Group
Leader: Angie Owczarzak
Writers:
Angie
Owczarzak
Erin
Oroszi
Ashley
Paessun
Tim
Petch
Kyle
Pechak
Jarrod
Pederson
Joe
Phillips
Kara
Ohngren
Dave
Pecilunas
Editor:
Angie Owczarzak
By:
Ashley Paessun
It
is almost impossible to pin down the exact origins of what we today call
reality television. The theme of
reality has always been present in television and other forms of
entertainment. For example Orson Welles
used the theme of reality when he broadcast the story “The War of the Worlds”
to radios across the nation in 1938.
Even though it was entirely fiction, it was broadcast as a real event
and caused hysteria to break out among its audience. On the other hand, the broadcast of the infamous O.J. Simpson
chase was at first perceived by many as a fictional television drama. Some say that true reality television was
born out of shows such as “Lou Grant” and “All in the Family,” which were the
first television sitcoms to discuss “real-life” issues such as abortion and
racism (Seiegel, 2003). In our culture
it can be hard to tell where fiction stops and when reality begins. Reality television programs do not help to
make this line any clearer.
In
order to understand the evolution of reality television, we must first define
what exactly it is. It is argued that
the factor that allows a program to be categorized as “reality-based” is that
it is not scripted. These unscripted
programs that American culture labels as “reality” are usually produce for
entertainment purposes and to boost network ratings. That being said many other uncertainties arise. What about the news? Even though most of the newscasts are
scripted, it would be very hard to argue that news programs are not based on
reality. And what about televised sporting
events? While the commentators may have
a script of suggested lines, no one can make a script for how the game is going
to unfold.
Using
society’s definition of reality programming, the shows can be divided into many
subcategories. There are shows such as
“Fear Factor” and “The Mole” which can be called game shows. This type of reality programming has been
around since the 1940’s. Another
category is reality-dating shows. Once
again this idea is nothing new. Even
though current dating shows are much more risqué than the originals, the
concept has been popular for many years.
In today’s materialistic society reality makeover shows such as “Extreme
Makeover” and “What Not to Wear” have become very popular. And then there are shows such as MTV’s “Real
World” where strangers with clashing personalities are forced to live and
function together. Many say that this
may have truly been the first reality show as we have come to define them. It has spawned a common thread between many
reality shows of throwing together people into situations where it is almost
guaranteed that they will not get along.
The
bottom line is that audiences like reality television. Our superficial and unfulfilled desires, as
a culture and as human beings, are filled by reality television programs. We like to watch others in uncomfortable
situations. Our lives as Americans are
filled with rejection and humiliation and it is comforting to witness others in
those same situations. Curiosity is
part of out nature as humans. We will
take almost any chance we can get to satisfy our voyeuristic tendencies and
reality television allows us to do that from the comfort of our own homes. Reality television is just a glamorized
version of how we see, or wish to see our own lives (Samuels, 2004).
Regardless
of where reality television started, it has become a major part of popular
culture in America. The production of
“Reality Central,” a cable channel which will air reality programs 24 hours a
day, is set to begin in 2004 (USA Today, 2003). ABC has plans to produce the “Reality Awards,” which would be
much like the “Emmy’s” but for reality television programs. The show would honor those in categories such
as “best series, best host, best meltdown and best twist” (Hibberd, 2003). This just proves the popularity of reality
programming. While we may never really
pinpoint where reality television programming started and how it came to be, we
do know that it has become a part of our daily lives and chances are that we
are never going to get away from reality.
By: Angie Owczarzak
Reality
Television has exploded both in popularity and variety. However, one question still sits back in
viewers minds’ as they see this boom in reality television programming: Is it
this reality TV real?
From the beginning
of reality television programming people began to realize the enjoyment of
watching other people live out their everyday lives, and slowly it spawned into
not only enjoying everyday life events, but the consistent conflicts, emotional
activities occurring, and the tortures of being let go by fellow
companions. Some suspect that this
can’t be real, but still manage to become addicted to it. But in reality, reality television
programmers attempt to guide the show towards certain directions.
“Levak
also admits that the mix of contestants is contrived. He explains,’we’re looking for character types’ “(Delisle,
2003). Through the process of designing
a reality television program the producers search for specific qualities in people
that will increase conflict or create emotional heartaches. So does this guided method of selecting a
“cast” make reality TV real? Most of
the contestants who wish to star in the programming go through a psychological
evaluation first. “The psychologists
who screens the contestants looks for self-destructive tendencies, and
emotional weakness” (Delisle, 2003).
These psychologists assist in the producers decision on whether or not
someone should go on the show and if they have the potential to have
conflicting experiences with another prospective contestant.
Although
searching for stereotypes is one of the main objectives, most of the programs
still remain unscripted creating more realistic dialogues. The prospective casts are also not paid
actors or actresses, therefore more average people can visualize themselves in
the shoes of a reality television show participant. With normal people and unscripted dialogues it is hard to declare
this unreal at the same time. Robert
Thompson, the director of Syracuse University’s Center for the Study of Popular
Television described reality television in an appropriate and accepting manner,
“The universe is all artifice and you populate that universe with non-actors,
so it’s half fiction, half reality” (Leopold, 2001). Producers create a fake world, or universe, but supplement
non-actors instead of real ones. The
question still remains, but there really is no specific answer, there is no
black and white, or yes or no. Reality
Television is a genre, but whether or not it deserves such a title could simply
be just a matter of opinion. In my
opinion reality television is real or unreal based on the type of show it
is. Game shows, such as Fear Factor I consider to be more
realistic than Real World because it
is harder to fulfill character types in contest situations. Either way, reality TV is here, extremely
popular, and saturating the mass media of television.
By: Kara Ohngren
The
pioneers of reality television; Jonathan Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim started
the trend with MTV’s Real World in
the early 1990’s and never looked back. This is the
true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house to find out what
happens when people stop being polite and start getting real (MTV.com, 2003). After rigorous interviews
and hours on the phone seven strangers are thrown into a lavish house in the
middle of an up-tempo city where America has the opportunity to watch them
interact. According to Bunim and Murray a good cast member is unique and has
their own story to tell. The audience has to feel compassion toward that
person, just like one would for a character on a weekly drama series. Bunim
adds, “What makes a person compelling television is that they are telegenic,
articulate, funny and colorful” (Broadcasting
& Cable, 2003). MTV also admits to casting specifically for conflict
and diversity. If you’re no stranger to the show you know there seems to be a
distinct recipe season after season. A quarrel-hungry chick, an attractive guy,
and a gay or lesbian are almost always givens. With the Real World’s prime
viewing audience being in their late teens and early twenty’s the trials and
tribulations of these seven individuals is usually something the audience can
directly relate to. MTV’s Real World
kicked off this seemingly never ending stream of reality shows with a simple
concept that made a huge impact.
But, the question remains,
how real is reality TV? The Real World
was created as a mix between a documentary and drama – making for a real life
soap opera. The show was very cutting-edge for MTV since nothing of this sort
had ever been attempted on television before. But what goes on behind the
scenes? How much of what we see really happens in the way we view it? “In Real World we do an outline first, then
we actually write a 13-page almost-script from the raw material” (Broadcasting & Cable, 2003) says
Murray. A documentary is film or television in its rawest form – no script, no
actors, and little editing. However, this is not the form followed by the Real World or any other later reality
shows, for that matter. Murray quotes, “The difference between a documentary
and a reality show is that the producer thinks through a reality show before he
does it from the standpoint of ‘how is this show going to be entertaining?’
‘How am I going to get viewers to tune back before each commercial break?’ ‘How
is the network going to be able to promote this?’ You are thinking about all
those things when you are making a reality show” (Broadcasting & Cable, 2003). In reality television, unlike in
scripted shows, the cast is filmed then fine-tuned with much editing, multiple
rough cuts, and tweaking left and right. With MTV’s Real World now in its thirteenth season it remains the original
“reality” show in many people’s eyes. However, perhaps a more appropriate title
for these new fad shows would be “almost real” or “barely reality” television.
By:
Joe Phillips
Beginning
in March 2000, a new hit reality show series had begun called Survivor. After being in the hole for years and really not having a big
named show on their network, CBS started looking for new ideas. At this point in time there were no reality
based shows being shown on television besides a show called Real World, on MTV. Real
World was the first reality based show on TV; they would follow around
young adults and video tape their lives, and show how they interacted with each
other. So, after CBS did research on
what type of show to produce in order for their network to be more recognized,
they came across a similar plot coming from the Real World idea. A new show
started in March 2000 that was called Survivor;
it was based around the same aspect of the Real World by following individuals
around taping their daily activity between them and their peers. The first season was filmed on a small
island type called Pulau Tiga, located in the South China Sea. The show spanned a 13 week long series on
CBS that got Americans hooked immediately on Survivor, and couldn’t wait until the next season. Each new season was made up of 16 men and
woman; they would be together for 39 days in a new secluded wilderness every
time. The contestants would have to go
through different challenges everyday in order to stay on the show, get food,
or other prizes for their team. The 16
men and woman would be broken off into two groups right at the beginning of the
show, they would have to go to their designated camp site and make a camping
area out of material they found laying around in the wilderness. They are given nothing at the beginning of
the show; you have to survive on what nature has offered you. Throughout the 7 seasons Survivor has been
on, they have put contestants in some amazing places including: Australia,
Africa, Marqursas (island located 950 miles from Tahiti), Thailand, the Amazon,
and the most recent season the Pearl Islands (located in the Gulf of
Panama). If you’re wondering, okay,
what is the point of this game what do you win; well it’s a huge cash prize of
1 millions dollars. Plus, which ever
companies were sponsoring the TV show give additional prizes; for example the
first year the man that won Richard Hatch, won the million dollars plus a
Pontiac Aztek, a vehicle which Pontiac gave him for advertisement purposes
which had been sponsoring the show.
After the huge ratings for CBS went up after airing
Survivor, every other major broadcasting company had to jump on the band wagon,
and make up reality TV programs in order to stay competitive with CBS. Then for awhile, about a year or so ago, it
seemed like you didn’t even want to turn on the TV anymore, because there would
be a reality show on. Broadcasting
companies just took the whole reality type TV, and just played the death of it,
it wasn’t even fun to watch anymore because they had so many of those types of
shows on.
Now Survivor is still one of the only long lasting reality
shows on, from the beginning when they all started coming out in 2000. The show
has good outlook to it, and will probably go on with more seasons for awhile.
It is still going strong, and is still getting good ratings from all the avid
watchers.
By: Kyle Pechak
Big
Brother is a TV show that is on CBS during the summer season. There has been three seasons so far, and a
fourth is on it’s way for next summer.
The show was launched in July of 2000, and came out as an instant
hit. The show starts with ten
contestants who live in a purpose built house and who are monitored by cameras
twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.
Each week someone is nominated out of the house, until there is one
person left, the winner, who receives a check for $500,000. Each week each housemate nominates two
people who they think should be out of the house. The people with the most votes go to the public vote, from the
viewers. The viewers vote by calling a
phone number and voting for who they want to be evicted, and the person who has
the most votes from the public is kicked out of the house. Starting last season, the creators decided
to spice the show up a little bit. The
creators started with eleven people, and after the first week when the first
person was kicked off, a new person was chosen by the public out of three
choices and added to the group.
Each week the members of the house are supposed to complete
different tasks, depending on how well the members of the house complete the
tasks determines what the other members think of each other. Each week, each member is rationed an amount
of money for weekly shopping, the members can bet this money on the tasks that
they have to do. They are allowed to
bet any where from 10%-90% of the weekly budget. No one in the house is allowed to have any contact with anyone
from outside the house, unless medical attention is needed.
This show seems to try to get the audience involved as much
as possible. It is part of the reality
TV craze that has happened in the past few years, but Big Brother brings it’s
own flavor to the group of shows out there today. Like most of the other reality TV shows, someone is voted off
until one person comes out the winner.
But Big Brother has a different way of voting people off, including the
public and the contestants is something new that was brought by this show. The contestants in this show don’t have to
be as physically fit as the participants of Survivor and Fear Factor. Big Brother has a few people, like in any
other reality TV show that act there way through the show, which brings up the
question, how real is reality TV.
By: Tim Petch
NBC has brought about some
of the greatest shows in the history of television such as: Cheers, The
A-Team, Friends, Seinfeld, I Dream of Jeanie, The Cosby Show and many
more. Fear Factor is just one
show NBC is putting on the air now. The host of the show is Joe Rogan, you may
have seen him on the hit show called Newsradio. This show introduces six players who are going head-to-head
to fight to win a prize of $50,000.
They are made to do some of the most disgusting things to see who can
fight the fear the best and be said that "fear is not a factor for
them". The contestants in this
show are either men or women and anyone can win in this show. Some of the things the contestants in this
show have been made to do are: to eat cockroaches, to eat animal brains, to
swim with alligators, or completely submerge a person in cockroaches and
snakes. There are also many challenges
of strength and endurance such as: sliding down a building grabbing as many
flags as possible, climbing from one building to another on a tight rope, or
diving into a swimming pool grabbing as many flags as possible without taking
any breaths. We are also seeing many
celebrities brave enough to be on the show.
Some of these celebrities are: David Hasslehoff, Kelly Preston, Donnie
Osmond, Coolio, and Joanie Laurer. The
celebrities are on the show to raise money for their own distinguished
charities. The goal of this show is all
about seeing different people do different outrageous stunts for the sake of
winning $50,000. As for the ratings on
this show, so far so good, but we'll just have to see where it goes from
here. Fear Factor is now in the
midst of its third season.
By: Erin Oroszi
As humans we
seem to have this innate desire to want to watch what other human beings are
doing. In people’s lives, rituals, and especially relationships we want to
probe and bring out the most drama and tears we can find. This is where the
reality television show "Temptation Island" comes into play. The
show’s agenda goes something like this. The show is set in the tropical
Caribbean paradise of the Bay Islands off the Central American Coast.
"Temptation Island" purpose is to record the relationships of four
couples trying to challenge the strength of their love and trust. These couples
are joined on this island with 28 singles. Fourteen of them are male, the other
fourteen female. The attractive female people were chosen primarily on their
potential ability to attract the couple’s man, and the buff men were chosen to
tempt the woman. There is no monetary reward in this show because it is
basically run on the reason of couples wanting to test their relationships.
As
Annabel Vered said from TV Guide, "Oh, I think it's a guilty pleasure. You
know, if you enjoyed "Survivor," you're going to enjoy this. The
promos have been so salacious. I think it's going to be a fun thing. I think
it's going to get huge numbers tonight. I think maybe the next successive weeks
won't get as high ratings, but this is definitely something that I think people
are interested to see, you know, another voyeuristic show that we can sort of
relate to what's going on, but thank heavens we're not on that island." The lure of reality TV comes from people
wanting to see what other people are doing. TV producers are playing off all of
these reality shows and some seem a lot like the next. The allure of them to
networks is their extremely low price tag to make. The talent is free and the
shows only cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars to make. This is really
cheap compared to the millions that other prime time sitcoms are costing these
days.
Critics
seem to have an opinion about the show as well. "Lead Us Not Into
Temptation Island," a column by Dick Rolfe Chairman shares his thoughts.
"This is what is laughingly referred to as "reality-based"
television. Reality? Yeah right. How many couples do you know who would
threaten a loving relationship with their mate by allowing themselves to be
tempted by 12 hot bodies of the opposite sex
all in front of millions of viewers (or should I say, voyeurs)?" FOX executives tried to deny their new
series is about sex. Upon further investigation, however, it was revealed that
all the participants were tested for sexually transmitted diseases and condoms
were freely available to one and all.
Temptation had three series and it is doubtful if a fourth will emerge
due to low ratings. Like it or not
reality TV has been a huge industry in the past decade or so. Who knows if it
is here to stay or will be gone like the wind, but consumers need to select
their shows wisely.
By: Dave
Pecilunas
The Bachelor and Bachelorette appeal to a wide variety of people because of the
fantasy fairytale ending that could occur as a result of being chosen as
"the winner". The show works as follows in terms of "The
Bachelor". A handsome, charming, and extremely likeable man gets to search
for "true love" by being introduced to dozens of beautiful women in
hope of finding a bride. He starts out with twenty five women to choose from.
The cut is then made down to fifteen girls by presenting them with a red rose.
This continues down to ten, six, four, three, two, and then finally one. At any
one time though, an individual can reject to continue dating the person, and
drop out of the show. Once they get down to one person, that doesn’t mean
everything is set for them to get married though. The person must pop the
question to the other, and not always does this work out for the best. If the
two decide to wed, ABC throws in one million dollars to sweeten the pot. They
get to know each other by going out on group dates of about five people.
Sometimes though the man will be able to go out individually with them, or even
go to their hometown and meet the girl’s parents. All of the same rules apply
to "The Bachelorette", except that the woman is choosing from
twenty-five men. The question is though, can you really fall in love on one of
these shows and find your sole mate?
That all depends on who you ask. Jonathan Cobb is more of a realist and
states that, "I believe it is absolutely impossible to meet a lifelong
mate on a show like this. Love is not something for which you can advertise,
campaign, or compete. Love is something that is sacred, pure and occurs when
you destiny meets his or her fate, not when your friends get all hyped to
audition for some TV show and compete for the love of some wannabe gigolo
type." Maybe not all people believe this can happen, but Marta Trujillo
says that this is one of the big reasons on why the show became such a big hit.
She states, "Its another reason why people watch, to see if it can happen
and have a happy ending." Personally, I don't think that true love can be
forced onto a person like it seems to be on the show. When all the people go
onto the show, they are going there thinking that they are going to fall in
love, which probably makes them think they actually are in love. I think that
people end up falling more in love with the show, instead of the guy or girl.
Getting caught up in the moment of this show definitely could hinder their
decision making, like at the end when they are asked if they want to get
married. Although these two shows definitely appeal to plenty of people, this
just doesn't interest me at all. The show is treating love as a game, not
something that is so special it's the greatest moment of your life. Even though
the show does capture many interesting aspects of dating, in my opinion it
cannot capture one important aspect of this all. That is they probably will
never be able to capture true love on the cameras of these two shows.
By: Jarrod Pederson
Morals.
Webster defines morals as conforming to standards ofwhat is right or just in
behavior. These standards have changed greatly over time. There used to be no
sex on television and divorce was something that wasn’t very prominent.
Although in today's society accepts divorce, sex, and marriage for money or
physical appearance more readily. This is a prime example of how the morals of
America as a whole have degraded. The rise also coincides with a rise of
something else: reality TV. Reality TV is American society at its worst. It has
made marriage a game or contest that is sometimes solely based on appearance.
So, the viewers of these shows become more and more desensitized to many things
that are morally wrong. Marriages today are far more likely to end in divorce.
Some Reality TV also promotes deception, like Joe Millionaire. Telling the
truth is definitely one that should be morally correct for any generation.
Americans are obsessed with this fad of Reality TV. American society as a whole
is on a decline morally as well. Some see this as a coincidence, but it’s a
risky chance to take.
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