To see the show
The Heartland Network is available in the Chattanooga area over-the-air on WOOT Channel 6.1, WDGA Channel 43, EPB Channels 165 and 465, Spring City Cable Channel 275 and OptiLink Channel 16. The show airs at 8 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, at 9 p.m. EDT Saturday and 6 p.m. EDT Sunday. The first three episodes of "Misty & Kristy" will air starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday and at 9 p.m. Saturday.
To know them is to love them. Roy Garibaldi is banking on it.
Garibaldi, executive producer and creator of the new TV series "Misty & Kristy," is bringing identical twin sisters Misty and Kristy Miller to primetime TV for the next five years on the The Heartland Network, which is owned by Chattanooga-based Luken Communications. The show, Luken's first foray into producing its own programming, follows the escapades of the sisters, both 36, as they manage their family's multimillion-dollar logging business in Honaker, Va.
The show follows the sisters in their day-to-day lives, focusing on Misty and Kristy's efforts to work together harmoniously, which sometimes presents a challenge, Garibaldi says. The show debuted on April 7.
The petite, dyed-blonde sisters are witty, outspoken and educated -- Kristy has a degree in elementary education, Misty is a registered nurse -- and they run a business that provides wood for baseball and softball bats, skateboards, whiskey barrels and more.
Wearing nearly identical outfits -- jeans, denim vests, print shirts, long silver necklaces and cowboy boots -- and sporting the same hairstyle (including a dark streak running down their front hairlines), the sisters often speak simultaneously and say the same words. It's something they've always done, Misty says.
The sisters never had any interest in being on TV until about a year ago when Garibaldi contacted them about starring in the series.
"The way it happened was crazy," says Kristy. "We weren't looking for a show. Roy saw a picture of Misty on Facebook, and he contacted us. The photo was of Misty looking through a gun scope. He didn't know at the time she had a twin."
Neither sister was a fan of reality television shows, Kristy says.
"There's reality shows like 'Buckwild' (based in rural West Virginia and airing on MTV) and everybody in the South is not like that," she says. "People say we (Southerners) are stupid and uneducated because we have a twang. I help run a multi-million-dollar business, and I sure as heck ain't no dummy. But I do have a twang."
"Misty & Kristy" is billed as Trueality TV, and Garibaldi explains that it differs from reality-based television because the girls' show has no script, while reality shows often do.
"I don't tell them what to do," Garibaldi says. "When their drama happens, it's real. I would love to take credit for what they do, but I couldn't possibly script it."
Garibaldi, who moved from California and is renting a home near the sisters, says he came up with the idea of the series before meeting the twins.
"Where I come from, people don't care about people the way they do in the South," he says. "I want the country to see that these are real people. Once you're around them, it's like you've known them forever."
The show's storyline this season focuses on the sisters at work. It was only recently that Misty left her job as a nurse to work with Kristy at the logging company. The sisters, who typically get along well, sometimes find that working together causes tension, something the viewing audience witnesses.
But it's not all work and no play. The camera also follows the sisters outdoors, where they relax by doing the things they really love -- fishing, hunting and gardening. They've also built race cars.
"Our Daddy always wanted a boy, but he just got the two of us," says Kristy, explaining that they would choose fishing and hunting over shopping. "We hate to shop."
But being constantly on camera is a challenge, Kristy says.
"They don't film me sleeping, but when we first started filming, I didn't know what to do with my hands. They'd tell me, 'Don't look at the camera,' and I'd look at the camera," Kristy says.
"She said she felt like Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell's character in "Talladega Nights")," Misty says. "And I spent hours putting on a ton of makeup. I don't do that now."
Meanwhile, the girls are having fun and enjoying the show, Misty says, noting that they no longer notice the camera.
"It's nothing we ever thought about doing, but since it kind of fell in our laps, we're having fun with it," she says.
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6396.