Reality TV: Good idea or waste of airspace?

[J Dog]

Ah, boy has television changed. For one thing, there is this crap called "Reality Television". Here is why I think it sucks:

Apparantly, the network weasels wanted to hoard money instead of using it to improve shows show "Shark Jumping" signs. Then one of them, possibly a guy who already has a weasel tail growing, thought of a great idea (to him); make shows where average people look like idiots.

Then...

Here is what happened:

We got stuck with "People who'd do stupid things for $2500" shows like Fear Factor & the short-lived Dog Eat Dog.

We wound up with people duking each other to "stay on the island or inside the house".

We were forced to see William Hung.

We had met 30,000 different Bachelors & Bachelorettes.

We had to manhandle the shortest-lived Reality show ever: My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss.

We wound up losing great shows (Friends is not one of them).

It polluted the airwaves & we GOT ADDICTED TO IT!!!

Was Reality worth it, or is it a bunch of crap?

[Shellhead]

I've watched a lot more television than I like to think about, during the last 40 years, and I have come to like some of the reality TV shows. The basic concept of many of these shows is sort of interesting, as long as you realize that they are unusually unrealistic situations that are created to maximize drama. Before reality TV came along, there was a glut of similar hour-long cop shows and half-hour mindless family sitcoms.

[J Dog]

I've watched a lot more television than I like to think about, during the last 40 years, and I have come to like some of the reality TV shows. The basic concept of many of these shows is sort of interesting, as long as you realize that they are unusually unrealistic situations that are created to maximize drama. Before reality TV came along, there was a glut of similar hour-long cop shows and half-hour mindless family sitcoms.

"Shudders"

You got that right on "Full House".

But I find Reality kinda lame once every station has 50 Reality shows each.

[eJm]

It's a trend. Just like sitcoms were at one point

It will get old very soon, I garentee it

[Shellhead]

I'm going to skim through the two volumes of Harlan Ellison's collected weekly columns about television from back in the early 70's, titled "The Glass Teat" and "The Other Glass Teat." Then I'll come back to this thread and post the names of a bunch of the popular shows back then, sorted by the few popular genres around at that time. You think reality tv shows suck... you don't remember game shows.

[dougputhoff]

No. Reality TV shows are not worth it.

Most--if not all--of them have about as much to do with reality as The Flintstones. The situations in them are about as contrived as anything you'll see on Charlie's Angels. Very often the situations wind up being exploitive and voyeuristic (as the Mary Roach incident from this season's American Idol). Many of these situations are edited to that the produces can make some people out to be heroes and others to be villian. Even the mere appearance of a camera changes people's behavior. To paraphrase Harvey Pekar: Reality TV is just more Hollywood BS.

[Tommy]

Reality TV is really cheep to make. No Writters, no actors, shorter shooting scheduals, ect... That is why it keeps getting churned out.

The major problem is that it is so fake.

[DDM]

There's good & bad reality shows.

good reality shows:


Trading Spaces
While You Were Out
What Not To Wear
Overhaulin'
The Apprentice
Survivor


bad reality shows:


Real World
Road Rules
Sorority Life
Ann Nicole Show
Inferno
Real World-Road Rules Challenge
Clip shows

[Zero Hunter]

I agree with DDM pretty much across the board here. Only thing I would add is put the Amazing Race in the good column, and any and all dating or looking for love shows in the bad column. There is nothing worse than shows like the bachelor or bacholete or any other show were people go to look for "love". Those shows are the very definition of crap. The Aprrentice is about the fakest ass show out there too by the way and everyone involved showed be beaten with trumps hair piece until bloody.

[GremlinClr]

Reality TV is really cheep to make. No Writters, no actors, shorter shooting scheduals, ect... That is why it keeps getting churned out.


Exactly. Networks love the cheap, and "fad" or not as long as it's cheaper to produce then scripted shows it ain't going no where.

As for the "waste of airspace" reality shows are just another genre. And there are are crap shows in every genre, just as there are good shows. Some people refuse to watch reality shows and some people refuse to watch sitcoms, I don't see it as any different than other genres.

[hugh45]

Here we go again.I don't why some prople just don't accept reality tv
for what is,it's just entertainment like any other tv program.Their have
been some good educational ones like on the Discovery/PBS channels.
I'm confuse in what the fuss is all about.I wish some people will get this
angry over mindless 24hr. news cable stations.To me that's MORE
important than some lousy tv reality show.

[Matt K]

I agree with DDM pretty much across the board here. Only thing I would add is put the Amazing Race in the good column, and any and all dating or looking for love shows in the bad column. There is nothing worse than shows like the bachelor or bacholete or any other show were people go to look for "love". Those shows are the very definition of crap. The Aprrentice is about the fakest ass show out there too by the way and everyone involved showed be beaten with trumps hair piece until bloody.

I totally agree except Blind Date, Elimidate and 5th Wheel (which I can't seem to find anymore) are guilty pleasures of mine. Of course they are nowhere near as pompus as their prime time breathren. Plus there are some great train wrecks on those shows.

[Leslie Lee III]

The only good ones are on MTV, they know how to edit.

[Deathstroke]

It's a waste of airspace.

[Wild Card]

The only ones I watch are the Home Impovements/Do It Yourself type shows. My problem with them when they put them on channels that should never had them like the Sci-Fi Channel.

[Mia]

The only one I love is The Apprentice . I find it absolutely amazing and fascinating. I wish that show had been on at the beggining of my career.

[Inkthinker]

If there's a PRIZE involved, of any sort, it's not "reality tv"... it's A GAME SHOW.

We could start there, by calling these things what they are: game shows. They're not ALL like this... some of them are actually documentaries (American Chopper, etc.) instead.

As it is, though, I avoid pretty much all of them. I like my entertainment to have a plot and some production value... if I wanted to see morons act like retards, I'd go to the mall. So I don't know who watches these shows and encourages it, but it's not me.

[Steve]

Survivor is the only one I usually follow.

Although, on occasion I do catch those late night showings of Elimidate or Blind Date. The Blind Date from hell episodes crack me up.

[Grant]

They keep people like me employed. So yes I like reality tv. I just won't watch it.

[mattbib]

It's definitely NOT a trend. Reality TV has now existed since, what?, 1990? When Real World first appeared on MTV? That's a pretty long trend.

That said Reality TV is just like any other genre. It has its good and bad.

I personally enjoy Amazing Race, Real Worl, Road Rules (and the Challenges, Inferno, and Gauntlet), Project Runway, and several of the home improvement and makeover shows. They're senseless yet fun.

[eJm]

Everybody's forgeting probably, one of the best reality TV shows of our time...

The Contender

[GammaPro]

Everybody's forgeting probably, one of the best reality TV shows of our time...

The Contender

Best reality show? Hell, I think it just might be the best show on TV period.

[fly on the wall]

Ah, boy has television changed. For one thing, there is this crap called "Reality Television". Here is why I think it sucks:

Apparantly, the network weasels wanted to hoard money instead of using it to improve shows show "Shark Jumping" signs. Then one of them, possibly a guy who already has a weasel tail growing, thought of a great idea (to him); make shows where average people look like idiots.

Then...

Here is what happened:

We got stuck with "People who'd do stupid things for $2500" shows like Fear Factor & the short-lived Dog Eat Dog.

We wound up with people duking each other to "stay on the island or inside the house".

We were forced to see William Hung.

We had met 30,000 different Bachelors & Bachelorettes.

We had to manhandle the shortest-lived Reality show ever: My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss.

We wound up losing great shows (Friends is not one of them).

It polluted the airwaves & we GOT ADDICTED TO IT!!!

Was Reality worth it, or is it a bunch of crap?

Since when is Friends not a good show? Ye of the "Family Guy" generation are a burden to me.

[eJm]

Since when is Friends not a good show?

Since everyone started to hate it for some reason.

I wasn't one of them, mind.

[Shellhead]

Reality TV is really cheep to make. No Writters, no actors, shorter shooting scheduals, ect... That is why it keeps getting churned out.

The major problem is that it is so fake.

Fake is not a legitimate critique of a TV show. Do you think that scripted cop shows or sitcoms are any less fake? Those are paid actors memorizing dialogue written by professional writers. That is much more fake than people saying whatever comes to mind when they find themselves in awkward or challenging situations set up reality tv show producers, no matter how contrived the circumstances.

[Shellhead]

You wanna talk about fake? Let's talk about these non-reality tv shows:

I Dream of Jeanie
The Munsters
Hogan's Heroes
Green Acres
Bewitched
Alf
Doogie Houser, M.D.
Bosom Buddies
Gilligan's Island
Who's the Boss?
MacGyver
The Brady Bunch
Knight Rider
The Flying Nun
Mr. Ed
My Favorite Martian
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp
The Bionic Woman
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Charmed

You wanna talk about quality? Let's talk about:

Home Improvements
Everybody Loves Raymond
Full House
The Facts of Life
Baywatch
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
Mannix
Adam-12
Hee Haw
The Partridge Family
Cannon
Barnaby Jones
Chico and the Man
Kojak
Starsky & Hutch
Baretta
Charlie's Angels
The Ropers
The Dukes of Hazzard
One Day at a Time
Joanie Loves Chachi
The A-Team
Growing Pains
BJ and the Bear
Punky Brewster
Jake and the Fatman
Major Dad
Cop Rock
Coach
Caroline in the City
Suddenly Susan
Martin
Dharma and Greg
Veronica's Closet
King of Queens
The Drew Carey Show

If I had to choose between more shows like these, or reality TV, I choose reality TV. That said, I admit that at least half of the reality TV shows are kind of crappy, too.

[J Dog]

How does Full House & Cop Rock qualify as quality. Both are among the 50 Worst Television Shows (Jerry Springer was number one, followed by the XFL).

[Grant]

It's definitely NOT a trend. Reality TV has now existed since, what?, 1990? When Real World first appeared on MTV? That's a pretty long trend.

That said Reality TV is just like any other genre. It has its good and bad.

I personally enjoy Amazing Race, Real Worl, Road Rules (and the Challenges, Inferno, and Gauntlet), Project Runway, and several of the home improvement and makeover shows. They're senseless yet fun.

Technically longer then that. There was American Family on PBS back in the seventies.

So it's not a trend. It's like saying game shows are going to go out of fashion. There's just too many channels right now and reality tv is a cost effective to create original programming.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I agree with Inkthinker, most "reality shows" are game shows. I watched and liked the first Survivor but couldn't get into any of the others except for the champion addition.

The only reality shows that I find I enjoy with any consistency are the ones on PBS like Manor House, Colonial House, etc. The newest one they have on looks good too, Spy. I taped the first episode but haven't watched it yet. What I really like about them is seeing how modern day people would have survived way back when and the fact that there is no gaming involved.

[Valmore]

I hated that one ESPN ran to find their new anchors... because all of the people that applied were a bunch of wanna-be Stuart Scotts and Dan Patricks, only with none of the talent.

[Shellhead]

How does Full House & Cop Rock qualify as quality. Both are among the 50 Worst Television Shows (Jerry Springer was number one, followed by the XFL).

I was unclear in how I phrased my last post. I consider Full House and Cop Rock to be very crappy TV shows. But they were considered prime-time worthy in their day, by misguided TV executives. Everything my "quality" list is supposed to be an example of TV shows that are worse than reality TV.

[hugh45]

CSI really shows you a forensic scientist carries a gun/investigating a
crime suspect/running down crimmals :rolleyes:

[Valmore]

I was unclear in how I phrased my last post. I consider Full House and Cop Rock to be very crappy TV shows. But they were considered prime-time worthy in their day, by misguided TV executives. Everything my "quality" list is supposed to be an example of TV shows that are worse than reality TV.

I don't think Cop Rock even lasted a month, let alone long enough to compare it to anything else that's come out.

Full House was what it was - a sappy television show meant for family viewing. In that respect, it isn't one of the worst shows ever made.

[Shellhead]

One of the weirder aspects of reality tv, I have to admit, is that they often have contestants living together for an extended period of time. In real life, living with your direct rivals for something really important would be unusual and very uncomfortable. But it's a common practice on reality tv, on shows like Survivor, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Big Brother, and even The Contender.

In fact, that's what made me realize this, on the latest episode of the Contender, one boxer was having trouble getting mentally ready for his next fight. Part of the problem was that the guy he would be facing was living under the same roof with him, and was very aggressive and ready for the fight. Jesse (the one who didn't feel ready), laying his bed late in the morning, yelled out to the other boxer, who was in the kitchen nearby, asking him how he felt about the fight. The other guy, Anthony, yelled back, "I'm ready to kick your ass!" That would be a weird situation to live in.

[Artemis1]

The only two good reality shows are "Surviver" and "The Contender".

[dougputhoff]

I would rather watch the most insipid episode of Martin than I would American Idol.

[Shellhead]

I would rather watch the most insipid episode of Martin than I would American Idol.

I would just turn my tv off if those were the only two choices. Martin Lawrence's idea of funny was generally to shout out the obvious, over and over again. Not actually funny.