Manheim Township grad Andy Baldwin is "The Bachelor" on ABC.
Turn-ons: open minds, athletic bodies, challenging spirits, brunettes, Southern girls.
Turn-offs: smokers, selfishness, career-before-family thinking.
Manheim Township High School graduate Andy Baldwin had some definite ideas about women when he recently filmed "The Bachelor," an ABC reality romance series.
Bottom line, he was looking for love.
Admittedly, it was in an unusual setting that will be played out in front of millions of viewers, who will get to tag along on dates and meet-the-parents nights.
But — sadly for anyone out there pining for a little face time with a hunkalicious doctor who is also a Naval lieutenant and a triathlete — Baldwin found it.
"I came out with an amazing woman and I'm totally in love," Baldwin said Tuesday during a conference call with reporters from all over the country.
But to keep the ending a surprise, he didn't say who she is. You'll have to tune in to find out. The series begins Monday, April 2.
The 30-year-old said this week that his upbringing in Lancaster County helped mold him, and what he wants in a woman.
"What really shaped me was my parents and my family and...the values they have," he said. "I really hope to emulate the type of family I had growing up in the very near future."
Baldwin and an ABC crew recently traveled to his family's Manheim Township home to film a visit by him and two of the women from the show.
Baldwin's father, Roy, said it was a fun experience but he did not want to give away too much.
Roy Baldwin is a former state legislator who works as a project manager at an engineering company in Camp Hill. His wife, Cindy, is a high school math teacher. The couple also has two other children, Matt, who is married and lives in Florida, and Susanna, who is a student at Cornell University.
As a child, Andy Baldwin lived in New Holland before moving with his family to Manheim Township when he was 11. His neighbors, he said, were Amish and his family was of "modest means."
"I never lost that perspective of where I came from," he said. "Lancaster is very conservative and old-fashioned. It was a wonderful place to be raised. I retain those family values to this day."
The 1995 Township graduate was an All-American swimmer and class valedictorian. He went to Duke University and earned his medical degree at the University of California's San Francisco School of Medicine. He is an underseas medical officer stationed in Hawaii.
Baldwin is no stranger to the camera. In 2005, he was in Cosmopolitan magazine's "Bachelor Blowout" issue. Still, he was a little wary of the phone call he got from a show representative.
"One of my guys, he handed over my digits to the casting people unbeknownst to me and my phone rang one day and I couldn't believe it, are you serious?" he said.
After talking further to the show, and getting the go-ahead from his commanding officer, he decided to take the leap and put his "whole heart and soul" into it.
"Where do people find the love of their life? How are the odds of finding it in a nightclub or a bar or a library?" he asked. "The way this is set up it's very possible that you can find something that's meaningful and loving."
A press release for the show notes that one of the 25 women on the show challenged him to a push-up contest. Another did back flips for him in an evening gown.
"It's not demeaning or embarrassing at all," he said of the show's setup. "That first night is such a whirlwind in itself and these women, they really want to be able to demonstrate any of the talents they do have."
The big question of the day Tuesday was why doesn't someone like Baldwin, with his looks, smarts and background, already have a girlfriend?
"That's a good question," he said. "I've had a number of long-term relationships."
Web sites link him to a Hawaiian triathlete and a model in the past.
"Always, something was missing," he said. "I'm not willing to settle for anything less than what's right for me."
Now, he said, he's ready to settle down and have a family, with three, four or even five children.
To keep the end of the show a surprise, he can't be seen in public with the woman he chose.
"I'm looking forward to the end of the show so I can reunite with the woman I'm in love with," he said.