Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming which generally is unscripted,

Origins of reality television

Though there were earlier precedents on radio and television, the first reality show in the modern sense was probably the PBS series An American Family. Twelve parts were broadcast in the United States in 1973. The series dealt with a nuclear family going through a divorce.

Related Topics:
Radio - PBS - An American Family - United States - 1973 - Nuclear family - Divorce

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An American Family was controversial in its time and excoriated by the press, particularly The New York Times, which published a piece criticizing the series and especially family member Lance Loud. The show was notably parodied by Albert Brooks' first film, Real Life. The acclaimed 1976 satirical film Network would also involve a reality TV series as one of its central plot points.

Related Topics:
The New York Times - Lance Loud - 1976 - Network

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In 1974 a counterpart program, The Family, was made in the UK, following the working class Wilkins family of Reading. In 1992, Australia saw Sylvania Waters, about the nouveau riche Baker-Donaher family of Sydney. Both shows attracted their share of controversy.

Related Topics:
1974 - The Family - UK - Working class - Reading - 1992 - Australia - Sylvania Waters - Nouveau riche - Sydney

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The series that is perhaps most responsible for inspiring the recent interest in reality television is COPS, which first aired in March of 1989 and created a popular base for such programming. It was followed by MTV's The Real World, which became another one of the first reality programs to gain mainstream popularity. Among mainstream television networks, FOX pioneered the form with COPS and America's Most Wanted, the former being more innovative in terms of reality TV shows that later became a regular part of network programming. In 2000, with the emergence of Big Brother in Europe and Survivor in the USA, there came about a plethora of game-based reality TV shows that multiplied in diminishing returns and questionable taste.

Related Topics:
COPS - MTV - The Real World - Television - America's Most Wanted - 2000 - Big Brother - Europe - USA

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Due to the typically low production values associated with reality television (such as having only a handful of people on the set, relatively inexpensive sets, and not much post-production), this type of programming is very popular with television network executives wishing to maximize profits. This drive to minimize production costs has led to class action lawsuits by the Writers Guild of America representing story producers alleging exploitative practices such as being forced to work unpaid. While not writers in the traditional sense, the union believes that story tellers perform the same basic function as writers by creating scenarios, engineering moments of drama and editing the raw footage into a story line.

Related Topics:
Post-production - Writers Guild of America

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