrisy, and lying, and then displacement of responsibility onto something else.”
The Duggar family’s TLC reality series, 19 Kids and Counting, was canceled shortly after Josh Duggar’s dark past was discovered. However, fans of the family will be happy to know that the Duggars aren’t just appearing on TV in fictionalized form. As the Inquisitr previously reported, two of Josh’s victims, Jill and Jessa Duggar, are set to star in a series of three TLC specials titled Jill & Jessa: Counting On. They’ll center on Jessa’s pregnancy and Jill’s mission trip in Central America, and it’s safe to say that Josh won’t be popping up in the specials. The first special will air this December.
On 19 Kids and Counting, the Duggar family liked to brag about how they hardly ever watch TV, so they probably won’t be tuning in for the Law & Order: SVU episode. However, because members of the family do have access to the internet and social media pages, they’re likely aware of the episode’s existence — and they probably can’t help but notice that its November 4 airdate just happens to be Jessa Duggar’s birthday.
[Image via TLC]
