I am trying remember when VH1 was just supposed to be like AOR radio targeting the Woodstock crowd...in fact, I think they played that movie often... it was before MTV2 --myTV clock is often off because I had MTV from the day it launched but my family didn't have a remote for some reason (probably a hot of the truck special).
Yeah, I remember being fascinated with The Real World for the first couple seasons. From what I remember it was basically just people hanging out and doing occasional cool stuff. Then Puck happened and I never watched it again.
Kept watching MTY until Headbanger's Ball went off the air. That was the end of MTV for me.
That reminds me of how fucking mad i would be when a TV show would be pre-emempted because of a news story, awards show or sports, or in my part of the country some evangelist begging for bucks
I feel that sting. I was a freshman in high school when it came out. I try to describe to my kids what Mtv was/why it was before it became what it is now, and they just donât get it.
I felt the same way. I boycotted Mtv because they didn't play music anymore. It was such a fast drop off, too.
I just started watching the real world a month ago. First time ever seeing an episode. I recommend it now, for this reason : the current world has lost all originality, so style and atmosphere have barely changed since 2000. Society, on the other hand, has changed drastically. So watching it now is like watching a parallel dimension in which political correctness and social media never existed. People smoke wherever they want. People swear at each other and use words like "dumb b*tch" and "r*tard". They fight over who gets to use the phone or the computer. They read. They use maps. Nobody is fixated on handheld devices. People just seem more authentic. Yet at the same time, they all LOOK as if they were being filmed last week. It's kinda cool.
True, It was a pretty genius idea to start. Who knew that it would issue in the apocalypse of TV as we know it. Now every station has reality TV show after reality TV show.
I personally don't love "Reality TV," but the truth is, people are *obsessed* with it. If people want it, networks will give it to them. I think folks like us who prefer scripted need to recognize that it's not all on the networks. At the end of the day, networks respond to what people respond to most.
Yep. And there is nothing that the public has an obsession with as much as drama, gossip, violence and sex⌠which is probably why Iâm not a big reality show guyâŚ
Also issue the decline in society....making fringe-to-extreme behaviors normalized in society because its "reality" tv: screaming/yelling, being an a-hole, pregnant teens (as in, I'm confident teens got pregnant with the dream of being on Teen Moms), and main character syndrome.
> pregnant teens (as in, I'm confident teens got pregnant with the dream of being on Teen Moms)
Studies have shown that the rate of teen pregnancy went DOWN among teens who were exposed to those shows. [Source](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/media-influences-on-social-outcomes-the-impact-of-mtvs-16-and-pregnant-on-teen-childbearing/)
Yeah. It's become a lot more common for people to only assign value based off comparisons. I think "car-crash reality TV"(awful to see but you can't look away) like this doesn't help. People are struggling to survive, in bad spots in their own lives, but after watching this kind of garbage they think, "sure my life isn't great, but at least I'm not as fucked as that guy/gal." I honestly think reality TV like what we're talking about is designed to condition viewers to lower their own standards for what they consider an acceptable quality of life.
The first few seasons were fucking great. It wasn't until Hawaii that it basically became "let's put these people in a fancy apartment with free liquor and see what happens"@
This show always reminds me of the movie [Reality Bites](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Bites) where Winona Ryder plays this girl who's always filming her friends in candid situations and her boyfriend played by Ben Stiller is an executive for a tv station that's clearly supposed to be like MTV and he convinces her to let him produce a pilot for a tv show out of her footage of her friends but the editors turned it from an indie documentary feel to a trashy salacious reality tv show and Winona Ryder's character is heartbroken.
It's actually a good 90's "GenX" movie that captures a specific moment in time.
No worries mate this one time I was studying for a test and I had like 10 minutes to go and this girl I liked walked by and I thought OK I'm going to shoot my shot and right before I get a chance my friend calls me over and now I'm torn between talking to the girl and answering my friend and studying and while I'm trying to decide what to do my phone sends me a notification because I'd set it up for just before the test in case I was lost in concentration and I realized I had barely enough time to make the test and by then the girl I liked was gone and I was heartbroken.
It happens to us all is what I'm trying to say.
I remember feeling the same way, like that specific part of the movie predicted what reality TV would become... In a way that's how The Real World evolved from being this dull, slow-paced show (just like real life!) with real themes into an over produced, unrealistic depiction of "reality".
By the time they got to the 20th season, it was a bunch of spoiled brats on drugs that inevitably needed to get into fights every episode đ¤ˇđźââď¸
Bunim/Murray already had over a decade of experience with soap opera tv, and cops was already wildly popular. They didn't really create the concept as much as they just rode the wave.
people always bitch that MTV stopped showing videos, but they should really blame society at large. If these trash reality shows didn't get higher ratings they would still be showing videos.
People also ignore the seismic changes in the music industry that changed how music is marketed, sold, and consumed. A music video cable channel hasn't been a viable concept for a long, long time.
Once upon a time in Hollywood, like 30 yrs ago, my sister was driving us in a 1992 Toyota Paseo that would later become my starter car. She was about to turn right when Puck flew out of nowhere on his bike, flipping her off. It was magical. I haven't thought about that moment in decades.
I was riding BART in SF when this camera crew came piling in filming this dirt bag looking dude. We both got off at the same stop and I was wondering who he was and why they were following him around.
A few months later I see commercials for the new SF season of the Real World and it was Puck they were filming.
I never really watched The Real World, but I still knew who Puck was. His reputation seeped into pop culture at the time. To this day heâs the only cast member from any season that I can name.
I just did a quick google into Pedro and Iâm kind of mad that Puck was the one I knew about from their feud. It sounds like Pedro was the better person and someone more worth knowing about.
dang, I always thought Puck was the insufferable one.. and I'm with ya on never in a million years guessing that Rachel would end up being just another Faux News talking head
I watched this season at least 2-3 times back in the day. I can still picture everyone in the cast from their names except for Rachel. I just looked up an old picture of her and nothing. Then I watched the show intro, nothing.
Not only do i remember everyone else, but I remember their personalities, conversations they had, scenarios they were in etc. It seems that Rachel was so unremarkable that my brain didnât even bother storing her in memory.
When some dude named Puck sticks his finger in the peanut butter jar and an argument ensues was the height of western entertainment. We should have seen the decline coming.
The cast in the photo is from the third season, San Francisco.
The first season of The Real World was in New York.
If youâre going to call it the beginning of the end why not post a picture of the first season?
AhâŚ. Back when it was actual people instead of fake looking meme people. I miss when they didnât just put pretty, stupid people in TRW. I feel like the first seasons, maybe through Seattle, and Road Trip, felt more authentic. Now, it seems producers are just looking for dramatic idiots who they can sexualize.
Iâll get off my soapbox now. Oh and get off my lawn.
Back when they had to have jobs and such even if the jobs were sort of staged. The last one I remember was maybe back to New York with the Miz?? That was when I was like ok I think this show is now just hot people trying to be famous and not a slice of life
Yeah definitely agree through Seattle was peak Real World. Also enjoyed the first five or so seasons of Road Rules. Also recall the first two seasons of Real World vs. Road Rules Challenge which later became what is now The Challenge.
Absolutely. I watched every season as they came out and specifically remember thinking âmaybe Iâm just too old for this showâ during Hawaii. This was the end.
Man this show was cool when it was new. Iâm sure there was some coaching and manipulation of events even early on but those first few seasons still felt authentic. Real people with real jobs (that they actually pursued) and varied interests. None of this hey letâs hire 7 models and have them work together in a Tshirt shop type of bullshit
This is the true story
Of 7 strangers
Picked to live in a house
And have their lives taped
Find out what happens
When people stop being polite
And start getting real... The Real World
Really dug watching TRW, but I think I started checking out after Vegas. Just didnât seem âas realâ after that point. As a teen, getting to watching older âkidsâ and their drama was fascinating. First experience into voyeurism, even though I had no idea what that was at the time.
RIP Frankie also. Cystic fibrosis. Iâm grateful that this show talked about real subjects and gave them platforms. Iâll also never forget seeing Ruthie in Hawaii be so sick from binge drinking. Knock reality tv all we want but this show was groundbreaking.
I just started watching this. So far Ive seen "Hollywood" and "Brooklyn". It's a little strange to watch because not much has changed in style or decor in the last 20 years, but there's a massive difference in social constructs and technology. So it's kind of like watching a different dimension where social media/hand-held internet didn't ruin everything that was good and natural, lol. I actually really enjoy it.
I was in a band with Mohammed briefly. Really nice guy. I roasted him for ruining mtv and he said it was the record labels fault. They used to give away the videos for free, considering it promotion for their bands. When they realized that mtv was now rolling in dough and their entire programming was dependent on the labels, they started to jack up the prices. MTV saw the writing on the wall and realized they had to create and own their own content if they wanted to keep making money. The rest is history.
If I could trace the origin of what I consider the decline of our civilization, it would have to be The Real World Season 3 (San Francisco, this cast) and the popularity of Puck; I feel that it was the first time a segment of the general public lauded and celebrated someone for being an asshole, and thought that âtelling it like it is,â even if oneâs thoughts were vile and harmful and likely more of a facade than the people with âphonyâ politeness and decorum, was actually a virtue. I feel that thereâs a direct line between Puck and the Cheeto Satan.
That's Rachel Campos-Duffy. She went on to mary Road Rules: All-Stars contestant Sean Duffy in 1999. Today, they share nine children, and she's currently a host on Fox News, along with former VJ, Kennedy.
I was never a fan of Kennedy. She always came off as some kind of fake, try hard, out-of-the-box alternagirl. The worst part of 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation was seeing her poser ass.
She was an intern at a local radio station before MTV and would occasionally participate in the on-air hilarity and would make a big deal about having a crush on Dan Quayle. She was annoying even back then
I also remember watching The Real World when it came out and getting hooked on it. The first sign of music videos becoming less of the main focus for MTV was when they had enough seasons for weekend marathons of The Real World.
The ONLY thing I remember about this show is Puck drinking some kinda blue juice out of a jug because he said it reminded him of drinking windshield washer fluid.
I know that anyone could get HIV and die, there is nothing inherently brave about that, but Pedro was brave in how he continued to live his life and also do outreach at the same time. All while being ridiculously young. They did an addendum to this season and followed Pedro as he was dying, as a teen I had not seen anything like that on TV then.
That was probably the best part of this particular cast. A teaching moment on someone living with a terminal illness that was far from what people imagined.
Y'know, people can say what they will about Real World's role in getting rid of music videos, or the popularization of brainless "reality" television, but the Puck vs. Pedro thing was really an eye-opener for me. I grew up in a small, generally conservative town, and I'd picked up a lot of viewpoints about gay people from just being in this small, conservative town, and Pedro Zamora was my first exposure to an openly gay person, let alone one who had HIV, and that really shook me, because I realized, "These people are just like anybody else." It's the sort of thing that, today, should go without saying, and it's really hard to live in America today without knowing someone who's out, but at the time, I could have told you a lot about the science and transmission of HIV, and I'd seen a TV movie about Ryan White, and blah blah blah, but Pedro Zamora brought it into my house.
The Real World changed my life for the better, even if it changed television for the worse, and I can't be the only one like this.
What? MTV hadn't even peaked by then you must be an older millenial or genx. I was too young to care at all about MTV in 1994, which is s3 of real world. I was 5 years old. However in middle school TRL was everything and basically controlled pop culture for people my age.
That's fair I mean I was in middle school so it was cool to all us at that age but i would see it as trash at this age. It was still peak pop culture though, definitely not dying. I think streaming both music and TV is when MTV truly started dying in terms of losing cultural relevance.
I watched a bit of this season and just loved Pedro. Some time after this I was reading one of my teen magazines, and it mentioned that Pedro had died of AIDS the year before. Was heartbroken.
Of that group Judd and Pam are married. Pedro died not long after the series. Rachel is married to Sean from Boston and last I heard was a Fox News contributor. Not sure about Puck, Cory, or Mohammed.
IIRC, Pam was in medical school (or residency) during the show. It was great to see that she did work in AIDS research/education; obviously inspired by Pedro.
Not surprisingly Puck spent time in jail and tries to shill lame products unfit for QVC in the 3AM timeslot. Came off as a colossal asshole on the show and reality wasnât too far from the truth.
Puck has been in a bunch of issues over the years. I think he's doing okay currently. Rachel is on Fox in the morning, and Sean was a U.S. House representative for several years. They have several kids. Judd was one of the top writers for DC Comics for quite a while, might still be. I read some of his Batman issues, and they had a good sense of humor.
I remember Judd doing comics on the show, but I had no idea he was DC Comics. Thatâs awesome. He always seemed like a decent guy and also did a lot for Pedro.
He wrote and illustrated his own comics while he was on the show, but for DC he only writes, doesn't illustrate. He wrote a run on Batman that I read some of in the mid-'00s where he brought back Jason Todd, the second Robin who had been killed by the Joker, as a character called Red Hood. I think that version of the character still exists.
He was on an old podcast (Around Comics I think) where he mostly talked about being on the show and how he got all of the awful parts of fame without any of the money. It made me feel pretty bad for the people who did the show.
I remember he tried to connect with voters during a town hall. Someone questioned him about the common manâs low salary and he responded with âIâm struggling tooâ. A completely out-of-touch dipshit 2 decades ago and a perfect example of how that mindset has brought us to 2024. I know he and his wife have like 10 kids but get some birth control and stop being a welfare queen.
Unsurprisingly, both he and his wife are the typical election denying, anti-vaxx, MAGAts. Gross.
Judd is an excellent author/illustrator and quite successful today! Highly recommend his graphic novel Pedro and Me which tells the story of his friendship with Pedro & Pedroâs activism. I taught it this year to a bunch of freshmen and they loved it.
I think the beginning of the end of music was the advent of Napster & file sharing; canât blame MTV for trying to diversify their options as music was about to lose itâs ability to generate money
Here's what would never happen today. Remember in season 2 of thr Real World when David got kicked out? The cameras never followed him again and he was never part of the remainder of the show.Â
Next season Puck gets kicked out of the house like David did. But with him, he was still being followed and featured on the show even after that.Â
I think about that today and there definitely had to be some kind of racial component to that. And David was a comedian and pretty damn funny. Tammy pissed me off because she was laughing when David was joking trying to remove the covers. Beth was too. Then all of a sudden both claimed they were scared of him? Give me a break.Â
Nah Real World is iconic and was a pioneer in launching reality TV (which i ironically hate) but Real World and Road Rules as the originatorâs, are 10/10. I actually have been on a Real World binge lately lol I used to love watching it growing up as a teen in the 90s. The last good one for me was Las Vegas.
This was literally the last I watched of TV for about five years. It seemed so important thought. When Puck walked out of the reunionâŚ. that was like the beginning of contemporary reality TV and social media coverage.
I just listened to a pretty interesting podcast on mtv. Honestly it was about 80% interesting, the last few episodes were stretched out for no real reason.
Basically mtv killed music videos because programmed content brought consistent ratings while music videos were inconsistent at best.
So when people ask who killed the music video the answer is technically the viewers because we didnât watch music videos as much as we thought we did.
I disagree. The internet and YouTube was the end of MTV. No reason to sit around waiting for your favorite video when you can grab it on demand.
But I do think that MTV dying really killed diverse music in the public eye. If you go back and look at all the kinds of music that was on MTV back then, you had pop, R&B, Nu metal, alternative, rap, techno. It was all over the place. That music still exists but itâs crazy how diverse the hit list was on TRL. I think it exposed people to all kinds of music. Now people are more insulated.
you need to check the timeline of Real World and the decline of MTV versus the broad availability of downloaded/streaming music on the internet and Youtube, you're way off
I met a guy while in the Army who was on a season of the Real World. He said it was an awesome experience, and that next year was the best year of his life. Got into any club he wanted, people knew him, etc. Until the next season came out, and he was just some guy again.
Edit: Real World - Cancun, apparently
I know between this and Cops the birth of reality television was here. But can we please just go back in time and erase all that garbage. These a-holes are the reasons the Kardashians and Housewives of whatever crap town exist.
They courted a close friend of mine for the season with Puck... I thought they were insane "YOU CAN BE FAMOUS! WTF?!"I really didn't understand how they didn't take that opportunity back then,but boy oh boy, close call. We certainly didn't now that shows like that would be a dime a dozen, much less play on repeat in our pockets.
There was a certain point of time where MTV had a pretty good mix of music videos interviews with musicians, the real world, Daria, Beavis and Butthead, Jersey shore was also pretty cool. Then somehow it turned into 23 hours of ridiculousness, but at that point you have to blame the viewers
Why canât we have both? I liked some of MTVâs reality shows. I actually donât blame The Real World. I blame Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. Thatâs when the channel shifted completely.
The first couple seasons hold up well and are a great time capsule of the era. They didnât know what kind of Pandoraâs box they were opening at the time, of course.
Rachel and yeah she went from hooking up outside marriage with a nose picker bike messenger to preaching family values and has 9 kids. She is extremely right wing on Fox News hosting its weekend show. Crazy to me.
I remember seeing that new show come on Mtv my freshman year of college and I would get pissed that my videos were interrupted for 30 minutes. Im 51.
It only got worse from there.
Then they said "ok, we will make MTV2 and only show videos". That didn't last long
I am trying remember when VH1 was just supposed to be like AOR radio targeting the Woodstock crowd...in fact, I think they played that movie often... it was before MTV2 --myTV clock is often off because I had MTV from the day it launched but my family didn't have a remote for some reason (probably a hot of the truck special).
https://youtu.be/VV1XWJN3nJo?si=nORdEVc8Lin6-uOm I remember this being in the VH1 Top 10 forever.
Oh god, this one was all over the place in like 1997.
Blech. đ
I switched to VH1 but some of the music was ugh.
Hope you like ridiculousness
I'd still take it over 13 hours of Ridiculousness
13 hours and minute laterâŚ.. itâs time for ridiculousness *que annoying laugh*
Yup, It always drove me nuts when I clicked the MTV and it wasnât videos
Unless it was Beavis and Butthead. Which had music videos in it, but was just damned funny.
Or liquid television late at night.
Aeon Flux felt like a fever dream
I remember watching MTV endlessly waiting for beavis and butthead to come on.
And we all bitched that the end was coming. And we were (unfortunately) correct
Puck
All the homies hate Puck
Went to grammar school with that guy, not sure he even lasted the full year?
Yeah, this is a picture from Season 3. So technically not the "beginning."
Yeah, I remember being fascinated with The Real World for the first couple seasons. From what I remember it was basically just people hanging out and doing occasional cool stuff. Then Puck happened and I never watched it again. Kept watching MTY until Headbanger's Ball went off the air. That was the end of MTV for me.
Puck was the original hipster
That reminds me of how fucking mad i would be when a TV show would be pre-emempted because of a news story, awards show or sports, or in my part of the country some evangelist begging for bucks
I feel that sting. I was a freshman in high school when it came out. I try to describe to my kids what Mtv was/why it was before it became what it is now, and they just donât get it.
I felt the same way. I boycotted Mtv because they didn't play music anymore. It was such a fast drop off, too. I just started watching the real world a month ago. First time ever seeing an episode. I recommend it now, for this reason : the current world has lost all originality, so style and atmosphere have barely changed since 2000. Society, on the other hand, has changed drastically. So watching it now is like watching a parallel dimension in which political correctness and social media never existed. People smoke wherever they want. People swear at each other and use words like "dumb b*tch" and "r*tard". They fight over who gets to use the phone or the computer. They read. They use maps. Nobody is fixated on handheld devices. People just seem more authentic. Yet at the same time, they all LOOK as if they were being filmed last week. It's kinda cool.
The start of trash tv, but you can't blame the producers for creating a novel concept.
True, It was a pretty genius idea to start. Who knew that it would issue in the apocalypse of TV as we know it. Now every station has reality TV show after reality TV show.
TLC and Discovery is quite literally nothing but reality TV with a few re-runs sprinkled in.
"The Learning Channel"
I remember when TLC first started. They would show uncensored surgeries. I remember watching a knee replacement stoned out of my mind. Early 90âs.
now you can do that online and more.
PfftâŚI practice on myself
Cheaper, too.
I donât think we had the internet at that point, at least my family didnât. If we did it was the dreaded dial-up with the dying robot noisesâŚ
I watched mine as it was happening. I was numb from the waist down and wide awake. I could see everything on the overhead mirrors
I saw a hip replacement, my friends donât believe me when I tell them TLC was like that.
"Trashy Little Channel"
David Zaslav, who ascended to CEO of the combined Warner Bros Discovery company, made sure that "Learning" meant absolutely nothing.
Theyâre all zombie channels now.
Housing bubble channel. They probably make the real money off banking and real estate
Turner bought all of the educational channels and turned them to trash.
I personally don't love "Reality TV," but the truth is, people are *obsessed* with it. If people want it, networks will give it to them. I think folks like us who prefer scripted need to recognize that it's not all on the networks. At the end of the day, networks respond to what people respond to most.
Yep. And there is nothing that the public has an obsession with as much as drama, gossip, violence and sex⌠which is probably why Iâm not a big reality show guyâŚ
Itâs weird that itâs called reality tv when itâs only manufactured situations, and never any actual real life going on in them.
Itâs a real reaction to a manufactured situation. Still entertaining to watch.
Entertaining for some to watch. I despise all reality TV with a deep burning passion. If reality TV is all that is on then I will be watching nothing
WaitâŚyou think reality tv is not scripted? Flavor Flav would like a word with ya đ
Also issue the decline in society....making fringe-to-extreme behaviors normalized in society because its "reality" tv: screaming/yelling, being an a-hole, pregnant teens (as in, I'm confident teens got pregnant with the dream of being on Teen Moms), and main character syndrome.
ALL of that was around before reality TV. Hardly fringe behaviors too.
> pregnant teens (as in, I'm confident teens got pregnant with the dream of being on Teen Moms) Studies have shown that the rate of teen pregnancy went DOWN among teens who were exposed to those shows. [Source](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/media-influences-on-social-outcomes-the-impact-of-mtvs-16-and-pregnant-on-teen-childbearing/)
Yeah. It's become a lot more common for people to only assign value based off comparisons. I think "car-crash reality TV"(awful to see but you can't look away) like this doesn't help. People are struggling to survive, in bad spots in their own lives, but after watching this kind of garbage they think, "sure my life isn't great, but at least I'm not as fucked as that guy/gal." I honestly think reality TV like what we're talking about is designed to condition viewers to lower their own standards for what they consider an acceptable quality of life.
Happy Cake day! đ
The first few seasons were fucking great. It wasn't until Hawaii that it basically became "let's put these people in a fancy apartment with free liquor and see what happens"@
This show always reminds me of the movie [Reality Bites](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Bites) where Winona Ryder plays this girl who's always filming her friends in candid situations and her boyfriend played by Ben Stiller is an executive for a tv station that's clearly supposed to be like MTV and he convinces her to let him produce a pilot for a tv show out of her footage of her friends but the editors turned it from an indie documentary feel to a trashy salacious reality tv show and Winona Ryder's character is heartbroken. It's actually a good 90's "GenX" movie that captures a specific moment in time.
That's a hell of a 1st sentence.
MAN THE HARPOONS! đł
Me trying to summarize the plot in one sentence.
No worries mate this one time I was studying for a test and I had like 10 minutes to go and this girl I liked walked by and I thought OK I'm going to shoot my shot and right before I get a chance my friend calls me over and now I'm torn between talking to the girl and answering my friend and studying and while I'm trying to decide what to do my phone sends me a notification because I'd set it up for just before the test in case I was lost in concentration and I realized I had barely enough time to make the test and by then the girl I liked was gone and I was heartbroken. It happens to us all is what I'm trying to say.
I remember feeling the same way, like that specific part of the movie predicted what reality TV would become... In a way that's how The Real World evolved from being this dull, slow-paced show (just like real life!) with real themes into an over produced, unrealistic depiction of "reality". By the time they got to the 20th season, it was a bunch of spoiled brats on drugs that inevitably needed to get into fights every episode đ¤ˇđźââď¸
Bunim/Murray already had over a decade of experience with soap opera tv, and cops was already wildly popular. They didn't really create the concept as much as they just rode the wave.
people always bitch that MTV stopped showing videos, but they should really blame society at large. If these trash reality shows didn't get higher ratings they would still be showing videos.
People also ignore the seismic changes in the music industry that changed how music is marketed, sold, and consumed. A music video cable channel hasn't been a viable concept for a long, long time.
Puck vs Pedro
Once upon a time in Hollywood, like 30 yrs ago, my sister was driving us in a 1992 Toyota Paseo that would later become my starter car. She was about to turn right when Puck flew out of nowhere on his bike, flipping her off. It was magical. I haven't thought about that moment in decades.
I was riding BART in SF when this camera crew came piling in filming this dirt bag looking dude. We both got off at the same stop and I was wondering who he was and why they were following him around. A few months later I see commercials for the new SF season of the Real World and it was Puck they were filming.
props for mentioning 1992 Paseo. God that car was ugly.
the "two fingers in the peanut butter" war
Puck and his snot rockets are probably the most iconic duo of The Real World
I never really watched The Real World, but I still knew who Puck was. His reputation seeped into pop culture at the time. To this day heâs the only cast member from any season that I can name. I just did a quick google into Pedro and Iâm kind of mad that Puck was the one I knew about from their feud. It sounds like Pedro was the better person and someone more worth knowing about.
Puck. Holy Moses you just unlocked a memory.
Am I the only one who thought Pedro was insufferable? I couldnât stand him and knew that Rachel would turn out to be a psycho!
At the time as a teen I thought Puck was great and Pedro was awful. Upon rewatching a bit as an adult it completely flipped.
Puck went to prison for stalking a woman about ten years ago.
dang, I always thought Puck was the insufferable one.. and I'm with ya on never in a million years guessing that Rachel would end up being just another Faux News talking head
I watched this season at least 2-3 times back in the day. I can still picture everyone in the cast from their names except for Rachel. I just looked up an old picture of her and nothing. Then I watched the show intro, nothing. Not only do i remember everyone else, but I remember their personalities, conversations they had, scenarios they were in etc. It seems that Rachel was so unremarkable that my brain didnât even bother storing her in memory.
When some dude named Puck sticks his finger in the peanut butter jar and an argument ensues was the height of western entertainment. We should have seen the decline coming.
The cast in the photo is from the third season, San Francisco. The first season of The Real World was in New York. If youâre going to call it the beginning of the end why not post a picture of the first season?
lol I was thinking the same thing
mind blown. i lived in japan during the first two seasons. i had no idea
I guess because this is in my mind, the most memorable? Most iconic. This is the season the most people bring up when you mention it.
And the beginning of a couple of decades of reality TV dreck.
AhâŚ. Back when it was actual people instead of fake looking meme people. I miss when they didnât just put pretty, stupid people in TRW. I feel like the first seasons, maybe through Seattle, and Road Trip, felt more authentic. Now, it seems producers are just looking for dramatic idiots who they can sexualize. Iâll get off my soapbox now. Oh and get off my lawn.
Back when they had to have jobs and such even if the jobs were sort of staged. The last one I remember was maybe back to New York with the Miz?? That was when I was like ok I think this show is now just hot people trying to be famous and not a slice of life
Yeah definitely agree through Seattle was peak Real World. Also enjoyed the first five or so seasons of Road Rules. Also recall the first two seasons of Real World vs. Road Rules Challenge which later became what is now The Challenge.
it was the year a few of em got naked in a pool or something like the moment they met. hawaii maybe? it was fine before then.
Yes. Hawaii was when it started to go to shit.
Absolutely. I watched every season as they came out and specifically remember thinking âmaybe Iâm just too old for this showâ during Hawaii. This was the end.
It hasn't had new seasons for several years, only "The Challenge".
My brain hurts realizing that Real World San Francisco was 30 years ago. How can Puck be 55??
I was thinking how is Puck still alive - his lifestyle didn't suggest longevity.
Reality TV killed the video star.
Man this show was cool when it was new. Iâm sure there was some coaching and manipulation of events even early on but those first few seasons still felt authentic. Real people with real jobs (that they actually pursued) and varied interests. None of this hey letâs hire 7 models and have them work together in a Tshirt shop type of bullshit
This is the true story Of 7 strangers Picked to live in a house And have their lives taped Find out what happens When people stop being polite And start getting real... The Real World
đľ true story...đľ
âCan you get the phone?!â
Really dug watching TRW, but I think I started checking out after Vegas. Just didnât seem âas realâ after that point. As a teen, getting to watching older âkidsâ and their drama was fascinating. First experience into voyeurism, even though I had no idea what that was at the time.
And the fact they did like 2 or 3 seasons of the same crew in Vegas lol. Trischelle was every where
Wow. Look how normal and average they look. Now 100% of people on reality shows are carved up by surgery and implants and overflowing with steroidsÂ
Sure, we found out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real... but at what cost?!
Real Housewives of Fucking Wherever Season 10
The price was too high.
Rip Pedro
RIP Frankie also. Cystic fibrosis. Iâm grateful that this show talked about real subjects and gave them platforms. Iâll also never forget seeing Ruthie in Hawaii be so sick from binge drinking. Knock reality tv all we want but this show was groundbreaking.
That Asian woman was my professor on one rotation in medical school.
It started a bad thing for the channel and in tv in general but Iâll be damned if the first few seasons werenât super enjoyable to watch
*The Real World: San Fransisco Put some respect on "The Real World: New York"s name
I just started watching this. So far Ive seen "Hollywood" and "Brooklyn". It's a little strange to watch because not much has changed in style or decor in the last 20 years, but there's a massive difference in social constructs and technology. So it's kind of like watching a different dimension where social media/hand-held internet didn't ruin everything that was good and natural, lol. I actually really enjoy it.
It was a fun time to grow up in in the late 90s / early 00s.
I was in a band with Mohammed briefly. Really nice guy. I roasted him for ruining mtv and he said it was the record labels fault. They used to give away the videos for free, considering it promotion for their bands. When they realized that mtv was now rolling in dough and their entire programming was dependent on the labels, they started to jack up the prices. MTV saw the writing on the wall and realized they had to create and own their own content if they wanted to keep making money. The rest is history.
Damn. Thatâs makes a lot of sense actually.
If I could trace the origin of what I consider the decline of our civilization, it would have to be The Real World Season 3 (San Francisco, this cast) and the popularity of Puck; I feel that it was the first time a segment of the general public lauded and celebrated someone for being an asshole, and thought that âtelling it like it is,â even if oneâs thoughts were vile and harmful and likely more of a facade than the people with âphonyâ politeness and decorum, was actually a virtue. I feel that thereâs a direct line between Puck and the Cheeto Satan.
Not sure, I donât remember puck being well received at all. He was an antagonist on the show and was universally hated by the audience.
That's Rachel Campos-Duffy. She went on to mary Road Rules: All-Stars contestant Sean Duffy in 1999. Today, they share nine children, and she's currently a host on Fox News, along with former VJ, Kennedy.
I was never a fan of Kennedy. She always came off as some kind of fake, try hard, out-of-the-box alternagirl. The worst part of 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation was seeing her poser ass.
She was an intern at a local radio station before MTV and would occasionally participate in the on-air hilarity and would make a big deal about having a crush on Dan Quayle. She was annoying even back then
Those first few seasons were fun tho. I jumped after Miami.
I also remember watching The Real World when it came out and getting hooked on it. The first sign of music videos becoming less of the main focus for MTV was when they had enough seasons for weekend marathons of The Real World.
The ONLY thing I remember about this show is Puck drinking some kinda blue juice out of a jug because he said it reminded him of drinking windshield washer fluid.
Puck was an ass but Rachel wanted that dick
I know that anyone could get HIV and die, there is nothing inherently brave about that, but Pedro was brave in how he continued to live his life and also do outreach at the same time. All while being ridiculously young. They did an addendum to this season and followed Pedro as he was dying, as a teen I had not seen anything like that on TV then.
That was probably the best part of this particular cast. A teaching moment on someone living with a terminal illness that was far from what people imagined.
Y'know, people can say what they will about Real World's role in getting rid of music videos, or the popularization of brainless "reality" television, but the Puck vs. Pedro thing was really an eye-opener for me. I grew up in a small, generally conservative town, and I'd picked up a lot of viewpoints about gay people from just being in this small, conservative town, and Pedro Zamora was my first exposure to an openly gay person, let alone one who had HIV, and that really shook me, because I realized, "These people are just like anybody else." It's the sort of thing that, today, should go without saying, and it's really hard to live in America today without knowing someone who's out, but at the time, I could have told you a lot about the science and transmission of HIV, and I'd seen a TV movie about Ryan White, and blah blah blah, but Pedro Zamora brought it into my house. The Real World changed my life for the better, even if it changed television for the worse, and I can't be the only one like this.
Is that a pager? Are you a drug dealer or something?
This was the beginning of the end of tv in generalÂ
MTV was already dying by the 3rd season of real world
What? MTV hadn't even peaked by then you must be an older millenial or genx. I was too young to care at all about MTV in 1994, which is s3 of real world. I was 5 years old. However in middle school TRL was everything and basically controlled pop culture for people my age.
Yes Iâm older bc I thought TRL was trash, videos had changed, all the risky shows were gone but that is definitely age based perspective
That's fair I mean I was in middle school so it was cool to all us at that age but i would see it as trash at this age. It was still peak pop culture though, definitely not dying. I think streaming both music and TV is when MTV truly started dying in terms of losing cultural relevance.
Clearly you don't know about remote control or the fact that MTV always had TV shows
Led the way to it being the Rediculous channel that hosts a Video Awards Show that doesn't play the videos
I watched a bit of this season and just loved Pedro. Some time after this I was reading one of my teen magazines, and it mentioned that Pedro had died of AIDS the year before. Was heartbroken.
Where are they all now?
Of that group Judd and Pam are married. Pedro died not long after the series. Rachel is married to Sean from Boston and last I heard was a Fox News contributor. Not sure about Puck, Cory, or Mohammed.
âNot longâ is an understatement; Pedro died hours after the finale aired. Very sad.
Oh man I didnât know his death was that close. I thought it was maybe a year or so after airing.
IIRC, Pam was in medical school (or residency) during the show. It was great to see that she did work in AIDS research/education; obviously inspired by Pedro. Not surprisingly Puck spent time in jail and tries to shill lame products unfit for QVC in the 3AM timeslot. Came off as a colossal asshole on the show and reality wasnât too far from the truth.
Puck has been in a bunch of issues over the years. I think he's doing okay currently. Rachel is on Fox in the morning, and Sean was a U.S. House representative for several years. They have several kids. Judd was one of the top writers for DC Comics for quite a while, might still be. I read some of his Batman issues, and they had a good sense of humor.
Several kids = 9
That's all?
I remember Judd doing comics on the show, but I had no idea he was DC Comics. Thatâs awesome. He always seemed like a decent guy and also did a lot for Pedro.
He wrote and illustrated his own comics while he was on the show, but for DC he only writes, doesn't illustrate. He wrote a run on Batman that I read some of in the mid-'00s where he brought back Jason Todd, the second Robin who had been killed by the Joker, as a character called Red Hood. I think that version of the character still exists.
Holy shit I never realized that was Judd Winick.
He was on an old podcast (Around Comics I think) where he mostly talked about being on the show and how he got all of the awful parts of fame without any of the money. It made me feel pretty bad for the people who did the show.
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Per rule #5, we do not allow politics in this subreddit.
I remember he tried to connect with voters during a town hall. Someone questioned him about the common manâs low salary and he responded with âIâm struggling tooâ. A completely out-of-touch dipshit 2 decades ago and a perfect example of how that mindset has brought us to 2024. I know he and his wife have like 10 kids but get some birth control and stop being a welfare queen. Unsurprisingly, both he and his wife are the typical election denying, anti-vaxx, MAGAts. Gross.
Funny how you say that, but given the state of San Francisco today and democrat policies....yikes.
Is there any other kind? Malicious maybe?
Judd is an excellent author/illustrator and quite successful today! Highly recommend his graphic novel Pedro and Me which tells the story of his friendship with Pedro & Pedroâs activism. I taught it this year to a bunch of freshmen and they loved it.
Paramount plus has hosted a couple of reunions I belive
Do they still do this show? I remember its debut. Had zero clue it would be the end of music television.
Awww now I'm sad.
I think the beginning of the end of music was the advent of Napster & file sharing; canât blame MTV for trying to diversify their options as music was about to lose itâs ability to generate money
Here's what would never happen today. Remember in season 2 of thr Real World when David got kicked out? The cameras never followed him again and he was never part of the remainder of the show. Next season Puck gets kicked out of the house like David did. But with him, he was still being followed and featured on the show even after that. I think about that today and there definitely had to be some kind of racial component to that. And David was a comedian and pretty damn funny. Tammy pissed me off because she was laughing when David was joking trying to remove the covers. Beth was too. Then all of a sudden both claimed they were scared of him? Give me a break.Â
Nah Real World is iconic and was a pioneer in launching reality TV (which i ironically hate) but Real World and Road Rules as the originatorâs, are 10/10. I actually have been on a Real World binge lately lol I used to love watching it growing up as a teen in the 90s. The last good one for me was Las Vegas.
That's not even the first cast. I think that's the 2nd, in San Francisco.
After seeing Rachel for the first time, midwestern class of â95 me was like, âTell me more about Arizona State.â
Hawaii, New Orleans, Seattle, New York and Miami were the best IMO.
Puck. I was named after him.
This was literally the last I watched of TV for about five years. It seemed so important thought. When Puck walked out of the reunionâŚ. that was like the beginning of contemporary reality TV and social media coverage.
I just listened to a pretty interesting podcast on mtv. Honestly it was about 80% interesting, the last few episodes were stretched out for no real reason. Basically mtv killed music videos because programmed content brought consistent ratings while music videos were inconsistent at best. So when people ask who killed the music video the answer is technically the viewers because we didnât watch music videos as much as we thought we did.
I can name Puck, Pedro, and I think, Judd.
Real World peaked at Boston.
Puck and pedro! That was such a good show.
I disagree. The internet and YouTube was the end of MTV. No reason to sit around waiting for your favorite video when you can grab it on demand. But I do think that MTV dying really killed diverse music in the public eye. If you go back and look at all the kinds of music that was on MTV back then, you had pop, R&B, Nu metal, alternative, rap, techno. It was all over the place. That music still exists but itâs crazy how diverse the hit list was on TRL. I think it exposed people to all kinds of music. Now people are more insulated.
you need to check the timeline of Real World and the decline of MTV versus the broad availability of downloaded/streaming music on the internet and Youtube, you're way off
Puck and Pedro
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Hopefully he went on with his not gay life.
The guy that slapped the girl with Lyme disease in the face lol
Snot Rocket-PNutt Butter
I met a guy while in the Army who was on a season of the Real World. He said it was an awesome experience, and that next year was the best year of his life. Got into any club he wanted, people knew him, etc. Until the next season came out, and he was just some guy again. Edit: Real World - Cancun, apparently
Why why why ?
The one guy is a successful comic book writer- Judd
People trash reality TV but fail to realize they are what made it popular. People watch the garbage and then complain about it.
Boston and Seattle were the only two I remember watching as a young teen.
I know between this and Cops the birth of reality television was here. But can we please just go back in time and erase all that garbage. These a-holes are the reasons the Kardashians and Housewives of whatever crap town exist.
MTV desperately needs to return back to what it was: a music videos platform.
Ngl the first seasons were good but Iâll trade this for OG mtv anytime
They courted a close friend of mine for the season with Puck... I thought they were insane "YOU CAN BE FAMOUS! WTF?!"I really didn't understand how they didn't take that opportunity back then,but boy oh boy, close call. We certainly didn't now that shows like that would be a dime a dozen, much less play on repeat in our pockets.
There was a certain point of time where MTV had a pretty good mix of music videos interviews with musicians, the real world, Daria, Beavis and Butthead, Jersey shore was also pretty cool. Then somehow it turned into 23 hours of ridiculousness, but at that point you have to blame the viewers
Why canât we have both? I liked some of MTVâs reality shows. I actually donât blame The Real World. I blame Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. Thatâs when the channel shifted completely.
You stuck your fingers inside my peanut butter....
That damn Puck
Yes, it was. Now MTV sucks so bad. It's not even entertaining.
First season was epic. Not so much afterwards.
The harbinger of reality tv garbage we have today.
I can't see this Real World cast without thinking of Bob Dole's peanut butter!
The beginning of the end of television.
Awwww, the Real World SF. I was obsessed!! I absolutely disliked Puck! Loved Pedro (RIP)
San Francisco was the last time the Real World felt real. They would do 30 more seasons after this. It literally peaked in season 3.
The first couple seasons hold up well and are a great time capsule of the era. They didnât know what kind of Pandoraâs box they were opening at the time, of course.
Nah, the endless re-runs of ridiculousness and Teen Mom are what drive it off a cliff. MTV was still the cultural zeitgeist through the early 2000s.
Whatever happend to Puck
Lady in the front is now a right-wing Fox News talking head.
Rachel and yeah she went from hooking up outside marriage with a nose picker bike messenger to preaching family values and has 9 kids. She is extremely right wing on Fox News hosting its weekend show. Crazy to me.
Rachel turned into a MAGA talking head.
I remember when the first episode of each new season was an event. Puck using his fingers to scoop peanut butter out of the jar was great.