Oh my! Reality television, how it has impacted, attracted, and become a part of our lives. Ok maybe not yours and surely not mine, but look at who it is geared towards…US! That’s right, us. The producers of these shows know just how to get us, they really do. Even though I am not a fan or an addict (admit it, come on, I will if you will) reality TV gets to us. Here how it happens. You are sitting on your couch, loveseat, recliner, bed, floor, whatever and you are channel surfing, yes with that fabulous remote you can never find, and bam in 5 minutes I bet you are watching a reality TV show. You don’t have to openly admit it, this isn’t AA or therapy, but something about these shows make you stop, drop and roll, and you end up watching the full 30 minute or hour long show before you realize that you just wanted to see what happened next, right? Producers, geniuses in there own right, I tell ya. They are clever SOBs and I kind of want to call them drug dealers because they are the ones that sell this addictive thing to us but I’ll just leave it at clever.
Reality TV has been around since the 1940’s. Game shows were one of the first. But they really didn’t become a staple in society until the 90’s. My generation is probably the one that has been impacted the most by reality TV because of our dependence on technology. We are after all we are the generation that watches the most TV, pretty sad, oh well. And before I go any further I want to say not all reality TV is unnecessary, down right stupid, there is some interesting, informing, and entertaining reality TV out there as well, but I want to talk about the awful stuff.
First, I have to narrow reality television down, it is too broad to review it as a whole, there are too many shows and like I mentioned not everything is terrible. Simply reviewing MTV’s reality television shows would also be too broad so I picked a show that we’ve all heard about and perhaps seen (you’ve probably seen), we are all guilty of it, the show is…The Hills.
I’m going to admit it right off the bat, I have seen this show and there is something about it that makes me stop channel surfing and sit and watch the whole damn show. I know it isn’t reality, I know it is scripted and the editing of the show drives me crazy because I know that it is manipulative the way they edit it. I know there are girls out there that want to be Lauren Conrad, the main character. They want her job, her apartment, her life, they want to be her friends. And then there are the people that want to slap her because she can be naïve and down right dumb when it comes to relationships with boyfriends, collegues, and girlfriends, but there is something also very likeable about her and you feel bad for her at the end of the day. The drama in her life is out of control, it gets ridiculous and can you believe that people are addicted to her and the show. We, us, our generation of TV watchers are the ones that ultimately made this normal 21 year old kid famous. I wonder if a Barbie doll is in the works for the show’s cast, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I am surprised that there aren’t any dolls out yet. Maybe I should make a pitch to Mattel?
The show is so good at making these people who they aren’t or are, who am I to say that everyone isn’t really like that? I don’t know if we get an inside scoop of Teen Vogue Magazine when we watch the show or what it is really like to plan a Hollywood bash, but it is fun thinking that, that is how it all goes down.
Producers are the money makers with all the ideas for reality shows, they find the best stories and characters and we fall in love, get addicted, influenced, and impacted and I doubt it will ever stop because it sells!
http://www.tv.com/reality/genre/9/topshows.html?g=9&l=&pop=1&tag=gen_subtabs;era;0
Reality TV has been around since the 1940’s. Game shows were one of the first. But they really didn’t become a staple in society until the 90’s. My generation is probably the one that has been impacted the most by reality TV because of our dependence on technology. We are after all we are the generation that watches the most TV, pretty sad, oh well. And before I go any further I want to say not all reality TV is unnecessary, down right stupid, there is some interesting, informing, and entertaining reality TV out there as well, but I want to talk about the awful stuff.
First, I have to narrow reality television down, it is too broad to review it as a whole, there are too many shows and like I mentioned not everything is terrible. Simply reviewing MTV’s reality television shows would also be too broad so I picked a show that we’ve all heard about and perhaps seen (you’ve probably seen), we are all guilty of it, the show is…The Hills.
I’m going to admit it right off the bat, I have seen this show and there is something about it that makes me stop channel surfing and sit and watch the whole damn show. I know it isn’t reality, I know it is scripted and the editing of the show drives me crazy because I know that it is manipulative the way they edit it. I know there are girls out there that want to be Lauren Conrad, the main character. They want her job, her apartment, her life, they want to be her friends. And then there are the people that want to slap her because she can be naïve and down right dumb when it comes to relationships with boyfriends, collegues, and girlfriends, but there is something also very likeable about her and you feel bad for her at the end of the day. The drama in her life is out of control, it gets ridiculous and can you believe that people are addicted to her and the show. We, us, our generation of TV watchers are the ones that ultimately made this normal 21 year old kid famous. I wonder if a Barbie doll is in the works for the show’s cast, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I am surprised that there aren’t any dolls out yet. Maybe I should make a pitch to Mattel?
The show is so good at making these people who they aren’t or are, who am I to say that everyone isn’t really like that? I don’t know if we get an inside scoop of Teen Vogue Magazine when we watch the show or what it is really like to plan a Hollywood bash, but it is fun thinking that, that is how it all goes down.
Producers are the money makers with all the ideas for reality shows, they find the best stories and characters and we fall in love, get addicted, influenced, and impacted and I doubt it will ever stop because it sells!
http://www.tv.com/reality/genre/9/topshows.html?g=9&l=&pop=1&tag=gen_subtabs;era;0
1 comment:
Hi Sophia, this review really gets going when you settle in to focus on one particular show. I think the stuff on the history of reality TV (while appropriate) could be condensed down to a couple of sentences to make room for more discussion of The Hills proper. Then you might talk more about what The Hills shows us about where reality TV is going, and tell us what you think of that.
This show is a well-chosen subject because it is so clearly "socially located" in terms of class, gender, place, etc. I'd like to hear more about what (based on the details of the show) the makers of The Hills think women are, think rich people are--what they want their audience to assume about the world.
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