THE BIRTH OF REALITY TV AND THE BACHELORIZATION OF IT

Tifani and I, like most Americans I know, just finished "Making a Murderer" on Netflix.  She immediately stated, "We need a new show to watch."  I thought of the many shows that were coming back on TV after Holiday breaks that we could watch together but realized that she doesn't watch as much crappy TV as I.  We had finished "Scream Queens" and I don't know what to make of this season's "American Horror Story", so I was at a loss of what we could look forward to watching together.

Then, after reviewing my Facebook timeline on Monday, I got an idea.  I texted Tif: "How about we watch the Bachelor?"  She must have thought I was drunk but she agreed.

I have never watched an episode of "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette".  I do know that A LOT of people do and they will state their allegiance to a particular person on social media.  Here is what else I know about the show from reading People magazine covers, while waiting in line at the grocery store: there is a rose involved, rarely does the couple get married, there was a fat guy from a "The Bachelorette" show who went on to be a "The Bachelor" contestant when he lost weight, there was a "The Bachelor" from Iowa, and the last "The Bachelorette" was kind of slutty.

I do, like I wrote earlier, watch a lot of crappy TV.  A lot.  Thank goodness for the The Hopper.  But I watched bad TV before The Hopper.  That includes reality TV.  In my opinion, reality TV started with an inception and a beginning.

The inception would be MTV's 1992 "Real World" (aka "Real World: New York Season 1).  Eric, Julie, Heather, Andre, Norman, Becky, and Kevin had me watching and taping this show every Thursday night because I wanted to see EXACTLY what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.

Now, MTV broke some ground here.  But they were really just flirting with the idea that maybe we could get more viewers if they cut out the videos and just showed tons of reality crap.  They wouldn't adopt this philosophy for nearly ten years.  It doesn't matter how you look at it, The Real World has it's place on the Mt. Rushmore of Reality TV.  Network TV wasn't getting into the idea of reality TV just yet, unless it was "Cops".  Speaking of cops, that will lead us into the beginning of reality TV.

The beginning of reality TV came in the years of 1994 and 1995.  "The OJ Chase and The OJ Trial" is when the networks now understood that they could put unpaid people on TV and still get sponsorship.  Ask anyone in their late 30s and they can tell you exactly where they were during The Chase and The Verdict of OJ Simpson. (Side note: CAN NOT WAIT FOR FX's "THE PEOPLE VS OJ SIMPSON IN FEBRUARY!  CAN'T WAIT!)

Let's fast forward through reality TV and into the reality TV game show.  I was never into "The Gong Show" when I was little, so I don't watch these shows.  Unless there is gambling involved.  So I have only watched "Big Brother", "The Voice", and "MTV's The Challenge".  I am guilty of being in fantasy leagues of all 3.

I have only seen the very first episode of "American Idol" and the first episode of "Survivor".  I thought Simon Cowell was mean and "Survivor" was boring.  I don't watch "The Amazing Race", "The X Factor", "America's Got Talent", etc.  I just don't like them.  So it threw Tifani for a loop when I suggested "The Bachelor".

I explained to her that I wanted to live blog my reaction to the show.  She told me that Howard Stern and Jason Biggs did something similar.  I don't listen to Stern or read Biggs so I don't consider anything I write to be plagiarism.  So together, we are going to catch up on Monday's "The Bachelor", thanks to The Hopper on Dish.  I am going to write my immediate reactions, go back briefly to edit, and then post.  I will try to do the same every Monday night during the season.  Please feel free to comment on Facebook or on the blog.