The Real World

The Real World, MTV's first "reality-based" television series, was launched in the fall of 1991 to immense critical and popular acclaim which has increased over its eight-year run, transforming it from a controversial experiment into a money-making franchise. A pseudo-documentary, its concept—reiterated in the opening credits of each week's half hour episode—is "This is the story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house, and have their lives taped, to see what happens when people stop being polite, and start being real." As columnist Benjamin Svetkey observes, "we get to witness these telegenic urbanites live out their 'real' lives. We watch as they feud with each other (over everything from telephone manners to race relations), flirt with each other, rush off to work or school, chat with their moms on the phone (the ubiquitous microphones eavesdrop on both ends of the conversation), schmooze about sex, get drunk, pass out, and do all the other things twenty-somethings do so well, all of it spliced together as slickly as a Paula Abdul video and set to an in-your-face soundtrack of Guns N' Roses and R.E.M. Voyeurism has never been so cool."

The show's "strangers" are a diverse group of Generation X-ers of various geographic, socioeconomic, religious, and sexual orientations, whom the producers carefully screen and assemble hoping for the most volatile—and therefore sensationally watchable—combination possible. According to producer Jon Murray, "the main point of the series is to tell the story of this group of kids. It's to show them getting involved with each other, learning from each other, sharing fears and dreams."

More often than not, however, this "fishbowl" existence causes the sharing to become ugly, as the cast members must agree to allow themselves to be constantly video-and audio-taped by an arsenal of surveillance and hand-held cameras, as well as microphones hidden in every room, on each character, and in the phone. As the months of recording pass, allegiances and grudges are formed, manifest in direct camera address footage from weekly interviews of the subjects by the filmmakers regarding their feelings about day-to-day incidents, and their changing attitudes toward their roommates. Murray contends that these interviews are held to clear up the narrative, not to create one. The "characters" are also expected to pay a weekly visit to the "confessional" room to air their feelings in private to a camera. Thus, The Real World has its antecedents in both cinema verité as well as direct cinema practices of the 1960s.

Once the months of filming are completed, the approximately 180,000 minutes of video are edited down to the 440 minutes that will compose the season; in other words, less than one percent of the actual filmed experience is aired. Footage of everyday activities such as reading, cooking, and cleaning are excised to focus on moments of conflict over philosophies, relationships, and the like. These include controversial moments, such as when abrasive stand-up comic David and the infamous scab-picking bike messenger Puck were booted out of their respective casts due to their inability to get along. Grunge singer Neil sticking his tongue in the mouth of a heckler during a performance only to have it nearly bitten off provided real drama, as did gay cast member Pedro Zamora's marriage to his lover, Sean. While many of the incidents that become the plotlines of an episode are significant, cast members also charge that focusing an episode on what they deem to be insignificant incidents tends to exaggerate their importance way out of proportion—a charge leveled by many subjects of documentary films.

In addition, after each season begins airing and the respective casts are interviewed by the press, the first question often posed to them concerns whether they are being themselves, or playing themselves. Though Real World -ers generally contend they quickly grew used to the constant surveillance, paradoxically they also agree that the cameras elevated the intensity of every encounter—so much so that MTV offers each cast free psychological counseling at the end of the taping as a means of recovering from the experience. Producer George Verschoor warns each cast at the outset: "Once you get in this house, you are going to be challenged in ways you never thought of. Every move, every part of your past is going to be questioned.… So you'd better be ready to look in that mirror. Because when you do, you're going to see yourself—and not only what you think of yourself, but what others think of you … and then what a nation thinks of you."

Consequently, though they are not celebrities in the conventional sense, veterans of the show have found their "15 minutes of fame" through continual public recognition and occasionally harassment; the show's popularity, constant reruns, and updated reports on their respective activities never really allowing them to retire to anonymity. Some cast members have marketed their newfound fame into performing careers—models Jacinda Barrett and Eric Nies and even David "Puck" Rainey turning to acting, with Nies also doing a stint as the host of MTV's dance show, The Grind, and creating his own workout video.

The series' popularity also resulted in MTV expanding its slate of reality-based programming, including introducing the equally popular spin-off show, Road Rules, in 1995, which is essentially "The Real World-in-a-Winnebego," as five youths take an extensive—often international—road trip involving both thrills (skydiving, swimming with sharks) and chills (staying the night in a haunted house; milking snakes for venom).

—Rick Moody

Further Reading:

Johnson, Hillary, and Nancy Rommelmann. The Real Real World. New York, Melcher Media, 1995.

The Real World Diaries. New York, Melcher Media, 1996.

Patane, Joe. Livin' in Joe's World. New York, Harper-Perennial, 1998.