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Does the fact that reality shows are scripted bother you?

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I worked on a reality show for MTV International recently. I doubt I'm allowed to get into specifics, but I was actually surprised how unscripted it was. They would have people repeat things or reenact moments for a different angle or better sound. Sometimes they would have people say the same thing again, but rephrased to be more clear to the audience what the significance was.

It was manufactured, but no-one had words put into their mouth and no one seemed to feel dirty about it. It's my understanding that this is not necessarily typical, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I don't watch these types of shows because they tend to be pretty boring. They have one or two "events" that happen in an episode, and they milk it to death.

INSERT Bob: If Tom keeps talking shit, I'm gonna slap him.

Tom: Fuck you Bob!
Bob: *slaps Tom*

INSERT: Mary: I couldn't believe Bob slapped Tom!

COMMERCIAL BREAK

REPLAY BOB SLAPPING TOM

INSERT: Mary: I just... I couldn't believe Bob hit Tom
INSERT: Bob: He deserved it. No I'm not sorry!

Tom: I can't believe you slapped me!
Bob: You shouldn't have been tlaking shit!

*cut to Mary glaring at them*


It's fucking tedious, because real life is goddamn boring. You have to shoot someone for an entire day to get MAYBE one interesting moment.
 
I can't watch Pawn Stars once I learned that it's all basically scripted, and that the items are chosen by the producers and are not actually "sold".
 
Gryphter said:
Dude, the "acting" from the fish tank guys is indeed vomit inducing. I wish they would cut the crap and just show the process of making the fish tanks, because they're neat to see.
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Exactly. The ones that get me the most are the car shows. There used to be car shows where they'd explain how to do certain car repairs (the only good example of this I can think of nowadays is Wheeler Dealers), but the blueprint changed once American Chopper exploded.

Now it's like, "Yo brah, we gotta build a show-winning cadillac out of these old shopping carts and we only have 8 minutes to do it! Oh man, the fake rockabilly guy is arguing with the stupid beard guy, this shit is intense! Man it was a close call, but this shit came out sick as fuck and we flipped it for $800000000!" So goddamn stupid. These car restoration crews are as interchangeable as mid-90s comic superhero teams.
 
I truly believed wrestling was REAL. Not real, but REAL. I was a child who would attack a grown man at the knee if they said WWF was fake.

I don't give a shit about reality TV, but it is a terrible trend for the quality of entertainment in general. A bunch of network hacks thinks they can save a bunch of money by doing reality shows with a relatively greater profit margin than conventional TV production. They get a bunch of "human stories", gin up the facts, script in some situations, and let these amateurs who all tend to be looking for showbiz work, if not actual SAG card holding actors, "just act naturally". Which means vamp up a storm and try your best Alexis vs Krystal on Dynasty BS drama catfighting. Or sleep with everyone in a 5 foot radius until you get removed from the cast.

I mean, if you like that, fine. I just wish they could put it all on one channel, instead of having 80% of TV become crap because the market is skewed by "Reality" shows. Shit like that wrecks the curve, so now it's all mostly unwatchable shit. Low expectations, or subscribe to HBO.
 
dskillzhtown said:
So you don't watch any fiction-based entertainment?

I will watch Deadliest Catch and Survivorman. That is as far as the reality stuff goes for me. My wife on the other hand is a reality TV junkie. Housewives, Project Runway, Kardashians, whatever, she is watching it. Kind of annoying really.
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I do watch fiction based entertainment. But that's the thing, they don't project themselves as "reality" TV. They know they're fiction.
 
They bother me because I'm not 100% sure what it's doing to people.

I always call reality tv "hyper-reality tv" where people act the way they do as if there is no filter or real consequences to their actions. I'm forced to watch the Real Houseswives sometimes and I constantly have to ask my girlfriend "so wait... these women are friends?" because of the way they talk to/about one another. It's just so bizarre. I feel that the frequency of these shows and the way the public gets so caught up in them will eventually affect how we treat one another. It probably already is.

I know we like to pretend we are above such things but at the end of the day we are all more corruptible than we think. Chuck Klosterman wrote about this in his book "Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" back when the Real World was popular.
 
Not really. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. It's amusing, though, when the show forget that the camera have to go somewhere. At this point, I wouldn't be surprise if one of these show do a dream sequence.
 
It does bother me. I was genuinely disappointed when I found out that house hunters was fake, because there really didn't seem like there was a reason for it to be fake. It just ruins the show for me because the only reason I am actually interested is because it is supposedly real, I can no longer get invested if I know it is fake.
 
Impeccable said:
It's got to be Geordie Shore.
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I don't know what that is, but it was filmed in the USA for foreign audiences.
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The fact that these shows are scripted is probably the least offensive part of them. The way they're edited and presented is intellectually insulting. The way they're set up to focus on petty conflict and remove any reason for the cast to cooperate (unless they're working together to undercut somebody else) or act decently to one another is degrading. It's utterly cynical entertainment.
 
After not watching standard cable for more than a year and then trying to return to it, literally everything felt fake and gross to me. I'll just stick to internet content, thank you.
 
LastWindow said:
It depends on how scripted it feels. American Pickers, for example, seems like they are trying to get people to act more and be funnier than normal, which none of them can really do, and it just ruins it for me.
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Holy fuck that show is bad. The way that guy with the grey hair talks is really annoying too. "So there I was, knee deep in JUNK and you couldn't BELIEVE what I saw staring me down! This OLD 1920's bicycle rim, calling out MY name!" It's like he's really trying hard to make it sound super cool.

Then half the shit they find it just some old oil can or sign that no one cares about. Really boring.
 
I remember one episode of Wife Swap (might have been the UK edition, can't remember) where one of the mothers decided to used chains and locks to prevent the family from using their gym equipment. The other wife ALSO decided to use chains and locks (which looked identical and obviously made by the same manufacturer) from preventing the other family from using their entertainment centre or something of the sort. I was actually insulted the producers thought their viewers were so stupid as to believe both mothers had decided to antoganise their families in the same way.

I still enjoy some reality shows where people actually do something useful (Top Chef, Project Runway) - I'm sure the producers have the final word on who goes or who stays and most of the drama is at best instigated by them, but at least (I hope) the work being done is real.
 
I'd watch a legitimate documentary about reality shows, but I'm not a fan of any of the popular arguing drunks/idiots.
 
Baconsaurus said:
It's shifty television anyway. I laugh at some scenarios in Storage Wars because they're not even trying to hide that it's all fake
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What really bothers me about SW is that I'm sure whatever they are paid per episode is far more than what they pay for those units. Who cares if they end up losing a thousand bucks on a bad lot?
 
Are they all scripted? I remember I saw a bit of some reality show where the cops left keys to a nice car sitting on top of the car in bad neighborhoods.

Then when idiots would steal it, the car was specially designed with in vehicle cameras and to lock them inside and shut off the engine. The cops would then come in and arrest the thief for car theft. I pretty much hate reality TV outside of Amazing Race, but I thought that car show was fucking hilaaaaaaaaarious.

Would be a shame if it was all fake.
 
Cipherr said:
Are they all scripted? I remember I saw a bit of some reality show where the cops left keys to a nice car sitting on top of the car in bad neighborhoods.

Then when idiots would steal it, the car was specially designed with in vehicle cameras and to lock them inside and shut off the engine. The cops would then come in and arrest the thief for car theft. I pretty much hate reality TV outside of Amazing Race, but I thought that car show was fucking hilaaaaaaaaarious.

Would be a shame if it was all fake.
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Speaking of which, how is it that police officers are allowed to be part of these shenanigans? I remember seeing an episode of a "reality" show where LaToya Jackson (I kid you not), fully dressed as cop, would "arrest" drunk drivers. Then the real cop would show up and scream "Sir, you're being detained by officer Latoya Jackson". Do they do this sh*t during work hours?
 
To be honest, I don't understand why people don't just watch better produced fiction. I can only assume that because television sucks away at a human's consciousness they can't really escape it.
 
Cipherr said:
Are they all scripted? I remember I saw a bit of some reality show where the cops left keys to a nice car sitting on top of the car in bad neighborhoods.

Then when idiots would steal it, the car was specially designed with in vehicle cameras and to lock them inside and shut off the engine. The cops would then come in and arrest the thief for car theft. I pretty much hate reality TV outside of Amazing Race, but I thought that car show was fucking hilaaaaaaaaarious.

Would be a shame if it was all fake.
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Thats Bait Car.
 
Fudgepuppy said:
Is Kitchen Nightmares and Bar Rescue scripted? Because that shit is my cocaine.
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I've caught a couple of episodes of Bar Rescue and honestly I think it's alright. But I'm sure it's probably scripted like the rest of them.

I'll also watch shows like Gator Boys, I find their process of catching gators pretty interesting. I just find the manufactured drama when they're not catching alligators to be pretty ho hum.

I also pretty much watch just about any ghost hunting/paranormal/creature hunting show out there. Destination Truth, Ghost Hunters, Fact or Faked, Ghost Adventures, Haunted Highway, Finding Bigfoot...
 
I don't watch many reality shows, but there was this one on MTV where the parents chose dates for their son/daughter because they didn't like their girlfriend/boyfriend. That was so scripted it was insulting. I can't remember what it was called, though.
 
It doesn't bother me, because it doesn't matter whether they're scripted or not. The end result is the same: total shit.
 
Salvor.Hardin said:
I'm more bothered by the fact that scripted reality television is so widely consumed.
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I just finished the book Fahrenheit 451 last weekend. Bradbury actually describes some current reality TV shows with close accuracy when presenting satirical examples of the mindless programming that the masses watch.
 
I try to ignore reality shows, but it's hard when my girlfriend loves every single reality show on TV. I can't stand Teen Mom and I always ask (beg) her if we can watch something else., anything else. *Click* Real Housewives of whocares. I hate my life.
 
I don't really watch reality TV, but if I did, it would bother me, yeah. The moment it becomes scripted, it ceases being reality TV. It kind of defeats the purpose of it.
 
GatorBait said:
I just finished the book Fahrenheit 451 last weekend. Bradbury actually describes some current reality TV shows with close accuracy when presenting satirical examples of the mindless programming that the masses watch.
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Well now, I finished that same book last week myself! And I completely agree with you.
 
I watched a few episodes of Pawn Stars and really enjoyed it. I knew the selling bits were scripted (especially when they go on this huge long history about the item) but when I started noticing that even the things that were being brought in were scripted, yeah that bothered me. It killed the show for me.

I understand that you gotta liven things up for TV. But the whole thing that made that show worth watching was the interesting stuff being brought in and all that. Once I noticed that was fake too I couldn't bring myself to watch it anymore.
 
Salvor.Hardin said:
Well now, I finished that same book last week myself! And I completely agree with you.
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Weeeeeeiiiiiiirrrrrrdddddd... What a strange coincidence! You aren't just messing around, are you?

It was my first time ever reading it. There are a lot of classics I missed out on when I was younger since I was a military brat (different school districts had different years when you would read certain books, and somehow I just managed to be in the wrong districts at the wrong times). Such an interesting book, especially when you juxtapose society during the time the books was written against our present society.
 
Can't stand the fake ones. American Gordon Ramsey is so much worse than the British ones and Antiques Roadshow is one of my favorite "reality" shows and so much better than Storage wars with its fake bidding, fake drama, placed "antiques" and ridiculos valuations.
 
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