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Today's Reality Shows Hardly Resemble Predecessors

Tuesday, June 17 2008

One of the original reality shows, An
American Family featured the Loud family.

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to shoot a reality TV show, ABC is showing clips of deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes activities of The Mole. Contestants said there is a lot of waiting time between shootings, which offered them a lot of reading time.

“Bring a lot of books,” Alex, Craig and Paul suggested to anyone who might be a contestant on a reality show such as The Mole. Ali and Alex told the cameras that they spent a lot of their downtime stretching and preparing for the physical tasks the show required of them.

During “ice time” when players are off-camera the contestants were not allowed to talk to each other. Filmmakers said they want to catch all player conversations on film. Real reality TV is not scripted but hundreds of hours of raw footage that is sifted through and edited can make it appear as if the taping is smooth as silk.

One of the first reality TV shows on record is An American Family from 1973. According to Wikipedia, it was a documentary that began with the taping of four families and 300 hours of footage. Cameras rolled 24/7 for months and then producers whittled the footage down to just one family, the most intriguing and appropriately-named, the Loud family.

Today's shows bring contestants together
like a family, complete with feuding.

Today’s reality TV doesn’t even resemble what it was back then. Modern day reality TV has stretched the boundaries on almost every controversial issue out there – with people of all walks of life taking center-stage, laying it all out there for their “15 minutes of fame.” It’s the only chance an average Joe or Jill can rise to the next topic of conversation around the water cooler, or work for Donald Trump, or start a new catch phrase, such as, “I could kill you while you sleep and not leave any forensic evidence.”

While the The Mole doesn’t seem to project any political or controversial vibes, it has managed to capture the physical competitiveness of Survivor and the mental challenges of Clue in its paranoia reality show, a format unlike any other.