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The Real World
1992 · TV series · 42 min episodes · 33 seasons
Created by Mary-Ellis Bunim, Jonathan Murray
Each year, seven strangers in their twenties, from different backgrounds and countries, are chosen to come live together in a major city.
1 negative5 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
Quite a hefty percentage of the people responsible for the current day's obsession with identity issues openly state racism against white people is impossible. This has been part of their belief system for decades, probably heard on a widescale for the first time during an episode of season one of 'The Real World' in 1992 but favored in academia for much longer than that.
It was that way before the writer's strike.
The slow decline that started with The Real World had picked up pace, and the airwaves were slowly filling with reality show after reality show.
Then Lost went on the air, and nobody noticed at first, but by Season 2 it had competition from story-driven shows again. And I dunno who rushed out Lost Season 1 on DVD a few months before the second season aired, but that was an inspired decision. Tons of new viewers for Season 2, and probably for the first time ever people were binge-watching a TV show.
It ended with a whimper, but boy did it start with a bang.
I feel like it's worth distinguishing between reality TV with a consistent cast like Real World, and those without like Cops, which is almost more like a documentary in that sense.
I'm not sure how I'd make the distinction clear though, because stuff like "Ghost Hunters" feels a lot more like the Real World kind, despite being (ostensibly) more like a documentary.
Actually, 'The Real World' changed cities every year and the original one was in Soho, NYC, only Seasons 3 and 29 were in SF. </pedant>
(Sorry, couldn't help myself, but you do make a good point)
Reminds me of how 'The Real World' TV show started out as a whole bunch of different people living together in SF then as the show progressed season after season it just became a 20 something mono culture.
I would say we've even lost that. A hundred years ago people might have hung their hat on any of those things you mentioned -- or more often than not, moralistic religion -- but at least they were part of some kind of grand story. Now it feels like we're all kind of floating out there. We're the middle children of history as Tyler Durden so eloquently said.
We're certainly all hard-wired for a narrative, I just had too many experiences in college, where I was like "Are you serious?! You're re-enacting last weeks episode of the Real World!" :)