"If reality TV has taught us anything, it's that you can't keep people with no shame down." - Liz Lemon,
30 Rock ("Subway Hero")
Reality television is a genre of television programming in which the fortunes of "real life" people (as opposed to fictional characters played by actors) are followed. The native habitat of
Reality TV Tropes, if you will.
There are three main types of reality television program. In the first, the viewer and the camera are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities. This style of filming is often referred to as "fly on the wall". The "plots" which are compiled for the program often resemble soap operas, hence the description docusoap.
Though there were earlier precedents on radio and television, the first reality show in the modern sense was probably the PBS series
An American Family. Twelve parts were broadcast in the United States in 1973. The series dealt with a nuclear family going through a divorce. The parents had several children and one of them, Lance Loud, was openly homosexual and occasionally wore lipstick and women's clothes and took his mother to a drag show in episode two of the series. Scholars sometimes mention that Lance came out of the closet on TV, but this is technically incorrect -- he was simply homosexual without announcement. His family confirmed that he had been out for some time.
An American Family was controversial in its time and was excoriated by the press, particularly
The New York Times, which published a piece criticizing the series and especially Lance Loud.
In 1974 a counterpart programme,
The Family, was made in the UK , following the working class Wilkins family of Reading. Later Australia saw
Sylvania Waters in 1992, about the
nouveau riche Baker-Donaher family of Sydney. Both attracted their share of controversy.
Perhaps responsible for inspiring the recent interest in reality television is MTV's
The Real World, one of the first reality programs to gain mainstream popularity. A new subset of this type has recently emerged in which the daily lives of celebrities are portrayed. Examples include
The Anna Nicole Show and
The Osbournes.
In the second type, hidden cameras are rolling when random passers-by encounter a staged situation. The reactions of the passers-by can be funny to watch, but also revealing to the truths about the human condition. Allen Funt, an American pioneer in reality entertainment, led the way in the development of this type of show. He created
Candid Microphone, which debuted on the ABC Radio Network in 1947, and the internationally successful
Candid Camera, which first aired on television in 1953. He later produced a feature-length reality-film in 1968 entitled
What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?. The film was a hidden-camera study of sexuality and mores of the time. For example, in one staged situation, passers-by encountered an inter-racial couple.
In the third type, the so-called "reality game shows", participants are filmed intensively in an enclosed environment while competing to win a prize -- thus they are game shows and discussed more thoroughly in that article. The reality game show genre has become pervasive enough to be parodied by Spike TV with
The Joe Schmo Show.
One difference that makes these more like "reality television" than other game shows is that the viewing public usually (but not always) plays an active role in deciding the outcome. Usually this is by eliminating participants (disapproval voting, often one per week) or voting for the most popular choice to win (with some other voting system). Two of the most popular reality-based game shows of this sort are
Big Brother and
Survivor. There is also a Spanish-language show taped for Latin American audiences,
Protagonistas De La Musica, filmed in Miami by Telemundo USA.
However, given that producers can control the format of the show, as well as manipulate the outcome of some of them, it is questionable how "real" reality television actually is.
Examples of Reality Programming:
Documentary style
(Some of the shows in this section are arguably true documentaries, in which the producers make a good-faith effort to document their actual subject, not interfering with the events just to make a better story.)
- Airline (UK; ITV's imitation of Airport)
- Airline (US; 2004 on A&E Network)
- Airport (UK; BBC show that made Jeremy Spake famous)
- American Casino (2004)
- American Chopper (2003)
- American Hot Rod (2004)
- An American Family (1973)
- Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within (2002)
- Escape to River Cottage (1999) (UK)
- Family Plots (2004) (US; A&E Network show about a mortuary in San Diego)
- Fraternity Life
- Lagos Airport (UK; Channel 4's take on Airport focusing on the third world conditions in and around Nigeria's main airport)
- "Laguna Beach" (2004)
- Rachael Rocks (2004)
- Road Rules (1994)
- Sorority Life
- Starting Over (2003)
- Sylvania Waters (1992) (Australia)
- The Casino (2004)
- The Family (1974) (UK)
- U8TV: The Lofters (2001) (Canada)
- The Real World (1992)
- The Restaurant (2003)
- 30 Days (2005)
- True Life (1998)
Historical re-creation
- The 1900 House (1999) (UK; living in historical conditions. Also shown on PBS)
- Pioneer Quest: A Year in the Real West (2000) (Canada)
- The 1940s House (2001) (UK)
- The Edwardian Country House aka Manor House (2002)
- Frontier House (2002) (US; PBS show set in the American frontier of 1883)
- Quest for the Bay (2002) (Canada)
- The Ship (2002) (UK)
- Klondike: The Quest for Gold (2003) (Canada)
- Colonial House (2004) (US; PBS show set in the American frontier of 1628)
- Regency House Party (2004) (UK)
- Warrior Challenge (2004) (US)
- Le Moyen 1903 (2003) (Switzerland/TSR)
Dating
- Boy Meets Boy (2003)
- Blind Date (UK) (1985)
- Blind Date (US) (1999)
- Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? (2000)
- The 5th Wheel (2001)
- Temptation Island (2001)
- ElimiDATE (2002)
- EX-treme Dating (2002)
- The Bachelor (2002)
- Bachelorettes in Alaska (2002)
- Would Like To Meet (UK)
- Streetmate (UK)
- Average (2003)
- The Bachelorette (2003)
- Cupid (2003)
- For Love or Money (2003)
- Millionaire (2003)
- Married by America (2003)
- Mr. Personality (2003)
- My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé (2004)
- The Littlest Groom (2004)
- Playing It Straight (2004)
- Outback Jack (2004)
Law Enforcement/Military
- Cops (1989)
- Real Stories of the Highway Patrol (1994)
- American Fighter Pilot (2002)
- Boot Camp
- Combat Missions (2001)
Makeover
Life Change
- Faking It (2001) (UK; remade in US in 2003)
- Wife Swap (2002) (2003) (UK)
- Masters And Servants (2003) (UK)
- Holiday Swap (2003) (UK)
- Trading Spouses (2004) (US)
Docusoaps starring celebrities
- The Anna Nicole Show (2002)
- The Osbournes (2002)
- The Surreal Life (2003)
- The Simple Life (2003)
- Rich Girls (2003)
- Newlyweds (2003)
- The Simple Life 2 (2004)
Hidden camera
- Boiling Point (US) MTV
- Candid Camera (1953)
- America's Funniest Home Videos (1990)
- The Jamie Kennedy Experiment (2002)
- Punk'd (2003)
- Trigger Happy TV (2002) (UK; launched comedian Dom Joly)
Reality game shows
- Fear (2000)
- Tough Enough (2001)
- The Real Gilligan's Island (2004)
- Big Brother (2000)
- Big Brother (UK) (2000 - present)
- Survivor (2000)
- The Mole (2000)
- Fear Factor (2001)
- The Amazing Race (2001)
- Murder in Small Town X (2001)
- Model Flat (Fashion TV, 2002)
- I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (2002) (UK)
- I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (USA)
- Dog Eat Dog (2003)
- The Murder Game (2003) (UK version of Murder in Small Town X)
- Boot Camp
- Shattered (2004) (UK)
- Back To Reality (2004) (UK)
- Paradise Hotel (2003)
- Forever Eden (2004)
- Mad Mad House (2004)
- The Benefactor (2004)
- Who Wants To Be A Superhero (2006)
- Pirate Master (2007)
Spoofs
- Drawn Together (2004)
- The Truman Show (movie) (1998)
- EdTV (movie) 1999
- Real Life (movie) (1979)
- The Joe Schmo Show (2003)
- Series 7 (movie) (2001)
- Superstar USA (2004)
- Joe Schmo 2 (2004)
Talent Searches
- Ted Macks Original Amateur Hour (US) (1948-1970)
- Star Search (1980s)
- Popstars (2000) (UK; launched bands Hear'Say and Liberty X)
- Pop Idol (2001)
- American Idol (2002)
- Canadian Idol (2002)
- Fame Academy (2002)(2003) (UK)
- American Juniors (2003)
- Australian Idol (2003)
- Last Comic Standing (2003)
- America's Next Top Model (2003)
- Making the Band (2001)
- Making the Band 2 (2002)
- Performing As... (2003)
- Can You Be A Porn Star? (2004)
- The Apprentice (2004)
- Dream Job (2004)
- Next Action Star (2004)
- The Assistant (2004)
- The Contender (2004)
Fantasies Fulfilled
Reality TV Tropes:
See also:
Reality Show
