The Real World (TV series)
The Real World is a pioneering reality television series that premiered on MTV on May 21, 1992, created by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. The show follows seven strangers, aged eighteen to twenty-five, living together in a house while their daily lives are filmed, blending elements of documentary filmmaking with the narrative style of soap operas. Each season takes place in a different city, showcasing diverse environments and cultures, while the cast navigates various personal and social issues, including prejudice, politics, and sexuality.
The Real World is credited with shaping the reality television genre and became MTV's longest-running show of the 1990s, with continued success into the 2000s. However, as the series progressed, critics noted a shift towards more staged and voyeuristic content, with an emphasis on conflict and sensationalism among cast members. While the show initially tackled serious themes, it later incorporated vacation-like settings and artificially created scenarios, leading to a more scripted feel. In recent years, new iterations of the show have emerged, including a 2019 version on Facebook Watch and the spinoff The Real World Homecoming: New York, which featured original cast members revisiting their past experiences.
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Subject Terms
The Real World (TV series)
CREATORS Mary-Ellis Bunim (1946-2004) and Jonathan Murray (1955- )
DATE Premiered on May 21, 1992
The series mixed documentary and soap opera elements, spawning a new era of television programming, the reality show.
The Real World, created by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray, first aired on May 21, 1992, on MTV. Bunim, who had produced soap operas for sixteen years, and Murray, with a background in journalism, became partners in 1992 and created the 24/7 documentary series about seven strangers ages eighteen to twenty-five living together in New York City and having their lives filmed. The house was filled with cameras, the residents wore recording packs, and camera crews followed them whenever they left the house. Each subsequent year, the show moved to a new city with seven new housemates.
Impact
The Real World became the model for future reality television series. It enjoyed enormous popularity, becoming the longest-running MTV show of the 1990s and continuing its success into the twenty-first century. Despite the show’s popularity, many critics believed that what began as a legitimate look at young people as they tried to find their way in the world became increasingly voyeuristic, self-referential, and orchestrated. When the series began, serious issues such as prejudice, politics, morality, sexuality, and personal growth were explored honestly and openly. Many subjects taboo on network shows were routinely presented. Then the show gradually changed, providing casts with weeklong vacations, ready-made employment situations, and fantasy housing, which increased the show’s artificiality. Cast members were chosen to ensure conflict and controversy, and some participants seemed to have serious medical and emotional problems. Instead of locating the casts in cities with varied cultural and employment opportunities, producers started placing them in resort communities, with cast members becoming overly self-aware and too focused on sex, fame, and binge drinking.
In 2018, it was announced that a new version of the show would be shown on Facebook Watch. In addition to an American season, the show had a Mexican and a Thai version. The show premiered on June 13, 2019.
In 2021, a spinoff, The Real World Homecoming: New York, primered on Paramount. The original cast was featured in the spinoff, and they lived in the same loft as they had in the original show. Two more seasons of the spinoff aired. However, all three seasons were removed from Paramount in 2023.
Bibliography
Dawn, Randee. "It’s Been 30 Years Since ‘The Real World’ Introduced Reality TV. How Things Have Changed." The Los Angeles Times, 20 June 2022, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2022-06-20/reality-tv-has-changed-since-real-world. Accessed 22 May 2024.
Hill, Annette. Reality TV: Factual Entertainment and Television Audiences. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Murray, Susan, and Laurie Ouellette, eds. Reality TV: Remaking Popular Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
Poniewozik, James. "'The Read World' Revisited: When Reality Had Bite." The New York Times, 5 Mar. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/arts/television/the-real-world-homecoming.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.