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MTV's The Real Real World
Goes behind the scenes of MTV's reality-based television series, and explains how they were selected.
- GenresNonfictionPop Culture
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 26, 2016
Welcome back to the 1990s, when reality television was still vaguely documentary-style, roommates argued over who was on the phone too much, favorite bands included Nirvana and the Violent Femmes, people filled out applications and wrote letters by hand, young people deliberately tried NOT to look like assholes on TV, and they stopped being polite, and started getting Real. This book is a lot of fun for those of us who grew up watching the original MTV series The Real World, which bears exactly zero resemblance to the newer incarnations of the show, and focuses on the casts of the first four seasons-- New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London, circa 1992-1995.
(quick sidenote-- when I received this book from my recent BetterWorldBooks order, I realized I owned it and had read it about twenty years ago in high school, probably purchased from a trip to the mall with my newly acquired drivers license and bought at the local Walden Books with money from my telemarketing job. Yeah, let that sink in for a minute while I sign up for the AARP magazine. In fact, this could actually be the same copy I used to own, as it, according to the packing slip, hails from Maryland.)
This book is not a great book for anyone who wasn't a Real World junkie, but for me, reading it was surprisingly satisfying, and akin hanging out with some old friends-- my favorites being Heather B. and Norman, Dominic and Aaron, Pam and Judd, and Neil and Kat and Jacinda. It was fun, and it was bizarre to read about life in the 1990s written in the present tense. People played tapes. They had one landline telephone for seven roommates. The people cast on the show back then tended to have jobs, be artists or musicians, have political leanings, had to live on a budget, didn't want to be drunk all the time (well, ok, Dominic totally DID want to be drunk all the time, but he was the exception, not the rule), generally tried NOT to do things on television that would make their grandmothers embarrassed, the casts would take one trip per season together, but really, the show really was more like "the real world". The seven strangers, though encouraged to get to know each other, all had their own jobs, hobbies, education (many attended school WHILE on the show, versus dropping out to BE on the show). This led to varied casts who had substantial discussions amongst themselves, made organic friendships (and some enemies), pursued dreams, were broke because young people tend to be broke, learned about their new environments/cities, and somewhat grew up before our eyes. It was cool reminiscing about the time period, remembering the casts, as I read this book.
Then I realized that even the youngest of cast members from this book's seasons would be 41 (Kat and Jay) and the oldest would have just turned 50 (Kevin). And then I felt really old. But four stars for serious fun.
(quick sidenote-- when I received this book from my recent BetterWorldBooks order, I realized I owned it and had read it about twenty years ago in high school, probably purchased from a trip to the mall with my newly acquired drivers license and bought at the local Walden Books with money from my telemarketing job. Yeah, let that sink in for a minute while I sign up for the AARP magazine. In fact, this could actually be the same copy I used to own, as it, according to the packing slip, hails from Maryland.)
This book is not a great book for anyone who wasn't a Real World junkie, but for me, reading it was surprisingly satisfying, and akin hanging out with some old friends-- my favorites being Heather B. and Norman, Dominic and Aaron, Pam and Judd, and Neil and Kat and Jacinda. It was fun, and it was bizarre to read about life in the 1990s written in the present tense. People played tapes. They had one landline telephone for seven roommates. The people cast on the show back then tended to have jobs, be artists or musicians, have political leanings, had to live on a budget, didn't want to be drunk all the time (well, ok, Dominic totally DID want to be drunk all the time, but he was the exception, not the rule), generally tried NOT to do things on television that would make their grandmothers embarrassed, the casts would take one trip per season together, but really, the show really was more like "the real world". The seven strangers, though encouraged to get to know each other, all had their own jobs, hobbies, education (many attended school WHILE on the show, versus dropping out to BE on the show). This led to varied casts who had substantial discussions amongst themselves, made organic friendships (and some enemies), pursued dreams, were broke because young people tend to be broke, learned about their new environments/cities, and somewhat grew up before our eyes. It was cool reminiscing about the time period, remembering the casts, as I read this book.
Then I realized that even the youngest of cast members from this book's seasons would be 41 (Kat and Jay) and the oldest would have just turned 50 (Kevin). And then I felt really old. But four stars for serious fun.
June 22, 2007
I only own this because I'm in it. About a quarter inch high, but I'm in it!
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March 6, 2018I wish I still owned this gem. There was even an application in the back of the book!
September 12, 2016
Read this years ago when I used to watch the show.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews