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I Miss the Real World

Entertainment Weekly did a really interesting article on reality television this week, brought on by the murder-suicide involved with Megan Wants a Millionaire.

All I could think when I read the article was--it wasn't broke, so why did they fix it?

For this argument, I will merely mention one show: The Real World.

Having grown up on The Real World, I can safely say that it was a much cooler show when it wasn't about shock value.

The first few seasons had their share of melodrama, absolutely, but they also featured people who were actually, like, um, sort of, um, like smart.

People with real jobs, real problems, and more than anything else--lives based in reality.

I don't think any character on reality television has had as much of an impact as Pedro from The Real World: San Francisco. I don't think the fighting you see now on Real World: Slutty Town matters anymore because they have a fight EVERY WEEK.

The fight that Dan and Melissa had on Real World: Miami was shocking because even with Crazy Flora around, it was one of the few of the season.

Not only that, and I feel this is key, it wasn't essential that every person on the show be model-worthy.

It wasn't that we weren't shallow in the 90's, it's just that we didn't feel the need to watch beautiful people every time we turned on the television.

Look at the first Real World cast and look at the cast now. Go watch episode-for-episode and tell me Season One isn't infinitely better than the current season.

There was no competition element. It was all about real people interacting--and a lot of really great television came out of it. The fight between Julie and Kevin in Season One was a more honest conversation about race than any other television show was willing to feature at that time.

And the ratings were GREAT.

Again, it wasn't broke--so why fix it?

I miss the real world. I think the next reality show they come out with should have this title--Return to Reality.

Whatever that ends up being, I'm willing to watch.

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