My friends at work and I were just reminiscing about The Real World, since the new season is starting soon. The problem is, I probably won’t watch it. These kids basically look like babies to me now. I’m only 27, but I can’t help but cringe while watching, and think to myself “who gave that child a beer!?” (Remember when Montana got in trouble for giving that kid a sip of wine? I was totally on her side for that one.)
Anyways, Wikipedia is incredibly handy for someone like me with no memory whatsoever. They have every single season with pictures and details about the cast members. Otherwise, they all just blend together in my head. I could probably read these wikipedia entries for HOURS if I had that kind of time.
I think I watched a little bit of London, but since I was only 11 I don’t remember much except for that guy, Neil?, getting his tongue bitten off and that nice black British woman having to get some kind of surgery on her throat. I started watching in earnest when I was 12, almost 13, and the Miami season started. That threesome in the shower between Mike, Rachel, and some unknown girl with Flora trying to climb in the window totally blew my mind. I had no idea that was what being an adult was going to be like! Not even the sex part, just the fact that you can do whatever you want, and everything is fun. (I guess I was sorta right.) From then on, I was hooked, and I dreamed of when I would be old enough to apply and be on the show. Of course, when I finally did get old enough to apply I realized I would NEVER want to be on the show but that’s neither here nor there, right now.
From Miami to Chicago there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. There are probably some I love more than others- Boston was great, Hawaii was nuts, Back to New York was awesome since I’m from NYC. But they were all stellar. Then Las Vegas had to come along and ruin everything. THAT SHIT WAS CRAZY. It was definitely fun to watch, but it was nowhere near the same vibe as the others. From then on, it just wasn’t the same. But please don’t ask me to explain, I can’t tell you what happened, I can only guess. Maybe because I was finally in my 20s, it just didn’t have the same allure as it used to. Maybe I was sick of these idiot kids acting like well, idiots. I still watched Paris through Austin but it wasn’t the same, and I gave up entirely during Key West. I haven’t watched a season in its entirety since about three episodes into that one and I had no idea there have been so many seasons since. It just kind of died, for me.
And now we have Jersey Shore, which I love probably more than I should. I mean, L-O-V-E. I actually really care about these crazy guido kids, and I don’t want it to ever end. I always used to wonder what would happen if some of these Real World casts had to come back and film another season together. You sometimes got a little bit of that on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge but not the same way as if they had to be back in the house again. So I guess we get something like that with Jersey Shore, we get to form connections to them, and they are definitely way more famous than any of the Real World kids ever were… except maybe Coral (love ya girl!) I get that Jersey Shore is going for a different angle, but I’m so happy to have a new MTV reality show that I care about working into my schedule and making sure I don’t miss every week. It’s not just reality, it’s an EVENT. I love having an event again. MTV definitely invented reality TV, and anyone who doesn’t believe that isn’t worth my time.
*PS: Gina said “remember how they used to be only half an hour and now they’re an hour?” and I was like “NO WAY! They were always an hour!” Yeah, check the little note at the bottom of this chart. I’m an idiot. I told you my memory was bad.
