Life Swapper

"We wanted to blow your mind right away with the transformation," Cutler says. "Because that's when the audience is making its own associations, about what they're bringing to the series and their own feelings about race."

This is a show that Cutler says he feels great passion for -- and also seems a little defensive about, which is one of the reasons Ice Cube was brought in as co-producer.

According to Ice Cube, "my thing was making sure it wasn't too stereotypical," meaning he didn't want the "whites" thrown into a ghetto or the "blacks" trying to get into an all-white country club.

About 15 minutes into the screening of "Black. White," the audience stops laughing when Bruno starts using a racist slur. The camera cuts to Brian and Renee Sparks, who are wincing. Bruno tells the camera that he can't wait for somebody to throw that word at him -- while he is in blackface -- so he can just shrug it off.

In real life, Bruno is a substitute teacher (and a sometime actor, with small parts on "Baywatch" and "JAG," and the role of "sad mime" in the film "Spy Hard"). On TV, he is the one who makes the audience squirm (though Carmen does her share when she asks if she should talk in "jive" while black; in another scene she calls Renee a "bitch" but thinks that is friendly black slang). Bruno and Brian are always going at it, as Brian tells him that racism, in small ways and large, is alive and well, while Bruno says get over it, this is multicultural America, time to move on.

This is not Cutler's take on race, which he calls "the defining issue in American society, history, culture. It's where we've been, where we're at now, where we're going. There is no more important issue. You can't run away from race in this country. It's in our DNA. We must be talking about it; we must be thinking about it; we must be honest about it, aware of where we are in our great struggle to overcome racial divisions."

Presenting issues and conflict in the format of reality television is something Cutler says he thinks about constantly. Strange as it might seem, Cutler says, reality TV is a great vehicle for exploring big questions.

Who is this guy? He's pitching you, of course, but he also appears convinced that his show isn't just mere entertainment, but something important. The man just exudes intent.

Cutler came out of Harvard, directed stage plays in Cambridge and New York and did a stint producing for NPR. Then in 1992 he heard a news segment on the radio about the improbable campaign of an Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton.

"I thought somebody ought to do a documentary about that," Cutler says, and before he knew it, he and his producing partner were sitting down over a bottle of wine with master documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, who told them, "Look, if you can get us the money and the access, I'm in," Cutler recalls. "And I'm thinking -- is that all? Not knowing, as I do now, that money and access are everything." Then he corrects himself. "That and storytelling, of course."

The result was "The War Room," the behind-the-scenes travails of characters who would become household names: James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala. The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1994.

Cutler followed up with "A Perfect Candidate," about Oliver North's run for the Senate. Then came his work in reality TV, which catapulted Cutler into the highly caffeinated, multitasking role of mega-producer, president and founder of Actual Reality TV.