The 'REAL' IN REALITY
MTV’s prototypical show kickstarted the unscripted format
Being a pioneer of reality television is a little like being the first person to put anchovies on a pizza.
Your fans will treat you like a god. Other people are going to leave the room.
Whichever your reaction, there’s no denying that MTV’s “The Real World” helped kickstart modern reality television — not to mention helping transform MTV from its early years as a music video channel into the drama-driven network it is today.
The 30th season of “The Real World” premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. and like the last season, it’s got a theme. Season 29 was “Explosions,” and this one will be “Skeletons.”
“The premise is that everyone has something in their lives that they don't want to talk about,” says producer Jon Murray. “So when we did our casting this time, in addition to the things we always look for, we wanted people who had some secret like that.”
It’s a way of freshening up the brand, Murray readily admits, and last season with “Explosions” it worked.
“Ratings were up,” he says. “There was renewed interest.”
What it's not, he says, is a gimmick.
“It’s really a way of getting the show back to what we’ve always done best,” he says. “We’re about taking seven young people from diverse backgrounds who are finding out who they are. This is another way for them to do that.”
“The Real World” has gotten considerable attention over the years, positive and negative, because of the diverse ways these young people have spoken and behaved.
Race and sexuality have frequently sparked edgy conversations, like in season 18 between Davis Mallory and Stephen Nichols. Season 9 housemates Julie Stoffer, Melissa Howard and Jamie Murray sparred in sharp terms over race and religion.
At other times, attention has come from behavior that simply seemed loutish. In season 28, Johnny Reilly threw a drink on Nia Moore during an argument. She responded by attacking him.
Drunken excess has been a regular feature in many seasons, leading to some suggestions that “The Real World” caters to “Whoa, dude, didja see that?” voyeurism.
Murray says the real appeal of the show, and the key to its longevity, lies in its broader mission.
“You have to step back and look at the larger picture of what we’ve shown over the years,” he says, and that begins with the diversity.
“When we started in 1992,” he says, “we were one of the first shows to have cast members who were openly gay and lesbian. We cast people from very different cultural backgrounds and of different beliefs. Today you see much more of that on other shows, and my hope is that we contributed.”
As an example of how “The Real World” tackled hard real-life issues, Murray cites one of the show’s best-known alumni, Pedro Zamora from Season 3.
Zamora, who was HIV-positive, died less than a day after that season finished airing.
His often-heated discussions with housemate
David (Puck) Rainey on being gay, and other topics, drew the kind of attention that helped put “Real World” on the broader cultural radar.
“We would have cast Pedro even if he weren’t HIV-positive,” says Murray. “He was matinee-idol handsome, of course, but he also had a lot to say. He was someone who just really wanted to find love.”
What resonated with viewers and the producers, Murray says, wasn’t just the colorful showdowns with Rainey, but Zamora’s relationship with Rachel Campos.
“She came from a very conservative background, not at all the same as Pedro’s,” says Murray. “But she was a Latina, and he was Cuban, and that common experience eventually made them get to know and like each other.”
In a similar vein, he notes the relationship of the very conservative Jon Brennan in Season 2 with Tami Roman, who discovered she was pregnant and decided to have an abortion.
“Jon completely disagreed with her decision,” says Murray. “But he supported her as a friend.”
Those, Murray says, “are the kinds of stories you never would have seen if this show weren't on the air.”
Those stories also wouldn't have been told, he suggests, if “The Real World” had taken the form he and his late co-producer Mary-Ellis Bunim originally envisioned.
They first tried to put together a scripted show about young folks, along the lines of the thenpopular “Beverly Hills 90210.”
But it was too expensive for their financing, so they turned to the cheaper route of reality.
The concept was loosely based on the 1973 PBS series about the Loud family. In many ways, Murray admits, it was a shot in the dark.
“That first season, no one had any idea what we were doing,” he says. “Then we started
to figure it out.”
Some of the lessons were logistical, like “leaving the camera crew on the floor at all times. At first we had them outside and they’d run in to film when something happened. We found that affected the behavior.”
The more important evolution mostly involved casting, says Murray — like the lesson they learned from casting Beth Stolarczyk in season 2. Once filming started, he says, it felt as if her real agenda was promoting her acting career.
“It became clear that she wasn’t there for the reasons she had told us,” he says. “Some of the cast members eventually found her 8x10 promotional photo and ‘outed’ her, which became part of the show.
“After that, we were more careful. We have a much more intense vetting process. We don’t just talk with the references people give us, we talk with other people who know them.”
So at this point is it art or science?
“To be honest, it’s more luck than either one of those,” Murray says with a laugh. “You can have the greatest cast in the world on paper and until the cameras turn on, you don’t know if it will be great television.”
While “The Real World” has had a handful of instances where cast members suggested the producers tried to enhance the action, Murray says the show is wholly dependent on what the housemates bring.
Whatever that is, he says, it’s all fair game.
“They sign something like a 27-page contract, and we pay them,” he says. “That gives us the rights to whatever happens.
“We will occasionally have a discussion over what can go into the show, particularly if it involves some outside person who didn’t sign on. But the people we cast know everything they do or say could go on the air.” That hasn’t discouraged candidates.
“We have people lining up to get on,” says Murray, and social media hasn’t hurt.
“When we started,” he says, “the Internet was just beginning to become what it is today. We were one of the first shows where people could go on message boards and talk about it.
“And because we had a new cast every year, we were a show where viewers could literally become involved.”
While simply being on television has become the pinnacle of human achievement to some people today, Murray says “Real World” applicants have a variety of motives.
“Most people have something they want to say,” he says. “There are others who think this is a way to get some fame. And we don’t automatically disqualify someone who feels that way, if they have other qualities that would work.”
So in the end, count Murray as someone who’s very happy to have gone the reality route.
“As a scripted show, we never would have lasted this long,” he says. “And that means we never would have gotten the diversity of messages.
“We came in with a completely different concept. We changed the cast every year. We went to a new location. That just wasn’t done on television.”
Thirty seasons later, it’s still being done on “The Real World.”
“And if MTV decides it wants a 31st,” says Murray, “we’ve got plenty of ideas for that, too.”