The Show That Put the 'Real' in Reality TV
Nicholas Roberts for The New York Times
By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Published: January 6, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/arts/television/07real.html?_r=2&8dpc (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/arts/television/07real.html?_r=2&8dpc)
In the 17 years "The Real World" has been appearing on MTV, it has deployed the services of 400 editors to scan 40,000 hours of film. As Jon Murray, one of the executive producers, explains in "The Real World: Secrets Revealed," a special being shown this week anticipating the new season's start on Wednesday, this progenitor of reality television today was conceived as a scripted series about the lives of young people in New York called "St. Marks Place." The idea, though, quickly morphed into the notion of housing a group of 20-somethings under one roof (preferably with a hot tub) and installing cameras.
In Mr. Murray's telling, the producers tried to manipulate group dynamics only once, during the first season, when cameras were rolling, but nothing was happening, and they were moved to provoke by depositing in the house a coffee table book with nude pictures of a cast member who was a male model. This apparently turned cast against crew, and the producers learned their lesson, or so they say. People have forever accused the show of being staged, even as debating the truth claims of reality television has come to seem like arguing over whether smoking is actually bad for you.
The series's latest edition, "The Real World: Brooklyn," indicates that MTV is at least more interested in maintaining a veneer of authenticity than most of what its demon seed has wrought. Compared with something like "Momma's Boys" on NBC, "The Real World" seems as if it had been incubated at PBS.