Reality TV vent. Love it or hate it?

Yes, I'm a child of the mtv generation.  I watched Real World.  Heck, I even watched some Road Rules.  It started off simple enough with shows like Fear Factor and Survivor.  Then there were shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills (that had nothing better to do than follow spoiled rich teenage brats around to document their love lives and drinking binges). 

Then we moved on to things like The Simple Life and America's Top Model (that focused on the "beautiful people").

Then it got even worse with shows like The Gotti's (yes, because we love following the families of felons around) and The Osbournes (because everyone loves an aging rock star).

Now we are blessed with the likes of John and Kate, parading their kids around on whatever silly network they are on (thanks CD).  And we have the Octo-mom with the "clown car of a uterus" (thanks again, CD) who is single, can't even afford her house but managed to afford fertilization treatment, and is shopping around to every network to try to sell her little reality show as well.  Let's not forget The Pickup Artist (because everyone loves getting picked up by a "pimp" in a bar) and the Rock of Love (because once again, everyone loves an aging womanizer of a rockstar).

The list goes on, folks.  We've recently had the Real Housewives (because we just love seeing a bunch of self proclaimed "high class" women acting like a bunch of trailer park rejects who married into money). Now we have a brand new show called NYC Prep.  This one is a doozy.  It follows around a bunch of rich private school kids (God only knows what these kids' parents were thinking when they signed the release forms for that show).

So tell me.  What do you think of reality TV.  Love it?  Hate it?  Tell us about it.  Heck, go nuts. 

Hate it. Why do we turn on TV to see reality? And 'reality' in the loosest sense... spoiled celebrities and Americans. Competitions against  . People spitting their misinformed opinions out for people who don't know any better to cling to, a world focused on physical image. All for children to see. Pointless displays of 'talent'. Why don't we go outside anymore? What use does TV serve at all? It's all stupid, actually, in my opinion. I've tried multiple times to get the televisions out of the house but my parents are too attached.

It`s a quite interesting concept, too bad most of it is fake, or at least much more scripted than they`ll have you believe.

Once you get your head around to that, there`s no reason why you can`t enjoy it every now and then. Nothing wrong with watching wrestling, is there?

When I don`t feel like music, I sometimes have stuff like Survivor going in the background while I do school work, read or get some cleaning done, because I know I wouldn`t be able to watch a movie attentively while engaged in those activities. It`s light entertainment to me, because I never take it seriously.

Good scripted shows don't even have a chance on network TV because of reality tv.  I hates it.

Right, ily.  That's the thing.  Some things can't be taken seriously.  Obviously most people realize that Survivor might be a little rigged.  Most people realize that Real Housewives might be way edited.  But there are still things that tend to concern me.  For instance, the growing number of parents that choose to have abnormal numbers of kids and then shove those kids in front of a camera in order to make money.

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

Good scripted shows don't even have a chance on network TV because of reality tv.  I hates it.

 I'm going to have to agree, jewels.  My favorite shows are scripted.  They have writers and actors and a decent story line.  And they are getting canceled left and right due to alot of the reality shows.

Edit:  I will admit that one of my guilty pleasures is Orange County Choppers.  But that's not even for the story line.  I don't really even care if Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. get along.  I just love watching them build those awesome bikes.

They yanked Pushing Daisies off the air this season.

I recently rented the series The Black Donnellys.  It's a crime drama that was shown on NBC in 2007.  Apparently they didn't even get to air the full first season before NBC yanked it. 

IT'S A GREAT SHOW!  Fabulous for network TV!  But no...people were too busy watching Survivor, Big Brother, and So You Think Yo Momma is an American Idol with Talent Who Can Dance with D-List Celebrities While Traveling Across the Globe in a Amish Buggy with Her 35 Children to give the show a chance.  Not enough viewers, blah blah blah. 

I'll never get to know what became of the Donnelly brothers.

Pretty much all of my favorite shows were canceled far too soon.  That either means I have a very weird taste in programming, or that the majority of TV viewers prefer swill.

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

So You Think Yo Momma is an American Idol with Talent Who Can Dance with D-List Celebrities While Traveling Across the Globe in a Amish Buggy with Her 35 Children....

 Yes!  Now that is a show I can really boycott!

BTW, Pushing Daisies was decent and fun and witty.  ABC is the devil.  Just so you know, I wrote a strongly worded letter to them recently.

I HATE shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills because I don't see the point of delving into the lives of random people I don't care for, and the cast are really annoying and spoilt and bratty

I LIKE things like Big Brother (The UK version is so much better than the American version, haha)

I LOVE America's Next Top Model (And Britain's and Canada's and Australia's, though America's is by far the best)

It's my only essential tv viewing
I BLOODY ADORE IT!

Anyone into ANTM? Pm me :D

I will admit that one of my guilty pleasures is Orange County Choppers.  But that's not even for the story line.  I don't really even care if Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. get along.  I just love watching them build those awesome bikes.

I love to catch an episode of OCC every once in awhile. I love the bikes, but I love the Jr and Sr fights even more. And the pranks they pull on each other are awesome.

I also love Ace of Cakes. The characters are fantastic and the cakes are even better.

As far as the competition shows I like Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen and that design show (lost the title right now, too lazy to look it up).

The rest of the reality shows need to just go away.

My guilty pleasure is Survivor. I admit I actually follow it. It's fun to watch the interaction of the characters and the odd competitions for imunity and rewards are interesting in their variety.

The only "reality" shows I watch are survivorman, bear grills (whatever his show is) and deadliest catch.

Rock of love? stupid. jon & kate? stupider. Real housewives?? really? the simple life? Survivor & big brother-types are annoying. The people are plain annoying as hell.

I haven't even HEARD of the other shows y'all mentioned!

Overall rating? HATE THEM. I count the ones I watch as "real drama", not as bizarro what-the-eff "reality shows". hehehe

I love them!  I'm addicted to them.  I tivo them.  I watch them until all hours of the night.

College life, Rock of Love, Daisy of Love, Charm School, Flavor of Love...

I guess I like the ones that are more like a train wreck!  They're all like a really, really good episode of Jerry Springer.  I guess the people on these shows make me feel "normal".

i'm very selective.  i still watch survivor and the amazing race.  i love gene simmons' family jewels .  oh - and i confess to being a bit of a BB junkie.  i don't pretend they reflect any kind of reality, though.  actually, i tend to think they reflect the craziest, weirdest, most attention-seeking side of american culture. 

and most of the shows listed here i've never seen; many i've never heard of.

as far as the scripted shows, i find that the quality on cable is much higher than that on the networks, and they don't require an audience of 50 million to stay on the air.  think saving grace, for instance, and BSG.

the network shows (say, grey's anatomy, desperate housewives for instance) often seem to start strong, but by the second our third season they've lost their vision.

Absolutely HATE IT!!  It is the ruination of our society!  A bunch of dimwitted, non-talented idiots who somehow become "celebs?"  Right.  Yes, I do not get it at all!!  It is a waste of TV air time and space.  They are rediculous!!

Oh, I'm addicted. I know most people (as this clearly shows) loathe this kind of stuff but it's like candy to me, I don't know why. Anyone see the Real Housewives last night? HA I think, at least for me, it's entertaining to even imagine that there are "real" people who are so....out there.

Amazing Race, Big Brother, and Family Jewels.

But I never used to watch it. . . The Bachlorette! Just because it's a good ol' Canadian girl with stupid men. LOL

oh I think reality tv shows are hilarious!  My personal favorites are Rock of Love (all three seasons) and I Love Money on VH1.

I love when they play ANTM as a marathon on a Sunday, and I can just veg all day.

And this might be because I'm a masochist, but I love-love-love any reality tv to do with food. Kitchen Nightmares is my fave.

Favorite realty show, by far, is Deadliest Catch. You can't fake 30 foot seas and 50 knott winds.

I also like reality cooking shows - Top Chef, Food Network Challenge, Chopped, Ace of Cakes, etc. At least there's something to learn there.

Far and away prefer to watch people doing extraodinary things rather than watch people whine about their lack of hair gel/wish to date a younger man/agonize over their French manicure/or show the world how bitchy they can be just because they are getting married.

Yeah, I forgot about Deadliest Catch and I like Ice Road Truckers. There was a new one this year about loggers. Only caught a few minutes of it once. I'm sure it's in line with Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers.

I'm with Kathy, the reality cooking shows are great as there is something to learn and I get great ideas for technique and combination of flavors. I sew and do crafts so if I can veg out to the design shows as well and get ideas and inspiration.

I love Food Network Next Chef or whatever...not even sure if that's the name, but ya'll get the gist.  I love anything that plays on HGTV where something can be learned.  I hate anything else that falls into the realm of 'reality' TV.  I live reality everyday...what's considered 'reality TV' is a far cry from my life.  I like sitcoms.  Really, whatever happened to shows along the lines of "Happy Days" and "I Love Lucy" and "Andy Griffith."  I have about an hour that I watch TV each day and it's always something like "Becker", "Wings", "Everybody Loves Raymond".  At least I laugh you know?