Old School Reality TV

[Tea_Time_12]

Literally anything shown on MTV.
The simple life
Sweet sixteen (was so jealous of them all)
Next (anyone remember that where you had to try and last the longest on a date and some girl pissed herself)
The fabulous life of... or true hollywood story
Cribs
Pimp my ride(loved how ridiculous it was)
Bad girls club (I didn't get no sleep cause of y'all)
America's next top model (before all the controversial stuff)
Life of Ryan (fancied him so much)
Viva la bam

I know this isn't all reality, but kinda fits.

I loved watching Life of Ryan to see Ryan and his friend Tony. I had crushes on both of them.

Pimp my Ride was ridiculous. I kept thinking there is no way that would end up being the car that they drove everyday. It became a show piece rather than a daily driver

Old school True Life. Some of those episodes hit hard. It was clear that they ran out of ideas for serious episodes around 2015 or so.

I tried to find Making the Band but can only find clips of it. Day 26 (season 4) first album came out in 2008! Some of their songs were bangers I’m not ashamed to admit. There’s a great clip where Brian A had to sing for this place against a group of new guys. He started singing End of the Road by Boyz II Men and the rest of the boys joined in to support him. One of the best moments of reality tv for me. They were all going for it.

I watched some of Laguna Beach again recently. As a teenager I had a crush on Stephen and wanted him and LC together. As an adult, I can’t believe he had two girls chasing him. He clearly wanted Kristin but she was back and forth with him. It was obvious he only saw Lauren as a friend so seeing her be the girl waiting in the wings was tough to watch. I did that once when I was young and you don’t want those mind games! Kristin and LC deserved better!

 

[Restless Native]

There was a crappy Pussycat Dolls version of making the band as well

 

[emm]

I loved watching Life of Ryan to see Ryan and his friend Tony. I had crushes on both of them.

Pimp my Ride was ridiculous. I kept thinking there is no way that would end up being the car that they drove everyday. It became a show piece rather than a daily driver

Old school True Life. Some of those episodes hit hard. It was clear that they ran out of ideas for serious episodes around 2015 or so.

I tried to find Making the Band but can only find clips of it. Day 26 (season 4) first album came out in 2008! Some of their songs were bangers I’m not ashamed to admit. There’s a great clip where Brian A had to sing for this place against a group of new guys. He started singing End of the Road by Boyz II Men and the rest of the boys joined in to support him. One of the best moments of reality tv for me. They were all going for it.

I watched some of Laguna Beach again recently. As a teenager I had a crush on Stephen and wanted him and LC together. As an adult, I can’t believe he had two girls chasing him. He clearly wanted Kristin but she was back and forth with him. It was obvious he only saw Lauren as a friend so seeing her be the girl waiting in the wings was tough to watch. I did that once when I was young and you don’t want those mind games! Kristin and LC deserved better!

I always thought the cars on pimp my ride would end up stolen, they were often in really rough looking neighbourhoods or just sold on, why would you ever want a car more expensive than your house

 

[Chosen.One]

Becoming on MTV

They’d choose a fan to become their favourite popstar for a day, get a makeover to look like them and recreate one of their videos

 

[Restless Native]

Becoming on MTV

They’d choose a fan to become their favourite popstar for a day, get a makeover to look like them and recreate one of their videos

I vaguely remember Becoming

There's episodes on YouTube

They actually cut all her hair off and styled it like Pink's !

 

[ElectricDreams]

I'm watching the original Cruise docuseries with Jane Mcdonald on BBC 4 at the moment. Its really showing its age! Jane looks about 30 years older than she does now and she's got a posher accent. It follows a few characters but they're so blooming boring and miserable! You wouldn't think they had an amazing glamorous job travelling the world! It's a totally different vibe to the similar shows today who seem to focus on the wackiest characters they can find. To be fair though there's an American passenger who's absolutely off her rocker who's quite funny!

 

[emm]

I'm watching the original Cruise docuseries with Jane Mcdonald on BBC 4 at the moment. Its really showing its age! Jane looks about 30 years older than she does now and she's got a posher accent. It follows a few characters but they're so blooming boring and miserable! You wouldn't think they had an amazing glamorous job travelling the world! It's a totally different vibe to the similar shows today who seem to focus on the wackiest characters they can find. To be fair though there's an American passenger who's absolutely off her rocker who's quite funny!

reality shows have definitely got more staged as time has gone on, if you compare something like Laguna Beach with the City the change is so apparent

 

[Bitofthebubbly]

Adding The Cruise to my watch list. Sounds right up my street

Is it available on iplayer or do you have to watch when it’s on?

 

[Restless Native]

Adding The Cruise to my watch list. Sounds right up my street

Is it available on iplayer or do you have to watch when it’s on?

It's on iplayer

 

[dumdums83]

Did anyone else watch the 2 coreys and house of Carters?

 

[TravellingPants]

I also loved the early days of The Apprentice, same with all the big reality shows before people got wise to what made good telly and realised they could use it as a stepping stone for fame. Ruth Badger was a legend!

 

[HockyRorror]

I used to watch this lesser-known reality show online when I was younger, I was obsessed but really, it was really quite bad.

Warning: Violence and blood

I vaguely remember Becoming

There's episodes on YouTube

They actually cut all her hair off and styled it like Pink's !

I forgot about that show! SOme of them were hit some of them were a miss That linked one was good though I thought!

 

[Tea_Time_12]

Side note but did anyone else grow up watching the daytime talk shows? My younger self low key loved the paternity test drama on Maury. As an adult it makes me sad to remember it. Most of the girls were so young and admitted to wanting a baby because the baby would love them.

I can’t find the video anywhere but there is an infamous line from the Jenny Jones show that lives rent free in my head. A women on stage was talking about how everyone says she’s good looking. An audience member stands up and tells her “somebody lied to you sister. You need to sit yourself down!”

 

[The_Bay_2_LA]

Rock of Love

 

[Dojuno]

Undercover Lovers! Me and my sister were obsessed! It was on Trouble (what a channel) - managed to find its name by googling narinda from BB2 as she presented one of the series
MTV had a really similar show a couple of years ago presented by Maya Jama with Danny dyer on voiceover, you might be able to rewatch that still - it wasn't a patch on the original mind

Omg you absolute hero!!! Thank you!

 

[Warpaint]

There's a great series on Sky Arts called 'The 2000's' which goes through all the golden age of reality TV and how there was a culture shift.

 

[HockyRorror]

There's a great series on Sky Arts called 'The 2000's' which goes through all the golden age of reality TV and how there was a culture shift.

I don’t know how far back it goes but before that they did the 1990’s too.

 

[emm]

I don’t know how far back it goes but before that they did the 1990’s too.

is it avaliable anywhere else? this sounds really interesting!

 

[HockyRorror]

is it avaliable anywhere else? this sounds really interesting!

I’ve only seen it on Sky Arts. Episode 1 of the 2000’s was on yesterday(?) and before that it was the 1990’s. I’m not sure if it’s an old series or not though. They focus on different things each episode. In the 1990’s there was a technology and politics (I think) episode and the 2000’s episode the other day focused on television (like American Idol, Big Brother, Survivor etc). I think it’s American based/American made

 

[Warpaint]

I don’t know how far back it goes but before that they did the 1990’s too.

I didn't mind some of the 90's episodes but it got too American at times so couldn't relate to all of it. The music episode was good though. I think BBC did a British version but they might have only got up to the 80's

is it avaliable anywhere else? this sounds really interesting!

Sky on demand maybe? Don't have sky so don't know their catch up services. But shows on Sky Arts are repeated often so you'll probably be able to catch it at some point