Reality show `Grandpas over Flowers in Greece` airs Friday

“I was given a role of luggage carrier. Lee Seo-jin did the most difficult part and I was just a mood maker. Lee’s score as luggage carrier is 90,” said actress Choi Ji-woo.

Cable channel tvN’s variety show “Grandpas over Flowers in Greece” is airing this Friday at 7:45 p.m. The show depicts four grandpas, Lee Soon-jae, Park Geun-hyeong, Shin Gu, Baek Il-seop, all with extensive acting experience in film and TV, travel with Lee Seo-jin, the youngest man on the show. Choi joins as the only woman for this season of the program. The juniors help with guiding, translating, carrying luggage and much more.

At a production press conference on Tuesday at the 63 Building in northern Seoul, Choi said, “I was anxious that four senior actors and Lee, who have been together in a backpack trip for three times, would feel uncomfortable because I was a newcomer. But we soon became intimate and it was really fun.”

“Five men travelling together isn’t fun. We were crossing a desert in Dubai and if Choi hadn’t been there with us, I would have sat there silent looking at sun going down. But Choi brightened up the mood,” Lee Seo-jin said.

Both young people are single but they didn’t create an affectionate mood, which was the exciting part. A photo was released in which the two sat on a hill like lovers at Santorini, but they were talking about how much travel expense was left. Lee Seo-jin said, “We had a tight budget but Choi insisted on expensive lodging and showed overspending and spendthrift habits,” to which Choi talked back smiling, “Lee kept by portion of money and didn’t give it to me. How could he scold me for overspending?”

Grandpas were just as energetic during the trip as they usually were. Lee Soon-jae, who earned a nickname of a “stubborn grandpa” joked when he passed by an aquarium full of rare fish, saying, “Wow, sashimi.” Baek Il-seop who hates walking had to walk a block of a street to eat at a restaurant.

“The latest season is also about four veteran actors travelling around, having meals, seeing nice scenery, sleeping and squabbling with luggage carriers,” the show’s producer Na Young-seok said. “I wanted to make a comfortable program that people can enjoy.”