Show's History The Real World example essay topic

The Real World? 'This is the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a loft and have their lives taped. Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real", so starts every episode of a popular TV show on MTV called The Real World. This show is based on the idea of having no script or actors, and to just see what happens when strangers live together and interact with each other for three months. This show has been on for over a decade now and is still a popular show even though throughout the last ten years the show has changed in many ways. It has changed in the people, places, and activities that make up the Real World.

Through the show's history The Real World has become less of a reality show and more of a circus show. In the early 1990's was the first time that The Real World aired on MTV. This show was different than any other show that had ever appeared on national television. What made this show so different was the lack of a script or actors. This genre of television was named reality television.

When developing the idea of The Real World executives at MTV wanted to make a primetime soap opera but where having difficulties coming up with the funding to hire actors and writers, so their solution was to eliminate these aspects of a show. There idea was then to have seven strangers ages eighteen to twenty five live together and see if the American public could catch on to a TV show based on nothing more then the reactions of the people's lives. And such was the birth of reality television. Every year MTV has a nation wide "casting call" for The Real World. Men and women from all over the United States show up. Trying to impress the casting judges to get a chance to have their lives exploited and exposed to the general public.

When searching for these seven strangers the casting committee always seemed to pick a couple of token characters. There is always an angry black person who has a grudge against whites, and to counter this character there is always a racist white person that can't stand to be in the same room as a black person. There is always at least one gay person and a homophobe that has never seen a gay person before. The rest of the characters that are picked will usually have a phobia of one of the remaining cast members.

The first season's cast members selected were specifically chosen for their differences and the high possibility of conflicts. Even though they were complete opposites of each other they were all still sane. As the seasons went on the cast members all tended to get a little bit wilder and a little crazier. In the latter seasons all the members seemed to have problems about them. The people on the show were either drunks, nudists, or outrageous feminists that most of us will never have the opportunity to meet in our real worlds.

Puck was a shining character picked by the brilliant minds at MTV. Puck was a delivery boy that was a wild child who refused to get along with anyone. He refused to use silverware or wash his hands. Spitting, picking his nose, and not showering were some of the more frequent complaints from his roommates. Now MTV must not have known that Puck was this disgusting or they would not have picked him to live in close quarters with six other people, except when doing his interview one of the casting crew members threw up when Puck flicked a booger and it landed on her face. In the 1980's and early 1990's an AIDS epidemic was surging through the United States.

So it just happens to be that MTV would just happen to have a gay man with AIDS as one of there characters on The Real World. Now I can not say for sure if this character was picked to show the AIDS epidemic exploding or if this was a cruel plot of MTV hopping that he would get sick or die half way through the season. Either way, MTV got what they wanted and the ratings for The Real World sky-rocked with the addition of the characters with AIDS. The flow of the Real World has changed through the seasons not only in the selection of characters picked but also in the pure make up of the show. By the fourth or fifth season the reality of watching seven people just hanging out was setting in and MTV had to get some new material to try and keep there audience interested. MTV brilliant idea was to have all the house mates start up there own business.

Now this would seem like a real world idea but MTV would not send seven stranger into a task like this without holding there hand. First they gave the members of the house fifty thousand dollars to start up whatever business they would like to. Second they gave them a financial advisor to oversee the decisions the cast members were choosing. Third off MTV also gave the cast a mode of transportation that had never been given in any of the other episodes. Now I know in my real world I have been given thousands of dollars, a financial advisor, and a car so I can start my own business. Man my life is good!

With no script to go on it must have just been an odd coincidence that all the members in the house happened to get the same job or all start the same business. For having no actors the MTV crew had to put a lot of effort into finding seven real people, and a lot of people had to do a lot of auditioning for not being actors. MTV must have been holding casting calls next to the freaks r us store to get some of the characters that show up in The Real World. That was the semi true story of seven half strangers picked to live in a loft and have their lives taped and exploited. We found out what happened when people stopped being polite and got real outrageous.