The death of reality

At what point did MTV cease to be relevant?

By that, I don't just mean the hack stand-up bits about the music channel never playing music anymore or even cheap shots at Ashlee Simpson's expense - although here is a really fantastic one - I'm talking about the time when MTV was a cultural touchstone.

While I can't claim to remember the first hours of the Buggles or even the first years of Van Halen, The Police and Jesse and the Rippers, I can claim my spot as a member of the Real World generation.

While maybe not right from the start, several summers of limited programming meant that MTV ran marathons at least twice between June and August while school was out. My little sister and I would catch these as they ran back-to-back for a week or more. Of course this was in the days when you could name the Real World seasons in six or seven seconds.

Care to guess how many season we're up to now, kids?

Seventeen.

Seventeen years into the progressive crapening has left the Real World as nothing more than cartoons and thumbnail sketches of human beings marking time until they can get into the bars for the night.

I swear this isn't the beginning of a three-page rant about kids these days or even how recent years have sold out the original premise of the show in favor of younger and better looking cast members, but think back to the first or second seasons (with pictures for reference) and then think of the Las Vegas or this year's casts and you can see the differences almost immediately.

This year has marked the first time that even the guilty pleasure of watching the token bitchy princess try to survive without being eaten by pigeons has paled in comparison to the TVWOP write-ups.

It was three or four seasons ago that you could start to pick out series-specific stereotypes on the first episode of the new season. What was a groundbreaking and powerful show when it launched has become a seasonal display of live-action cartoons who drink too much, have no real responsibility and are left plenty of time to hook up, pick fights and occasionally get arrested.

When all is said and done, they move to LA, sign the same agent and get ready to participate in the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.

It's this sick little self-sustaining world now and it's robbed the show of the richness and reality that were the show's early hallmarks. Not only did life outside the Viacom bubble create compelling television, but it also infused much of the spontaneity. As I watch tonight on TiVo, the main source of drama is an 18-year-old who is trying to find reasons to break up with her boyfriend who calls to read her the riot act about who knows what. Not quite the New York cast tackling racism or Pedro living with AIDS, is it?

Someday, I will probably work up an entire post on the San Francisco cast and why it was outstanding television both on a social and entertainment level. In the meantime, I've definitely lost sympathy for teenagers as they are put up in nice homes without rent and are handed every possible opportunity to get blasted and hump on each other.

The Real World could have kept its edge, fending off challengers from the Surreal Life to Drawn Together but it chose to cater to those looking to beat off to basic cable. I really think the trouble began when the cast members were given employment. Remember when they were actual members of society who came and went as their work, school and personal schedules dictated?

Remember when all cast members weren't accounted for at all times? In the first few years there were musicians (with some seasons like L.A. having two) and cops, doctors and cartoonists and they were responsible for their own transportation. This lent aspects of realism that aren't there anymore as MTV treats cast members like campers at a special needs summer day camp.

Yes, I know I'd be hard-pressed to find many other folks my age who are aware of this year's cast or even care that the old show isn't even identifiable in it's current state. Honestly, if the TiVo didn't grab the reruns, I'd be unaware that the new season had even started.

My proposal is simple - let the TRL crowd keep their implants, frat boys and angry or sensitive meatheads and we'll get a new set every year on VH1 where the cast members work and drive and may disappear for a few hours or a day or two at a time.

No more following guys home as they bury their mothers or are handed small companies, production offices and blank checks. Remember Puck getting an earful for digging in Pedro's peanut butter? It's because Pedro probably had to buy it himself.

In short, cut the fat and the apron strings from the show and the cast and see if the show can become relevant again.

Like the Real World but, you know, real.

(Photos from Wikipedia.com)