Favorite MTV show, past AND present

Years ago, when the concept was still relatively young and fresh, "Road Rules" came through and shot an episode in the small town I was working at the time.

Somehow or other we got word they were there (on a public roadway and a large farm which was one of our major advertisers), and we sent out a writer/photographer to do a story.

Jesus Christ, you'd think we were trying to get pictures of the pope's underwear.

The writer, a young kid fresh out of school, came back after a couple of hours with a sad story about getting jerked around and stonewalled and pressured to sign some kind of editorial-content release in which our paper would surrender to MTV final editorial approval of any coverage. She somehow thought MTV had some authority to do this, so basically she was just going to give up on it.

I was fairly free for the afternoon so I went out there and started getting pushy about being close enough to allow photos, ask questions of some of the participants. After putting up a fight for about an hour the directors decided it was more of a pain in the ass to fight us than to ignore us, so they said, "we don't care what you do as long as you stay out of camera range."

NOTHING (nothing nothing nothing zero zip zilch nada) of what happens on such 'reality shows' is actual reality. EVERY SINGLE LINE (every single line) uttered by anybody is utterly concocted and scripted, cooked up by some fucker sitting in a trailer. Anybody who believes anything to the contrary is a fucking moron who needs to be belted in the skull with a ball bat.

We did run a story the next day explaining that most of the dialogue was concocted. A few weeks later we got a letter from some MTV/WB asshole lawyer pissing and moaning and vaguely threatening some kind of legal action for 'breaking a media embargo.'

We ran it as a letter to the editor with the response, 'Thank you for your opinion.'

 

Daria was great, but I had a soft spot for Celebrity Death Match. Present day, there isn't anything redeemable about MTV. Every show is contrived and hypocritical. 16 and Pregnant is a sad exploration into the lives of impoverished families and red necks (followed immediately by people actively seeking to pop their cherries). Finding Carter is the only show right now that I don't shame my wife int flipping the channel, but it is way too unbelievable. The premise is intriguing: A 16-year-old girl discovers she was kidnapped as a toddler and is dumped on a family with issues simmering under the surface. But what you get is a show about teens having sex and doing drugs under the noses of parents who choose to look the other way or sometimes actively encouraged promiscuous behavior. And one of the parents is a cop.

Maybe my 30-year-old ass isn't supposed to understand, but MTV is just encouraging the ills that plague our society. At least Daria was a socially awkward teenager who was well adjusted enough to make smart decisions even if she was trying to subvert authority at every turn.

 

Very funny, and underrated show. I purchased the "set" from some guy on ebay a few years ago. It had the three unaired episodes with it.

 

I loved Remote Control. Mostly, I watched for the videos. Groups like Poison and Crue had videos that were damn near porn in my house. Had to sneak up to watch that shit. I'm also just old enough to remember Collins-free weekends. The horror. The horror.

 

Not gonna lie. Still watch the Challenge. And maybe some Ridiculousness.

Past: Rob & Big, for sure.

 

Adults didn't 'get' MTV when you liked. Why would things be different now?

I don't mean a specific 'you' but a universal 'you.'

 

I was a Real World watcher well into grad school.
It was stupidly entertaining, and always good eye candy.
Hey, the '90s came with their own set of problems.

 

Puck would've been perfect for Jersey Shore.

 

That didn't happen.

 

As braindead as it was, The Real World marked some social impact in the response to Pedro's treatment on the show and how his death was received.