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Now, I've never really been a fan of "reality television," and not just because I think the title is a huge misnomer (how much of reality tv actually depicts anything close to reality?). I think I watched half of the first season of American Idol, and I might have seen a season of Survivor. I used to watch Real World and Road Rules a decade ago when it wasn't just about presenting a really long version of Spring Break.
But now I find the only shows I watch are on either the History Channel or especially the Discovery Channel. I love "Deadliest Catch," I plan to watch "Last One Standing" when it starts tomorrow,and I saw bits and pieces of "Ice Road Truckers," (not quite as exciting but not bad).
Frankly I don't even know why shows like Survivor are even called reality tv. They are game shows. Whenever you have a contest to win prizes, it's game show. All Survivor is, is DoubleDare in remote locations with a lot more stress and a lot more money involved. But shows like "Last One Standing" and "Deadliest Catch" actually DO give us a glimpse of reality. They're documentaries, though presented as contests they depict real life.
What do you guys watch? Do you find you watch the more vapid shows that are really just glorified game shows, or do you watch the shows like The Simple Life, which are less game show and more...well, I guess useless voyeurism, or do you watch shows like "Deadliest Catch"?
I should say that I do sometimes still tune in to Survivor, but I only watch the last 15 minutes, as the only part of the show I like are the obstacle courses and challenges they have to do, I don't much care for the drama portion. And sometimes I tune into Dancing With the Stars for a reason I can't quite put my finger on. But I have to say that I do actually like game shows with celebrities. I actually really like watching the old shows on GSN like Password and especially Match Game, I think they are hilarious.
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I enjoy "So You Think You Can Dance?" for pretty much the same reasons OSC does. I've also taken to watching "Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares," even though I still think he's very rude and kind of a jerk. At least he's actually doing some good, and some of the people really do need yelling at (ick).
But that's about it, really.
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If I want to watch people treat each other like crap, I'm sure there's still a few "family" sitcoms still running. At least then I know it didn't actually happen.
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I finally watched So You Think You Can Dance this past season, and *loved* it. Despite being a competition, it still focused on growth, artistic expression, and the unique. They also were emphatic that while it took incredible skill to make it on the show, it was a specific competion about the audience's favorite dancer, not the BEST dancer. The judges were incredibly perceptive and insightful. I think it's wonderful that so many great choreographers are being introduced to a public that would probably never have had a chance to experience their artform. It managed to be both incredibly entertaining and maintain an outstanding level of professionalism. I also completely agreed with the final two. I am dreading deleting episodes from my DVR; I really wish they would release it on dvd.
Uhm, and I'm addicted to America's Next Top Model, which I mentioned here .
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I liked "Project Runway" a lot. "Deadliest Catch" is pretty cool. On a different note, "Meerkat Manor" is awesome.
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In around 2003 or so PBS had a reality show called...hm...Frontier House, I think. I found it pretty interesting.
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Mm, love Project Runway. Other than finding clothing and fashion incredibly interesting as functional art, I just love Tim Gunn. I love him so much I had to start watching Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.
Way better than any of those other "what to wear" shows, because it's more about class than trends, and really gets into the why and how of what a woman should have in her wardrobe. Tim and Veronica Webb are also way more sensitive and charming than any other hosts of this kind of show. High class, high class. Man, I wish I was friends with that guy. He knows what he's doing.
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I think Colonial House was the one my husband got addicted to on PBS. My husband hates tv so it was pretty funny seeing him get really excited about a show, and reality tv at that.
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Noemon, Meerkat Manor is a wildlife documentary/edited-drama about the struggles of a tribe of meerkats filmed in the wild, lead by a female named Flower. Internal conflicts, raids from other tribes, deliberate infanticide -- a real soap opera.
There was an article in today's Globe and Mail. I'll find it for you. (BRB)
quote:But Hawkins took a deep breath and phoned up Tim Clutton-Brock, the Cambridge University biologist whose research team has been observing meerkats in South Africa's Kuruman River Reserve since 1993. She was ready to be refused outright when she proposed filming on his site for half the year, but was pleasantly surprised: “He just said, ‘If you are going to film meerkats, mine are the ones you are going to want to film.
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Now, Oxford Scientific Film's two-person camera crew spends 26 weeks a year shooting the meerkats, seven days a week from sunrise to sundown, with a break in the heat of the day.
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A day spent following the meerkats about with a camera, or sticking a tiny “lipstick” camera down into a burrow to shoot infrared images, might produce only 30 minutes of footage; the crew sends hours of this back to London with sheets explaining developments in the Whiskers' gang.
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porcelain girl, I completely agree. Tim Gunn is really, really good at what he does, and he exudes classiness. Even his reserved but heartfelt expressions of perturbation are a delight to observe.
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Edited yet again to add:
I think there were two overlapping shows about moderns living the frontier life, set on different channels.
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I also love "Deadliest Catch" and usually pay little or no attention to the "competition" aspect. I never think of it that way as much as I see it as just a running tally of each crew's progress. Its silly to imagine pitting one boat against another when their biggest challenge is staying alive on those waters. Its more in the realm of a long documentary.
"So You Think You Can Dance" is also high on my list. I don't like the "favorite dancer" part because I worry about the whole teenybopper effect, where teen girls keep on the pretty boys over the talented ones. But I highly appreciate the judges who are nothing like their counterparts on "American Idol." Their criticisms range from the brutally honest to the praiseful, but they're always on the mark and helpful. The only thing that bothers me is how much a partners' critique can be affected by the choreography for the week. On occasion it seems they focus too much on the dance as opposed to the dancers. I've seen them praise a choreographer without saying anything about the competitors.
One of my favorite shows has to be "America's Next Top Model." I don't really know why. Mostly, its just fun and colorful and full of silly drama. And sometimes its really great to see shy and awkward girls develop the self-confidence that helps them emerge as beautiful and poised women. I like that Tyra is so much fun and doesn't take herself too seriously and that she seems to be devoted to producing models who are intelligent, kind, and true artists in their craft.
I really miss when Real World was about conflict and personal development, not hookups. The same goes for Road Rules which I LOVED and is no longer a quirky roadtrip but instead some stupid "Challenge" show that is all about reuniting old castmembers who miss the glory days.
EDIT: Completely forgot about Project Runway!! The new season can't start soon enough!! My old roommate and I used to love running around the house impersonating Tim Gunn. "Andrei, what ever happened to Andrei?"
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Thanks CT; sounds intersting. Wonder if it's available on Netflix? ::makes note to check tomorrow::
Scholar, I remember wanting to watch Colonial House, but somehow I never managed to to be near a TV when it was on. Didn't they also have one set in Victorian England? 1900 House, I think it was called? I never watched that one either (and actually had less interest in it than I did in Frontier House and Colonial House).
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I think they did Manor House, Frontier House, Colonial House, and Regency House (which was supposed to be a dating show as well- I didn't like that one at all though). I also have a vague memory of a warrior one of some sort. PBS is hard to watch because they don't have a set schedule so you can't just plan on watching every Tuesday at 8pm.
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Did anyone else ever watch Ladette to Lady? Unruly young women in the UK are sent to a re-opened finishing school and have to master traditional social graces. Despite there being silliness like "flower arranging," the show was incredibly positive and uplifting. A lot of girls that had been acting out from insecurity learned a lot of self confidence and poise. You really start cheering for them. And it's wonderfully British.
Victoria from season two was my favorite. She had the most wonderful husky voice. My roommates and I always mimicked her "G'on, give it a proper stroke!" line.
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I like watching Survivor, it brings back memories of the time when I, and a bunch of people I'd never met before, were dropped on to a deserted island with a TV crew and had to preform totally random tasks and vote on who got kicked off our little island and made to return to civilization.
quote:Originally posted by MEC: I enjoy Ninja Warrior, it kind of falls into the athletic game show variety.
I like that show too! But for the wrong reasons. It has sexy men in it. i want new episodes.
And I also like So You Think You Can Dance. I like it better than Dancing with the stars because of caberet version of Doncha is just corny. Also it is amusing to watch Ramsay yell at people who should be yelled at, but he is nice enough not to cuss in front of his mother.
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Porcelain Girl - that one sounds really interesting!
I loved Frontier and Colonial House. If Stephen didn't have medical issues we would have loved to have gone on one of them.
I watch Dancing with the Stars and just last season got hooked on American Idol. It got my kids singing and helped my 12yo son feel more comfortable with the idea of boys singing. Before that he thought it was too girly (who really knows how adolescent boys' minds work.....).
We like watching Singing Bee (not really a reality show though) because we like to see what songs we remember. I did so well on One Hit Wonder night Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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For a while I was addicted to reruns of The Amazing Race on the Game Show network. I loved the second and third seasons of American Idol, then got tired of it. And I also like America's Next Top Model, although I've missed the more recent seasons. I was definitely interested in the soap opera house party aspects, naturally, but my favorite part was seeing the photos during the judging at the end. It was fascinating to see how different models facing a similar challenge performed so differently. It seems like modeling should be easy--show up, look pretty--but the show made it clear that there's more to it.
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I've never given reality television a chance. I watched two episodes of the the first season of Survivor. I didn't find it, or any of the other glimpses I've had of reality television to entice me to check it out more.
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I've watched a few "reality shows." I did watch "Amish in the City" when it was on (even though the non-Amish "kids" were mostly freakin' idiots.)
I like the Food Network "reality" type series (competition shows, "Throwdown with Bobby Flay", "Iron Chef America", "Dinner: Impossible", etc.) even though they're not really "reality" tv (except "Food Network Competition"-- oh, and "Ace of Cakes." I did watch this season's Next Food Network Star.
I got lots of giggles out of "Who Wants to Be a Superhero" because it was so bad.
I enjoy watching TLC's "family night" programming (now that is real reality tv.) I love "Little People, Big World", "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" (although they moved that to Discovery Health so I don't get it now, boo, but they'll most likely re-run it on TLC next summer), and "Kids by the Dozen" (although they need to make some new ones, I've seen all of them twice by now.) I also enjoy many of their one-off documentaries on individual families (like the Duggars, you all know I'm a Duggar fan), "Take Home Chef" (and he is often in Pasadena, now to dress up one morning and shop in Gelson's... After I clean the kitchen up, of course!), and several of the remodel/redecorating shows they run (but only on an occasional basis.) And of course, "A Baby Story" (and to a lesser extent, "Bringing Home Baby.")
So I guess I do watch "reality" tv-- just not, you know, the big network reality shows.
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I really enjoyed watching the first two seasons of the Surreal Life. I don't know if the others were good, as I didn't have cable when they were on. It's not reallity, but some of those celebrities can be incredibly amusing. Especially Vanilla Ice freaking out, Rev. MC Hammer trying to convert Vince Neil and Ron Jeremy interacting with Tammy Faye.
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I detest shows like "The Simple Life," etc. However I love modern fashion shows like Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and What Not to Wear, although those aren't specifically "reality shows."
I love many of the reality shows on TLC especially LA Ink, despite Cat Von D's atrocious man-like voice.
I fell in love with America's Next Top Model solely because of Tyra Banks and now it's one of my favorite shows, right up there with Project Runway.
So You Think You Can Dance is far better than American Idol, because it hasn't yet become strictly a popularity contest.
And finally [and shamefully] I admit my fully open love for atrocious shows, such as Who Wants to be a Superhero.
And most of all I am ENCHANTED with such classy, beautiful shows such as Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and Rock of Love.
Vh1, you have done the world a favor, and we graciously thank you.
[Clearly, I am someone who DOES watch reality tv.]
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Funn, my roommate and I knew we had been watching Top Model too long when Tyra and the Jays started growing on us.
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My cousin had a bad case of that. All you need is a prescription to get rid of Tyra, but the Jays are incurable. Don't worry, you're fine as long as you don't break out.
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Such a fan of Top Model but more so of Project Runway. It's totally about the fashion on both counts, though I appreciate Tim Gunn as well in the second show.
It's strange, too, because you could count the TV shows I ever make it a point to catch on two hands: Doctor Who whenever it does air, any of the Stargates, reruns of TNG, Lost, occasionally Castle or that new SyFy (ugh) show Warehouse 13, and then the two reality tv guilty pleasures. He he... Castle and Warehouse 13 are more 'there's got to be something on tv to watch' viewings.
Edit: Forgot to mention Top Chef, because sometimes that is a good tv time-filler, too.
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Survivor is one of the best television shows ever ever! I've watched through the 15th season and am obsessed.
It is indeed a reality show, in teh sense that it deals with real people and their reactions to a game-show situation. It's different than a game show, since the object is to observe people and see how they react in different social settings. it is ALL about the drama.
It has such a great spectrum from humanity at some horribly ugly moments, to some of the greatest and most beautiful moments I have ever seen.
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I watch Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and Deadliest Catch.
I pretty much hate the rest of it, although I tend to like the documentary types of shows better, I guess.
I hate all the ghost crap, I get dumber every time my wife turns that crap on. As I wasn't all that bright to start with, it isn't a good thing.
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The one I want to see is that season of Big Brother (or something similar) where zombies invaded and ended up killing everyone...
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