Real World War Games

[Orestes Hardy]

TheReal World (known as Real World from 2014 to 2017) is an American reality television series produced through MTV and Bunim/Murray Productions that most recently aired on Facebook Watch after airing on MTV from 1992 to 2017. It was originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family. The Real World is the longest-running program in MTV history,[1] one of the longest-running reality series in history, and is credited with launching the modern reality TV genre.[2] Seven to eight young adults are picked to temporarily live in a new city together in one residence while being filmed non-stop.

On June 8, 2018, it was announced that MTV and Bunim-Murray Productions were working on a revival of The Real World, with the hopes of selling the new version to a streaming platform.[6] In 2018, it was announced that the revival had been sold to Facebook Watch for a new American season, plus a Mexican and a Thai version of the show.[7] The thirty-third season was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia and premiered on June 13, 2019, along with the first new international localized versions since 1996: El Mundo Real in Mexico City and The Real World: Bangkok.[8][9] A reboot of the original show for Paramount+ was mentioned in the press in 2021 but never materialized.[10]

On March 4, 2021, the spin-off The Real World Homecoming: New York premiered on Paramount+. The series reunited the cast of The Real World: New York to live in the same loft they lived in for the original series.[11][12] Two more reunion seasons followed.[13] All three seasons were removed from the streaming service in 2023.[14]

The Real World was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family.[15] It focuses on the lives of a group of strangers[16] who audition to live together in a house for several months, as cameras record their interpersonal relationships. The show moves to a different city each season. The footage shot during the housemates' time together was edited into 22-minute episodes for the first 19 seasons, and into 44-minute episodes beginning with The Real World: Hollywood, the series' twentieth season, before shortening to a 30-minute length for its thirty-third season. The narration given over the opening title sequence used during the first 28 seasons by the seven housemates states some variation of the following:

The Real World was originally inspired by the popularity of youth-oriented shows of the 1990s like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place. Bunim and Murray initially considered developing a scripted series in a similar vein, but quickly decided that the cost of paying writers, actors, costume designers, and make-up artists was too high.[17] Bunim and Murray decided against this idea, and at the last minute, pulled the concept (and the cast) before it became the first season of the show. Tracy Grandstaff, one of the original seven picked for what has come to be known as "Season 0",[citation needed] went on to minor fame as the voice of the animated Beavis and Butt-Head character Daria Morgendorffer, who eventually got her own spinoff, Daria. Dutch TV producer Erik Latour claims that the ideas for The Real World were directly derived from his television show Nummer 28, which aired in 1991 on Dutch television.[18] Bunim/Murray decided upon the cheaper idea of casting a bunch of "regular people" to live in an apartment and taping their day-to-day lives, believing seven diverse people would have enough of a basis upon which to interact without scripts. The production converted a massive, 4000-square-foot duplex in Soho, cast seven cast members from 500 applicants, and paid them $2,600 for their time on the show. The cast lived in the loft from February 16 to May 18, 1992. The series premiered three days later, on May 21, 1992.[17]

At the time of its initial airing, reviews of the show were mostly negative. Matt Roush, writing in USA Today, characterized the show as "painfully bogus", and a cynical and exploitative new low in television, commenting, "Watching The Real World, which fails as documentary (too phony) and as entertainment (too dull), it's hard to tell who's using who more." The Washington Post's Tom Shales commented, "Ah to be young, cute, and stupid, and to have too much free time...Such is the lot facing the wayward wastrels of The Real World, something new in excruciating torture from the busy minds at MTV." Shales also remarked upon the cast members' creative career choices, saying, "You might want to think about getting a real job."[17]

Nonetheless, the series was a hit with viewers. One early sign of the show's popularity occurred on the October 2, 1993 episode of the sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live, which parodied the second-season Los Angeles cast's recurring arguments over cliquism, prejudice and political differences.[19][20]

The show also gained widespread attention with its third season, The Real World: San Francisco, which aired in 1994, and depicted the conflict between David "Puck" Rainey, a bicycle messenger criticized for his poor personal hygiene,[21][22][23] and his roommates, most notably AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.[24] As the show increased in popularity, Zamora's life as someone living with AIDS gained considerable notice, garnering widespread media attention. Zamora was one of the first openly gay men with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media,[25] and after his death on November 11, 1994 (mere hours after the final episode of his season aired), he was lauded by then-President Bill Clinton. Zamora's friend and roommate during the show, Judd Winick, went on to become a successful comic book writer, and wrote the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Pedro and Me, about his friendship with Zamora, as well as high-profile[26] and controversial[27] storylines in mainstream superhero comics that featured gay and AIDS-related themes. Zamora's conflicts with Rainey were not only considered emotional high points for that season,[23] but are credited with making The Real World a hit show, and with proving that the infant "reality" television format was one that could bring considerable ratings to a network.[28] By July 1995, the series surpassed Beavis and Butt-head as the network's top-rated show during the fourth season, The Real World: London.[23]

Eric Nies of the New York cast went on to become a model, actor, and television host. His housemate, Kevin Powell, became a successful author, poet,[30] journalist,[15] and politician.[31][32] Their housemate Heather B. Gardner went on to become a hip-hop music artist under the professional name Heather B.[33][34]

San Francisco alum Judd Winick is a noted comic book writer and artist, with the majority of his work appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, including writing such well known characters as Batman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern. Winick also published Pedro and Me, a graphic novel about his friendship with fellow castmate Pedro Zamora, who died of AIDS related complications not long after his experience on the show.

Boston cast member Sean Duffy was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Wisconsin's 7th congressional district in 2010 as a member of the Republican Party. He is married to San Francisco alum Rachel Campos-Duffy, a conservative TV news personality.

Mike Mizanin has also found fame as a WWE wrestler wrestling under the name "The Miz", a character he debuted during the Back to New York season. His successes have included the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[43]

2002 Chicago cast member Kyle Brandt's acting career includes starring in the soap opera Days of Our Lives.[44][45] His castmate Tonya Cooley also appeared on an MTV special of True Life: I'm a Reality TV Star.[46]

Philadelphia cast member Karamo Brown appeared as a cast member on the TV One original reality series The Next: 15 and is the host on Are You the One? Second Chances. He is also the Culture guide on Netflix's Queer Eye reboot. He currently hosts his own talk show, Karamo.

Dozens of former cast members from The Real World and its sister production Road Rules have appeared on the spin-off series The Challenge, which pays $100,000 or more to its winners. Various cast members have also earned livings as public speakers, since Bunim-Murray Productions funded their training in motivational speaking by the Points of Light Foundation in 2002, allowing them to earn between $1,500 and $2,000 for an appearance on the college lecture circuit.[51]

The residence is typically elaborate in its dcor, and for many seasons was furnished by IKEA.[52] The residence usually includes a pool table, a Jacuzzi, and in many seasons an aquarium, which serves as a metaphor for the show, in that the roommates, who are being taped at all times in their home, are seen metaphorically as fish in a fishbowl.[53] This point is punctuated not only by the fact that the MTV logo title card seen after the closing credits of each episode is designed as an aquarium, but also by a poem that Judd Winick wrote during his stay in the 1994 San Francisco house called "Fishbowl".[54] In some seasons, the group is provided with a shared car to use during their stay,[55] or in the case of the St. Thomas season, a chauffeured motorboat to transport cast members from their Hassel Island residence to Charlotte Amalie.[56] There is also a home phone and a computer provided for cast members to have contact with family and friends, as they are not allowed to use their mobile phones during their stay in the house.[citation needed]

Each season begins with the individual members of the house shown leaving home, often for the first time, and/or meeting their fellow housemates while in transit to their new home, or at the house itself. The exception was the Los Angeles season, which premiered with two housemates picking up a third at his Kentucky home and driving in a Winnebago RV to their new home in Los Angeles.The housemates are taped around the clock. The house is outfitted with video cameras mounted on walls to capture more intimate moments, and camera crews consisting of three to six people follow the cast around the house and out in public.[58] In total, approximately 30 cameras are used during production.[59] Each member of the cast is instructed to ignore the cameras and the crew,[58] but are required to wear a battery pack and microphone in order to record their dialogue, though some castmembers have been known to turn off or hide them at times. The only area of the house in which camera access is restricted are the bathrooms.[59]

3a8082e126