The Official MTV's The Real World Thread

[Faulkner]

 

[Wendy]

My God, this is still on?! I watched the very first and second seasons, as I was the target audience way back in 1992 (at 19/20). Now, maybe it was ALWAYS staged, but at least S1 and 2 gave the impression of being more off the cuff than staged from the never-ending draaaaaaaaaaama the ensuing seasons had.

 

Probably why I quit watching so long ago. But I'll forever have a certain fondness for the original [as I read it went back there] NYC crew of Kevin, Heather, Norm, André, Eric, Julie, Becky - and Gouda, the dog! 

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[Cheap21]

The originals are coming back

 

https://www.vulture.com/2021/02/real-world-homecoming-season-1-reunion-paramount.html 

 

The OG cast of MTV’s landmark reality show The Real World have reunited for a new edition of the series, and you won’t have to wait very long to watch it. The Real World Homecoming: New York, featuring all seven participants from the first season of the show, will debut March 4 as part of the day-one lineup for the soon-to-launch Paramount+. While specifics regarding the format and length are scant, RW Homecoming will consist of multiple episodes and was shot on location at the same Soho loft where those now-infamous seven Gen-X strangers first met 29 years ago next week. A source familiar with the format says the cast spent “several days” together taping the show, which will feature them gathering to “revisit the shocking moments and explosive issues that transpired during the historic season and discuss how they parallel in today’s social climate.”

News of the Real World spinoff was first reported on January 21 via reality-show message board Vevmo, with Reality Blurred’s Andy Dehnart filling out more details later in the month. While Paramount+ and MTV Entertainment Studios are currently only confirming production of this one project, a source confirms to Vulture that it wouldn’t be off base to read something into the title Real World Homecoming — namely that next month’s premiere will be the start of a new franchise of Real World cast reunions. (Dehnart offers more details on why this might be.) Launching the project on Paramount+ rather than MTV makes a lot of sense: The audiences most interested in the new show likely haven’t watched MTV on cable in years, and the buzz around the reunion could be a good way to drive sign-ups. It also fits with MTV Entertainment Studios’ strategy of mining existing IP for new projects. “With Paramount+ being the home to so many global reality hit franchises, it seems only fitting to bring back the franchise and cast that started it all,” said Chris McCarthy, president of MTV Entertainment Group.

 

In case you’ve forgotten (or are too young to remember), Becky Blasband, Andre Comeau, Heather B. Gardner, Julie Gentry, Norman Korpi, Eric Nies, and Kevin Powell were the first seven folks to dive into the cocoon of The Real World back in 1992. While it wasn’t the very first time cameras had followed strangers for weeks on end, the series marked the first time in the United States producers adopted the now-familiar soap-opera-like style of reality shows to tell their story over multiple weeks. The series was an instant hit among Gen-X audiences and helped set the stage for future game-changers such as Survivor. There have now been 32 seasons of the Real World produced for and aired on cable TV and one produced for streaming (2019’s reboot for Facebook Watch). Jonathan Murray, Julie Pizzi, Erica Ross, Kevin Lee, and Trish Gold of Real World production house Bunim/Murray are executive producers of the new show, along with Sitarah Pendelton-Eaglin, Candida Boyette-Clemons, and Nadim Amiry of MTV Entertainment Studios.

 

[alwaysAMC]

29 years?!?  Damn, I feel old now!  Hahaha...  they need to do a San Francisco reunion (although I know they have in the past given Pedro's death), but I still would love to see it.

[Faulkner]

I’d love a Los Angeles one (Tami, Beth, and the gang) in addition to a Frisco one. Lots of controversies to be examined through a 2020s lens. Really any of the seasons through Austin would be interesting, although a lot of RW alumni are overly familiar due to their participation in all of the Challenges. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Faulkner

[DramatistDreamer]

Heather B. and Norman were the chillest in the house, maybe in all the seasons, lol.

[Soapsuds]

My favorite cast member was Danny Roberts

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[All My Shadows]

My prime RW watching years were Paris through Vegas Pt. 2 (except Sydney and Hollywood), so I'd love to see reunions from any of those seasons, but if they're going to pull from the older years first, I'd hope they'd also put the original seasons up, too. I think only the first three have ever been regularly rerun or streamed in recent years.

Edited February 16, 2021 by All My Shadows

[Skin]

I really wish MTV would have played into the Zeitgeist a bit more with this series. Especially with the social issues and needed conversations that America was going through in the 00's and beyond. They really were pioneers tackling conversations around Racism, AIDS, the LGBTQ+ community, Religion, Politics and important issues that a lot of programs were afraid to talk about. It really felt like this show was highlighting and putting issues on the map, and forcing conversations and points of views on so many culturally important topics in America. It later devolved into Real Housewives-esque drama after around the early 2000's, and was basically just trash television not unlike a lot of other reality tv out there. But the potential...

 

Real World really had the potential to be important tv and a real life study. It's kind of a missed opportunity and a bit disheartening that we could have had a hands on live experience of Trumpism on full display if this series had focused itself appropriately. They could have focused the show more on real life events and important socio-political-economic topics. Instead they decided to chase ratings, and throw away the weightier conversations and dynamics that made the show as ground breaking as it was. It really felt like after the Las Vegas season they were just chasing boozy adolescents who would fight all the time. 

 

It's kind of crazy to think that in an alternate universe out there somewhere MTV could have changed the television landscape and matured into a hybrid music/education/culture barometer/news channel that adapted and tapped into important culture moments and led conversation and water cooler talk. But instead it devolved into a worse and worse reality television network and is now no different from Bravo, VH1, TLC and everything else that isn't worth a cable package. There is such a void for a socially conscious television channel not unlike what MTV was in the 90's with Jon Stewart, Jenny McCarthy, Daria and Real World.

[Soaplovers]

Chicago was the last season where any sort of deep conversations happened (happened during 9/11)..and I think ratings dropping helped cause the shift.

 

I know London in season 4...they all got along...2 never left the house to explore London...while everyone else had their own lives.  Which is why in season 5..the group job element was added 

[Faulkner]

I think they attempted a return to topicality with the D.C. season (the one with Mike Manning), but the zeitgeist had moved on by that point.