Monday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
The Degradation of
Reality
Do you remember the
heady excitement of the
first season of MTV’s
“The Real World”? The
Emerald editorial board does. We
were going to get to see real peo
ple, doing real stuff in the privacy
of their home. Ooh. It was
voyeurism at its best, mixed with
the refreshing thought of unscript
ed young people, saying and doing
whatever they felt like. At the
time, “The Real World” seemed
like a fantastic antidote to the stilt
ed dialogue and overly contrived
settings of the garbage sitcoms that
were being aired.
Unfortunately, none of those
qualities were what tempted us to
take a peek at “Temptation Is
land,” Fox’s latest entry in the real
ity-TV craze. The reality genre has
been degraded to the point where
the only real allure to watch is to
see how stupid the people will act
and to ogle the hotties. Don’t get us
wrong; reality shows were never a
pinnacle of highbrow program
ming. But they used to be innova
tive.
The initial surge of reality TV
was refreshing. The people on
“The Real World” acted like real
people and said things that were
recognizable as actual conversa
tions. Who can forget Puck dip
ping his finger into the peanut but
ter? These early episodes were not
contrived. When MTV brought out
“Road Rules,” some staging was
added to the mix, but it was still
interesting to see how real people
would act in stressful situations,
packed into a tiny RV.
The genre has now been turned
into a stage for wanna-be actors,
models and dysfunctional weirdos
seeking their 15 minutes in the
blue light of television fame. On
CBS’ “Big Brother,” the interesting
people were voted off so quickly
that the fascination died. Fox’s
“Who Wants to Marry a Million
aire” was so staged and offensive
that the network backed away
from it almost as soon as it aired.
Then came
CBS’ “Sur-’
vivor” and
ABC’s “The
Mole.”
What was once
r
surdity. Ap
parently, five
men will be
chained to a
woman, and the
six-sgme will have to
iuii aiiu U1114LIC lias
become so old and tired
that network executives
are concocting ever-more
unusual situations to put people
in. Not only are the settings horri
bly contrived, but the people
know darn well that they need to
perform for the camera.
On “Temptation Island,” the
non-actors seem to think they have
to ham it up, acting as melodra
matic as possible about perhaps
the silliest set-up yet imagined.
The new “Survivor” is sure to
disappoint, because the new sur
vivors are now painfully aware
that scheming and strategizing is
the only way to win. The whole
thing has gone so over the top that
Richard Hatch, the winner from
the first version of “Survivor,” is
going to write a weekly column
about the strategic moves made by
the non-actors.
Besides viewers, the real losers
in this mania are professional ac
tors and writers. TV executives
have learned that they don’t need
to pay for professionally produced
entertainment, as long as ordinary
(or not so ordinary) people are
willing to whore themselves for
the camera and prizes. Top sitcom
actors can cost $100,000 or more
per episode; the only talent ex
pense for the entire season of “Sur
vivor” was $1 million. This seems
like a good business decision for
networks, especially with the Ac
tors Guild and the Writers Guild
threatening strikes.
We’ve heard that a new reality
show, “Chains of Love,” is going to
take the genre to new lows of ab
uu everyuung rogeuier.
The woman will choose
to unchain one man each
week. We can’t even imagine
what will be the prize, or the
point, of this insanity.
As long as people keep being tit
illated by the ideas and tune in to
the shows, there’s no end in sight
for reality TV. What is it about us,
as humans, that drives us to watch?
Sure, it can be fun to look at barely
clothed cuties, but there’s better
stuff available on the Internet. Is it
just the old adage that people like
to slow down at a car wreck, or is
there something more at work? Per
haps Americans are so awash in
dysfunction that they need ever-in
creasing levels of oddity to pique
their interest. Maybe it’s just the
thrill of watching people degrade
themselves for the chance to be
seen doing so in front of millions of
people.
A new movie, “Series 7,” is soon
slated for release. This movie ex
amines a fictional reality TV show,
“The Contenders,” where the con
testants are armed and have to
shoot each other to stay alive until
next week. Supposedly, the movie
is a wickedly dark satire of the real
ity genre, but the idea makes us
wonder: With all the costs of mak
ing a movie, why didn’t the pro
ducers just find people willing to
play the game for real, and save
themselves the expense of doing it
fictionally?
We pray that reality TV will nev
er degrade us all in such a fashion.
It would be nice if the networks
would stop trying to outdo cable by
offering overdone tawdry
voyeurism, and instead return to
writing and producing quality sto
ries that people want to watch.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editorial board. Responses
can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Poll Of The Week
Forthoseofyouunfamiliarwithour
Website, the Emerald has started a
weekly online poll on topics of
interesttothecampuscommunity.
The poll can be accessed from the
main page of our Web site,
http://dailyemerald.com. We will
post a n ew q u estion eve ry Su n day
afternoon. Every week in thisspace,
we will printthe results of the last
week’s poll and the poll question for
the next week. We encourage you to
send usfeedbackaboutthe poll
questions and results.
This week’s poll question:
What does “PFC” stand for?
The choices:
Personal Fun Center
Progressives ForChange
Programs Finance Committee
Personal Finance Club