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Is There Any Reality to Reality TV?
By Kay R. Daly
January 3, 2005

Lots of year end prognosticators have been predicting the downfall of reality TV and while there certainly might be a dip in the ratings, certain types of reality shows are, for better or worse, probably with us for the long haul. For some, reality television signals the very downfall of civilization while for others it is a delicious guilty pleasure akin to Hagaan Daaz on a rainy day.

I'll be honest here. I have watched reality television -- mostly as a curiosity and usually only once because lots of it just isn't that interesting. After viewing these programs, one has to wonder - are they a truthful view of life in America today or merely a well-edited pre-fabricated package of American life. Sort of a chicken and the egg question.

Who knows where this genre really started, but perhaps it was with Candid Camera. Remember the Alan Funt hosted show that secretly filmed unsuspecting regular Joes in bizarre situations? Because there were certain standards of behavior, manners and social norms, the setups seemed all the more outrageous and humorous.

Fast forward to MTV's "The Real World." Many credit this production with the birth of reality television. Placing several late teen, young twenty somethings in one overly hip pad, ply them with alcohol, challenge them to keep some kind of employment, play to stereotypes, toss a few condoms at them and see what happens. I always found myself wishing that these whiny, overindulged, spoiled, ungrateful brats should find a real problem. Would have been far more interesting.

Then came "Survivor" and the competition genre of reality television was born. Although it has gone downhill dramatically, "Survivor" was pretty creative stuff with the challenges and compelling in terms of alliances and strategies deployed by relatively interesting characters.

The worst of the worst of the reality genre are the relationship shows. "Bachelor", "Bachelorette" and any family member looking for a spouse for their father, mother, uncle or cousin. The shallowness of the lot of these people is truly astounding.

In the competition reality shows, you've got to hand it to "The Donald" for his show "The Apprentice" and the creative souls who week after week seek new and different ways to gross us out with "Fear Factor."

More interesting than any of the contestants on "The Apprentice" (most of whom either have a truly warped view of the business world or an annoying sense of entitlement), are the colleagues of Donald Trump who assist in the judging of the contestants. Most of the time they seem to have a look on their faces as though they simply cannot comprehend what has happened to either business schools today, common sense, rationality, humility or willingness to pay ones dues. Their assessments and advice are usually gems of gold in the sea of Apprentice hype.

The personality based reality shows such as "The Osbornes", "The Newlyweds" and "Growing Up Gotti" are only as interesting as the personalities involved. Too often, the producers must put these folks in "situations" to make it remotely interesting.

Out of the personality based shows, "Growing Up Gotti" leaves me the most breathless. Breathless and thankful to God in heaven that those Gotti children are not mine. I've never seen a group of young men more unappreciative, coarse, uncivilized, spoiled, undisciplined, ill-mannered, self-absorbed or ignorant. Just goes to show you that lots of money does not necessarily breed class, manners or taste.

After sampling the best and the worst of all of these shows, my favorite would have to be "Wife Swap." At first, I was convinced that Hollywood was going to push the envelope once more and put the spotlight on swingers.

But no, this show takes two wives and drops them into new families. They must live under the family rules of the house for a few days, then they get to change the rules. Then the real fun begins. Thing is about these families is that they are completely opposite in lifestyle - liberal vs. conservative, rich vs. middle class, religious vs. atheist, southern vs. northern, vegetarians vs. junk food-aholics, city folk vs. farm life, permissive vs. disciplined - and usually to the extreme of both sides.

What is so extraordinary about "Wife Swap" is seeing the true effect of parenting, particularly a mother's influence on a household. While feminists would cringe at this notion, it truly is the woman who is the keeper of the culture and when that goes awry for whatever reason, it is a palpable issue within a family.

When we are growing up most of the time we are blissfully unaware of how other people live. Perhaps that, in combination with a wicked case of Schaudenfraude and Peeping Tom, is why reality television has survived to this point. We cannot, collectively, as a nation, turn away for a variety of reasons.

Even though we are truly the most blessed nation on the planet, we spend an awful lot of time not counting our blessings. Instead, we spend an awful lot of time focusing on the negative. Seeing the negative on the small screen makes us feel better about ourselves. Comparing and contrasting lives seems to be about the only internalizing most Americans do these days.

As we move into 2005, the truth about reality television, new year predictions and the state of American culture, politics and society boils down to one truism - things are not going to be as good as we think nor as bad. It will be another year where we will be doing the same dishes, putting away the same laundry, working endlessly on all consuming projects and trying in some small way to make the world a better place than when we found it. And that's the reality.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.