Is Big Brother True Reality
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TV ClubHouse: ARCHIVES: Big Brother USA 2003 General Discussions Part 1: Is Big Brother True Reality

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:25 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Just wondering... is BB reality tv? If so where are the disbaled, the elderly, the boring, the overweight and the list goes on? Every year they make sure they get just a little racial variety and at least one person who's weight they can talk about. Oh, and of course they always have to make reference to the homosexual as if it were something foreign noone has ever heard anything about. Wouldn't it be much better if it was how reality is? With tons of different types of people? I mean unless you work at the gym, bar or tanning salon or day care where would your normal life give you the opportunity to always be around, the cute, the young, the self-absorbed? I love the concept and drama of BB but it isn't realistic, is it?

Crossfire

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:31 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
No, it's contrived, a small subset of people in a fake house competing to win money 24/7 for 3 months, and a bunch of voyeurs peeking in the windows watching to see who wins.

Bastable

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:34 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
What reality shows are reality? I have always thought the term "reality television" was wrongly applied.

These are game shows. If anything, "reality game shows."

"Documentaries" already exist. That's what The Real World is. But Big Brother, Survivor, The Bachelor, and The Amazing Race? They are game shows, pure and simple.

The only reason we expect "reality" is because the word is in the term we use to describe the genre. And maybe because BB1 had a sliver of an element of reality. But there is nothing about the setup of these shows that should lead us to expect reality.

Tobor7

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Most are "managed reality"-- but BB is as close as you can get I think. The sheer number of confined days and the "24/7" feeds supress the amount of management.

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Yeah, but is the reality they give us what we want? Or what producers think we want?

Aus10

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
True reality is:
1. Not having an agent, ever thinking about getting an agent, or even wanting an agent for that matter.
2. Using a washing machine, not a big red bucket. This of course is true unless you live somewhere where you have to beat your clothes on a rock.
3. Getting paid for working, not sitting on your butt discussing how you will spend the next few weeks lounging in Mexico. If this were the case I'd be on cheaptickets.com looking up tickets to Acapulco right now.
4. Having a bathroom door...enough said.
5. Having one bed and not bed hopping from night to night. I have 4 bedrooms in my house, and never, ever have I spent one night in any other bed or bedroom for that matter.....the couch is quite a different story however.

Laisey

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:42 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Aus, I bet you don't have a seating area in your bathroom either.

Crossfire

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:43 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Heh, who was it hiding under the bed last year during a room closing...Marcellus?

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:44 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Well, I don't have 11 strangers that have unclarified criminal records living in my house. Maybe that should be the next relaity show. The Halfway House.

Theo

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Yes Crossfire it was Marc when they were closing the HRD

What555456

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:52 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
The LA Times refers to "reality" TV, as "unscripted" TV. It seems to me this is as good a description as anything.

It clearly is not reality -- that is just a marketing term.

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:54 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Unscripted as far as we can tell, eh? Guess, I just think if you put a real variety it could actually be more interesting.

Theo

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:54 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
What I thought that was the learning channel

Ocean_Islands

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
TV is pretend. It is not real.

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Really?

Jigglywigglyjun

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ocean how dare you tell us that, Next thing your gonna tell us is that Santa Claus doesn't exist!

Laisey

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
OI, Do you mean Mr. Ed couldn't talk? I'm devastated.

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Okay, now you guys are just trying to make me cry. Santa Claus, Mr.Ed? I guess Superman couldn't fly and wonder woman wasn't real either?

Cangaroo

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Next thing ya'll will be saying evil things about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy...

Mranon

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:16 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Originally Posted by :Willsbills
Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:04 pm
-------------------------------------------------
Just wondering... is BB reality tv? If so where are the disbaled, the elderly, the boring, the overweight and the list goes on?
-------------------------------------------------

Well, there was a person with a disability on the show before, although not truly eldery, there are older people on the show, the boring.. hello? Some of these people are REALLY boring..the overweight.. ok, so there aren't truly overweight people (although Gerry was pretty close)...

True, most of the contestants aren't your average work a day people, however most of your average work a day people are in fact, working and aren't those who are likely to apply for a show such as this.

Laisey

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:22 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Cangaroo, No one on this board would ever say anything evil about any bunny. The tooth fairy is an entirely different matter. In fact, I thing she cheated me of a dime once.

Willsbills

Friday, August 01, 2003 - 09:23 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This is true. I'll tell you guys this. My grandma is in her 80's she's hip, she even used the word "sucks" today which totally cracked me up. She's totally into pop culture and is healthier and in better shape than I am. I want her to try next year. I think that would be hilarious to see this little old lady with her little blonde hair out there dancing and hanging with the young kids. Now, granted I don't what she'd look like in a bikini but trust me she will speak her mind and she would tell you off in a heartbeat. Just think someone like that would be really funny.

Costacat

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 12:00 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Whomever thinks reality TV is really "real" needs a reality check. Really, how real could it be when your "real" people don't really apply to be on the reality TV show. I mean, really! You should realize that any semblance of realism in the reality show is too unreal to be real.

Costacat is still babbling and is really gonna go make some real coffee, really!

Willsbills

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 12:02 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Actually, real people do apply. it's that arnie and Co. don't cast them. therein lies the problem.

Laisey

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 12:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I really haven't recovered from one of the anchors on E News Live referring to BB as a Reality Dating Show.

Costacat

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 12:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Wills, you totally missed my point. Really. <grin>

Lancecrossfire

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 12:25 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I don't think that BB is reality in a complete context. It isn't how life goes--you don't put a dozen people in a house away from everyone and everything.

I think what is real is what happens within the system that is created--be it BB, the mole, survior, amazing race, temptation island--any of them.

The end isn't decided--things can happen based on people's words and actions--chance/luck can play a part--or I shoudl say often does. (just look at the fact Kathy didn't get voted out of Survivor the first 3 times she could have been voted out)

It's real to me in terms of what it takes to win. I look at Richard Hatch winning the first survivor and being pissed off beyond belief because everyday I see it's those type of people who get ahead in the work wold, make more money, etc. That is the part that is real.

Weinermr

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 12:37 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
What is reality anyway? Is reality to you or me the same as it is to Charles Manson? I hope not.

I think they call it reality TV because these people's lives (for the most part) are not scripted. They are not acting. They are being themselves. Granted, they are being themselves in a contrived living situation, but they are being themselves in it.

It is not OUR reality. This is a TV show, something we should always remember. These people are hamsters in a cage, and will act and react given those circumstances.

R151996

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 02:13 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Dead on target about applicants being overlooked, Willsbills.

I noticed in one of Dave's exit interviews where he said he didn't apply either. After he was cast the producers had to scramble at the last minute to get Michelle on as his ex.

That now makes at least eight of the 14 (the 14 number includes Brandon) who we know were recruited and did not apply on ther own.

Buttercup

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 03:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lance and Weiner, I agree with you both :)

Buttercup

Weinermr

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 04:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Well rounded casting?

(Thanks BC)

Spunky

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 05:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Who has seen the movie EdTV?? About the video store clerk who agrees to have his life filmed for a tv channel. I saw this movie a couple of nights ago on our local channel and I think in that movie you get the sense of what reality on tv would be like.

Matthew McConaughey reminded me a bit of Nate, same drawl and a bit of his looks, but not the personality, Ed was really fun to watch and the audience went nuts over the show.
But it couldn't last as the constant attention almost wrecked his life and it had to end.

I thought a bit far-fetched that an entire nation would be glued to the tv to see what happened next and Ed almost a hero.

But if we want reality that scenario in that movie was the closest you could get to reality, BB is just a game.

Willsbills

Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 11:25 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I just think it could make for some really good tv if the casting was more realistic. that's all folks.

Kellirippa

Sunday, August 03, 2003 - 12:38 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I'd be interested to see what the relationships would be in the house if it were the same group of people, but there were no game. Just these people in the house for 3 months as roommates that are forced to co-exist, still no TV or outside contact. Obviously some of the friendships that exist now are strategic, rather than genuine, if there were no need for strategy, who would naturally form friendships?