dude........I was there.
I was there when networks just kept churning out one lame sitcom after another, with the canned laugh tracks, and there was laughter after lines like......."Honey, I'm home" and "Your mother called today"-
Okay, what sane person would actually laugh at simple lines like that. ? I got tired of seeing the same old tired scripts, the same old perfect families, where everything works out A-Okay after 30 minutes of wild hilarious slapstick misunderstanding.
BORRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNG...
Then SURVIVOR came along...........whoa! what was THIS???????? Real people? acting UNSCRIPTED??? and NOT all pretty Hollywood people?
hey, call it whatever you will.........but dang, at least it was different, and it was REFRESHING.
and it was interesting! It was a fun, and interesting game,.....(at first).........and then because of it's wild success.........naturally.........other reality shows followed.
Some were good..........some were okay, and yeah sure, some were pretty lame...........just like regular tv shows. Ya had hits and misses. But they were DIFFERENT, and entertaining to watch.
and success only breeds more copy cats.......and before we knew it........yeah, now they've gone completely overboard, and are trying to turn every schmoe into a reality tv star.....
Honey Boo Boo, 16 & Pregnant, The Kartrashians......ugh.......
but ya know.............if given the choice of another year of shows like "Who's the Boss?" or "Erkel"......
I'll put up with some more reality tv.
Some of them are at least interesting........like the pawnshop shows.
Well, I really don't know, but if I was in charge, the adlibbing would be "contrived". Heavy editing to change the impact of scenes. Retakes when necessary. Fights among cast members would be "exaggerated".
In the final analysis it is all about ratings. A reality show is as close to reality as "professional wrestling" is to an athletic contest where the winner is always "in doubt".
It used to be worse. I used to be a reality tv show FANATIC over 10 years ago. I've seen the good, bad, and ugly. I remember when the major networks like CBS used to be overrun with reality shows, most of them were crap. Then things went back to normal and they started airing more scripted drama. but not becasue they came to their senses, but probably becasue of low ratings for most of those reality shows they aired. A good indication that a show had low ratings is when there isn;t another season - they get cancelled for low ratings, and I speculate that their reality shows started getting low ratings so they started moving away from them. A cable network can deal with much lower ratings than the major networks, so that's probably why you see more crappy reality shows on cable than on network tv. That coupled with the fact that reality tv is cheaper to produce compared to scripted tv.
But, the strong, good, quality reality tv shows will survive on the major networks - where they need millions of viewers if they want to stay on the air (survivor is my fav reality and have been watching since season 1). I've heard several contestants, including Elizabeth Hasselbeck who went on to co-host The View say that Survivor was all real and that it wasnt scripted and that she wasnt' told to do anything by the producers. But, competitino reality shows are different than the ones you mentioned that follow a family like the Kardashians or that follow celebrities. I've heard that those can be somewhat scripted, like they might have "do-overs" of a big fight or they might stage an argument for the cameras. Not to mention taht reality tv is heavily edited. I thought this was funny. Years ago, I read an article where someone who edits for an old (now cancelled) mtv reality dating show was interviewed about reality tv. He said creative editing can make anything seem like it happened when it didnt. He gave an example of how a girl, her platonic male friend, and the guy she had a crush on came on the dating reality show. He said there was absolutely no romantic interest between the girl and her male bff, but that they (MTV producers) edited the show to make it seem like it there was a 3-way romance between the girl, her male bff, and her crush. I got a good laugh out of that. And, that's what viewers saw, not the real relationship between them.
I remember when there where no reality shows
and the only reality you knew was well your own reality.
You would step outside and smell the air.
Ever since Viacom acquired some if not most of the Television Networks,it has changed what was and brought about the Reality Series.
One of my past friends said to me that the Jersey Shore did not truly represent New Jersey in its truest sense.
When they did the series Buck Wild,it seemed to be false too
since I have been to West Virginia and it seemed false.
Reality Shows seem to ruin not just families,yet a clear interpretation of where things are.
I have read that Duck Dynasty is staged and their real life is different than their show life which would not surprise me since Hollywood acting is not actual living.
