Thoughts?

[witzend]

I have to say, I'm not at all surprised. I don't believe that ANY of the "reality shows" are "real". But people really believe these programs. FWIW, one particular couple of my neighbors love this and many of the other "reality" (scripted if you ask me) shows, and last year when they mentioned it she told us, "They invented the duck call." I think I said something along the lines of, "Hmm." She said, "You know - the duck call. Those things that hunters make duck sounds with. They invented it." I always wondered why their wives looked so normal, and I guess this is why. I see a lot of men in this area who look like this and their wives don't look at all like these guys wives look.

Now they've got this program where a "hillbilly" family moving to Beverly Hills. As if... Why are people so gullible?

 

[BusynMember]

I used to love Judge Judy until I read that it was fixed in advance and everyone was paid before the show. It was a long article and interviewed a few people who had been on the show so I guess most of it was just acting. They all got paid, even the one who was found to be in the wrong.

Of course, everyone knows Jerry Springer hires actors.

I don't like reality shows because I have heard a buzz that none of them are totally not rehearsed.

 

[donna723]

I do watch Duck Dynasty, even though quite a bit of it is obviously scripted and the situations are "manufactured". Why? Because parts of it are just hysterically funny, scripted or not! I KNOW people like that!

I don't think this family was ever really "poor" but then they never claimed to be. They appeared to be quite "yuppiefied" in their earlier years. They are far from ignorant. Most of them have college degrees and some even have multiple degrees. Phil, the father, was quite the football star in college and was, in fact, teammates with Terry Bradshaw. But Terry Bradshaw was HIS backup, not the other way around!

Obviously the behaviors and the situations are exaggerated for the show. But it IS still possible to be a well educated hunting, fishing, camouflage wearing "good ol' boy". I've lived in the south most of my life and I do know people like this!

 

[SuZir]

I always find it interesting, how in the NA hunting, fishing etc. are considered the activities for poorer, uneducated 'lower classes.' Here in Northern Europe they are popular in every socio-economic subgroups, but elsewhere they tend to be rather upper class or wealthy people pursuits.

But to the topic of 'reality shows', I do enjoy some. Some totally mindless ones or obviously half-scripted too. But I have to love how our currently most popular reality-type show is made. It has a classical reality competition show format. Audience votes someone to be eliminated every week and so on. But the gist is, that 'competitors' are sketch characters created by real, paid actors. It is great fun, you don't have to feel bad for eliminated characters and if it is fixed; who actually cares.

 

[donna723]

I guess it all depends on what you consider to be a "reality show". I just refuse to watch the trashier ones - they just seem to be aiming lower and lower. And I refuse to watch shows like Honey Booboo because those people are just nauseating! I do watch some of the police and crime/investigation shows and the "scared straight" type shows because I worked in that field for so many years before I retired.

The one show I did get very invested in was "The Little Couple", the one with the married couple who are both "little people". She's a doctor, he's a business owner. I just got so attached to those people as they were struggling to have a child, first through failed attempts at IVF, then surrogacy which also failed, and parts of it were just heartbreaking. Then I got happy right along with them when they adopted an adorable little boy, also a dwarf, from China. This is one of the best of the "reality shows" and it's very hard not to get caught up in it.

 

[DammitJanet]

I dont watch Duck Dynasty but I am a fan of some of the reality shows. Most folks know I love AI and DWTS. I also love Judge Judy and People's Court. I didnt know that Judy was scripted. That makes me feel bad. I know they say at the beginning of People's Court that the people are not actor's and are real people who have suits in small claims court. I also love the legal shows. The new one Cold Justice is great.

 

[witzend]

But it IS still possible to be a well educated hunting, fishing, camouflage wearing "good ol' boy". I've lived in the south most of my life and I do know people like this!

I agree wholeheartedly. So why the big rush to make everyone from the South look like a dumb bumpkin. Are we not interesting enough unless people can poke fun and say how backwards we are?

 

[tiredmommy]

The only reality shows I watch are on HGTV because it's not really about the people but about the house, lol!

 

[witzend]

I love the shows like "Cold Justice", "Disappeared", used to love "Cold Case Files", those kinds of shows as well. husband always says "She's trying to figure out how to get away with killing me!" and I joke back "Honey, they always get caught in the long run, I know because of these shows!"

I feel that dumbing people like the daughter stars down is insulting to everyone down here. It gives a bad impression. I won't watch DWTS or AI because it's too easy to fix, and there are some people who do it on a grand scale, gaming the computers for thousands of votes in a stroke of a key. I'm not much interested in Honey Boo-Boo or the Tiara's shows.

L was into these shows from day one. Her dad was rarely home and she was 11 years old and didn't want to see us because we wouldn't let her watch "Real World". She loves to create drama in that way. Where do you suppose she got the idea that she was going to invest a year in "getting the career of wife and mother" (her words, not mine) from? The Bachelor. Her fascination with these fake "reality" programs and her mimickery of them was enough for me to never get invested them.

 

[donna723]

There is one lesser known show called "The Squad" that is pretty dead on. It was the limited edition show on A&E about the Internal Affairs people who work for the Tennessee Dept. of Correction. There were only about a dozen shows filmed and about half of them were done in the close security prison where I worked. Those people were there filming for at least two months and we learned to just go around them. Their depiction of what life in a REAL prison is like and what really goes on there was extremely accurate. They focused on showing how their investigations are conducted and it shows real inmates and the real prison staff doing what they do.

The only apparent liberties that I can see they took was in some of the scenes they showed as "fillers" between the action scenes. They would show a segment filmed inside our institution, then switch to outside shots of the old Tennessee State Prison in Nashville, the massive castle-like pre-Civil War structure that has been used in several movies, or they would show outside scenes from other institutions. But unless you were familiar with them, you would never know.

I love to watch them, especially the ones we saw being filmed. I know all of the employees they show - my former co-workers, and I also know many of the inmates that were involved in the show.

 

[MyFriendKita]

I agree wholeheartedly. So why the big rush to make everyone from the South look like a dumb bumpkin. Are we not interesting enough unless people can poke fun and say how backwards we are?

I don't think this is new. I went to college in the South, and one of the pieces of advice we were given by the instructors was to lose our accents. This was 20 years ago, before these shows started airing. They said having a southern accent would make it more difficult to get a job, because people would think we weren't intelligent. And this point of view isn't limited to northerners regarding southerners. It also applies to big city dwellers and their opinion of residents of small towns, city dwellers vs. country dwellers, etc.

 

[DDD]

I have spent years as a child advocate and literally "taught myself" to not be judgemental of those from different backgrounds. I was proud of my expanded perceptions UNTIL I saw Honey Boo Boo! OMG my stomach turns...the vulgar images make me want to buy a shotgun and
blow up my television! LOL DDD

 

[muttmeister]

I don't watch ANY reality shows. I know enough morons in real life that I don't want to waste my time watching them on television.

 

[SuZir]

I don't watch ANY reality shows. I know enough morons in real life that I don't want to waste my time watching them on television.

But here is a thing: It is kind of comforting that they are not your morons.

At least that is my husband's excuse for watching many trash reality tv shows: "Hey, look! I bet his/her parents are even more ashamed of their offspring than we are! We are lucky in comparison!"

 

[dstc_99]

Add in Moonshiners, Swamp People , Buying the Bayou, and my new favorite one about Ginseng in the Appalachian Mountains and there is a definite curve towards making southern seem stupid. I watch them but i am well aware many of them are scripted at least somewhat.

What bothers me is how people latch on to these people like they are their heroes or mentors. Seriously they are just people. People with money or without and they are definitely not out there trying to make you into their mini me.


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[BusynMember]

I have to agree that shows like daughter make many people up North think things about Southerners that are stereotypical and I'm quite sure...untrue. I can't tell you how many people have made crude southern daughter jokes around me, like everyone down there is that way.

Janet, I was sooooooooooooooooo disappointed about Judge Judy. The fun of it for me was seeing who'd she'd tell off and who would win. Kind of a trashy way to pass the time, but I liked it. As soon as I heard it was figured out in advance (and they are NOT paid actors...but the case is finished in advance) I totally lost interest.

I always did wonder if shows like American Idol were real or if they fudged the votes to make their favorites win. I mean, it's not like we'd know the truth. And I guess, although I can be quite shallow and watch "real life" shows such as Lock Up , I can not make myself like the trials and tribulations of Honey Boo Boo and the likes of Dance Moms.

My daughter likes to watch that young mothers show. I think it's good for her to see how hard it is to raise a baby as a teenager. I don't care if it's true or scripted. She can watch it all she likes, although I do not believe Jumper is the type of girl who is anxious to have a child. Still, can't hurt to have the show's help.

 

[witzend]

Add in Moonshiners, Swamp People , Buying the Bayou, and my new favorite one about Ginseng in the Appalachian Mountains and there is a definite curve towards making southern seem stupid. I watch them but i am well aware many of them are scripted at least somewhat.

What bothers me is how people latch on to these people like they are their heroes or mentors. Seriously they are just people. People with money or without and they are definitely not out there trying to make you into their mini me.

I sure wish that they'd make a program about some "high-falutin'" Southerners. And I don't mean "The Real Housewives of Atlanta"! I think that the South is really getting sold out by these programs. "Look at the dumb Southerners! Isn't their ignorance entertaining?"

 

[witzend]

I liked "The Squad", too. There were a couple of summer programs 3 & 4 years ago about a hospital. I can't remember what they were but they were reality shows. I want to say "Boston medication"? I liked those a lot. Sometimes people got better, sometimes people died. You got a chance to know the families and saw how they really dealt with these terrible blows without a bunch of hyped up drama.

Funny, now that I think of it. I really don't think that "reality tv" is real, at all.

 

[DammitJanet]

I tend to think AI and DWTS is pretty real. Now I think that the producers do steer us towards who they want to win but in the end we choose. I hate Honey Boo Boo. Even Monkey hates her. I taught Monkey a new word about what the people in that show act like...crass. She had never heard that word and wanted to know if that was a bad word...lol.

Some things I watch for sheer entertainment value. Shows like Dance Moms. I think that one is funny. There is a new one out called Kim of Queens. She is funny too. I tape them so Monkey and I can watch them when she is here.

 

[svengandhi]

I am a NYC girl born and bred. I actually like Honey Boo Boo. I thought I would hate it but when you watch it a bit, you can see that these girls really love and care about each other. The mom seems like she is trying to get them to a better future than she would have had without the show. I don't know anybody like them in my real life but I wish my own sister and I got along as well as HBB and her sisters. Also, I don't think they are trashy, though their life is way different from mine.

I love Dance Moms, even though I'm a klutz and don't even like dancing all that much. My daughter said it's because I feel morally superior to them since I allowed her to quit dance and gymnastics and ice skating when the teachers began wanting her to compete. Kim of Queens is hysterical.

on the other hand, my favorite shows are the true crime series. For fiction, I love Law and Order: SUV (my dyslexic H's name for it). Babyboy says I watch "How to Kill your spouse" shows but, like Witz, I tell him they always get caught in the end. I find the psychology fascinating. It's immoral to get a divorce but not to kill your spouse? Deadly Women is fascinating, especially the old stories. One thing about these shows is how often the people involved have a mental illness and I wish they would say more about where and how to get treatment. They have a widely viewed forum for it.