WEBVTT - Part One: The Bastards of Reality Television 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:08.320 Oh, welcome to Behind the Bastards, the only podcast with 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:11.760 the personality of a staff infection. No, no, no, that's 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:16.560 just me, Robert. We're reading a one star review from 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.600 it two. You're just an annoying lips smacker who needs 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:24.239 to do better. I mean, look, who for one thing 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.040 is it bad? Is a staff infection bad? There's upsides 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:32.879 to staff infections. You get time off of work, photographs, 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.000 you have to if you die, deal with a lot 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.680 less bullshit on Twitter. You know, so again. Staff in 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.760 affections are really mixed bag. There's positive sides. Honestly, so 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.440 fucking funny, and I have no idea what it means that. 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:49.760 I'm like, not even mad. It's extreme. It's yeah, it's clever. 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.120 It's fun to get roasted like that where you're like, yeah, 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.000 that's very funny. We're like, I'm not quite sure what 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.200 you mean, but you're you're not wrong, right. It flows, 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.680 It's like words flow, and it's just it's like, yeah, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.039 I like a good It's like it's like when you well, 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.920 I'm getting into dangerous territory here, but when you read 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.200 people being like super shitty on some level. Uh, from 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.160 like a hundred and fifty years ago, and it's like, well, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.039 this is sexist or racist, but man, people could put 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.560 together sentences back then. That's not that's not a bad sentence, 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.360 you know, like it's it's horrible, but it's not a 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:30.319 bad sentence. People used to Yeah, the ship posts were 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.760 a lot more people put a lot more work into 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.840 their ship posts. It's like HP Lovecraft racism. Well, it's 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.800 like this is terrible, but man, quite quite quite quite 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.240 a phrase way to create an entire lure around your 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.920 racing exactly. That's that's so much more effort than people 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:55.960 put into it these days. Um, David Bell, that's me, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.080 that's you. You know, you know, you know Dave of 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.480 you know, you know, you know, I don't know you know, 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.280 you know Dave. Okay, you know, I think I think 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.880 Dave is going to love this topic. I hope he does. Um, 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.600 I hope he loves it, and I hope you hate it. Sylvie, Okay, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.280 I'm just I'm just an asshole. I'm a bad person, 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:26.200 just biting the hand that stops me from committing a 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.960 series of crimes that get us erased and arrested. In 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:34.720 our podcast Shutdown, Dave, how do you feel about reality TV. 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:41.320 Oh okay, um mixed feelings. Yeah, yeah, that's the right 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.440 way to feel. Yeah, I don't watch most of you. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.000 I don't find it interesting, but I don't have anything 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.560 against it unless something horrible was done behind the scenes. 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.359 You know. It's like if if everybody, if there's consent 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:02.440 and everybody's cool, uh, then we're we're good. We're good. 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.680 I do like, I do like the occasional like British 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.480 bake off, but I wouldn't consider a share. I mean, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.079 it is unscripted. But am I right in saying that 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:20.120 reality TV does have the personality of a staff infection? Yes, yes, yes, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.600 where it's where it's gross and infectious, but also you 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:26.679 might get to take some time off of work, which 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.920 is to enjoy it. Yeah. So you know, I'm not 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.320 going to do this thing. This is going to be 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.960 kind of a loosey goosey episode. We're doing this right 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.920 after the kissing your episodes. Everybody's tired. I'm not going 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:39.600 to be one of these smarmi foxs who's just like 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.600 shipping on the concept of reality TV to seem smart. Right, 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.880 reality TV is broadly speak, it's junk food. You know, 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.640 it is not good for you. But that said, I 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.920 do shipload of things that are bad for me, and 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.680 I would also that it's not new. Game shows have 0:03:55.760 --> 0:04:00.920 always existed. There's always entertainment, junk food, that fucking piece 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.960 of trash Mozart right, like his ship. Everyone knows he ship, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.600 but like people like to enjoy ship and that's fine. Um, 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.720 I like the Bloodhound Gang, you know, like we're not nobody. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.280 Nobody in this show is going to be like again, 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.240 there's nothing bad, or like, you're not dumb because some 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.240 of the smartest people I know like turn off from 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.560 like getting their PhD or whatever and like watch you know, 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.200 a bake off show or like Big Brother or some ship. 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.880 It's fine. Listen where we're done here. I will be 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:33.719 going online and ordering the the four K release of Moonfall. 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.719 I will be doing that, and I will watch the 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.240 special features. I mean, Dave, you've watched Ship with me. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.040 One of my favorite things to put on is people 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.760 hurting themselves horribly while skiing or bass jumping, and I have. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.040 I have since expanded to wingsuit crashes, some of which 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.920 the people diet of. There's some gnarly wing crash videos 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.039 if you look. That's the old pink missed. But oh yeah, yeah, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:03.640 have you looked into um parkour? Parkour accidents are great 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.359 if you really want to be harrowed. Just type gun 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:12.680 fails into YouTube. There's some ship in there. Oh my god, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.440 there's this video and just google and like type gun 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.680 there's some nasty There's a dude who like put a 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.000 bunch of tanner, right, which is this explosive. You shoot 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.720 it and it blows up on a fucking lawnmower and 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.159 shot at it close range and the blade cut his 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:34.640 leg off. Ship. So again, I'm saying this all not 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.760 to celebrate my own crapulence, but like, we all like 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.800 some stuff that's the entertainments of like junk food, right. Um, 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.000 So this isn't an episode about like trying to I'm 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:46.880 not trying to make the case that like reality TV 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:48.640 is bad and you should feel bad for watching it. 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:50.800 This is about the most fucked up things that have 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.800 ever happened within the broad umbrella of reality or what 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.200 you might call unscripted content. Um, there's not a particular 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:58.919 thesis here. I just spent a lot of time reading 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.080 about the worst things that have happened in reality TV, 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.520 and I decided to do a podcast None of You 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.040 Can Stop Mace deal with It. Will probably do another 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.840 episode in the future with more of these stories. Is exciting. Yeah, 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.600 before we start, I want to share my very favorite 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.159 reality television story, and this is a story about a 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.760 reality TV show I enjoyed. So when I was in Iraq, 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:20.240 this is like the second or the third, might have 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.880 been the fourth time. I forget exactly which time it was. Um, 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:24.520 but we're like, you know, when you're hanging out a 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.599 place like that, we're like going to refugee camps and 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.159 like frontline positions, and in order to get to both, 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.279 you have to spend time and like a bunch of 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.960 random living rooms because that's where everyone's like posted up 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.479 leader of these camps, these like different generals and ship. 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.479 They're all like hanging out in houses, and so while 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.520 you're waiting to get approval to go places, you're just 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.120 like sitting in like usually an air conditioned living room 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:45.839 with the TV on and a bunch of guys with 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.920 their guns and phones out and ship. And one of 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:50.840 the times we were out there, this is the same 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:52.840 reality show kept going on. It came on in like 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.520 two or three different places, and I don't know what 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.520 the name of the show is. I have not brief 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:59.520 googling has not informed me of it. But the premise 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.520 was that there was this host who would like take 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.160 a rich guy out to the desert, like he would 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.360 They would be like driving a caravan and there would 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:09.800 be a contrived accident and like one of the cases 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:11.880 I remember, this guy is like in a little motor 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.520 cade and they get stuck in quicksand and his vehicle 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.240 sinks and he has to get out and he's like 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.360 on top of the vehicle and while that's happening, the 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.040 host dressed as a Komodo dragon comes out and attacks them. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.760 Ship just fucking insane, Like I I don't know what 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.640 was like. I'm sure there's elements of this that I 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.920 was not grasping because there were no subtitles and I 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.480 do not speak Arabic um. But it was it some 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.200 of the wildest ship I've watched on TV. It was 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.120 so good. I don't know what's scarier, being attacked by 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.720 a Komodo dragon or a man dressed like one, because 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.800 they're both very pretty good costume. Yeah, oh my god, 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.920 it sounds like it's like Survivor man wild. I don't 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.040 know what the point was supposed to be, because on 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.240 all of them, people just like react the way you 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:05.280 would if you suck a photo dragon. Goddamn, Like where 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:10.280 we America can't talk, but we're like assimilated to our weirdness. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.120 But it's kind of the same as when you watch 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:17.080 like the Japanese Brakes shows, Yeah, the Silent Library, where 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.240 it's like you have to be quite in a library 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.640 and they just like do funked up ship to you 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.800 and if you make a noise, you lose, and and 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.880 it's like that actually I think got an American adaptation. Um, 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.680 But like it's that extra context of not understanding the 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.079 language or the extra layer that's like makes it so 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.840 perfect and bizarre. Man, I want to watch that so bad. 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.480 I love that s Yeah, someone will find it now 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.560 that we've talked about it, and we'll find the clips. 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:51.240 I would love to watch it again, um anyway, Dave. 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.360 On January eleven, nineteen seventy three, PBS began to air 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.840 the first of twelve hour long episodes of an American 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:03.480 Family to levision documentary about the Louds, an actual family 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.920 and this is probably the very first reality show in history. Now, 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.199 the Louds were upper middle class and lived in Santa Barbara, 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.599 and over three hours of raw footage of them was 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:18.080 shot between May and December thirty one ninety one. The 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.880 initial intent was just to kind of chronicle their daily lives, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.600 but during filming, the relationship between spouses Bill and Pat 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.280 Loud broke down, and the show ends with both parents divorcing. 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.480 Camera's actually caught Pat asking for a divorce on camera. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.000 She tells Bill, you know there's a problem, and he responds, 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.120 what's your problem? This was picked by TV Guide as 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.520 one of the top hundred TV moments of all time, 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.840 and in some ways, viewers have never moved on from 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.880 the concept of watching unscripted life moments from rich people 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.600 in California right like this. This is broadly speaking, still 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:57.760 the reality TV What do you do you think? And 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.720 I don't know the answer to this? What they have 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.199 had that divorce if they weren't on camera? Who knows? 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.280 I I have not watched the twelve hours of the Louds. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.679 It's the double slit theory of like, when observed, will 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.679 they divorce? It can't help, right, it can't help. It 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.720 probably gives people just a more sense of like I 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.959 want drama in my life. Yeah, I'm being videotaped all 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.280 the time, So like you start like thinking of your 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.920 life like a TV show. I imagine. Yeah, it doesn't 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.920 seem like it could like make it easier for a 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.360 trouble within a merry a marriage to get solved. But 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:43.160 that said, I don't know anything about this particular couple. Um, 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.440 but it's worth noting that, like reality TV does not 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.840 start far from where it is now, right, like the 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.200 yeah this is this is still the heart of the 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.520 of the genre. Um. So an American family is hugely 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.760 successful and it immediately spawns an imitation by the BBC 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:04.960 call just the Family Now An American families particularly notable 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.240 because the Loud Family's oldest son, Lance was probably the 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.480 world's first openly gay TV star. Um Like, he's open 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.880 about being gay in the show in nineteen seventy three, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.079 which is pretty groundbreaking for the time. Um and he 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.560 dies during the AIDS epidemic, which is, uh, you know, 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.800 there's a whole is an interesting person whose life to 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.200 study right this this show and he like, there's nothing 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.679 particularly problematic here, it's just an interesting piece of his 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.880 I mean, it's your typical reality TV coming from PBS 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:40.000 and BBC as we all know, yeah, classic classic reality 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.440 TV stations. So in the years that followed, the series 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:45.920 went through the normal life cycle of a successful show. 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.240 There's a handful of parodies, right, like a bunch of 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.000 different like sketch shows do parodies of an American family. 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.640 There's like jokes and sitcoms of the day about moments 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.040 that have happened in the show. Um, and then ten 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.840 years after it airs, there's an attempted reboot that doesn't 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.840 do very well. Right, nothing at all weird here. This 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.800 is like more or less what happens with every successful show. 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.080 Most folks probably figured that was kind of it for 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.320 the genre, which had yet to be named. People didn't 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.360 talk about reality TV is a thing. There's just this 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.000 one weird show that had existed. But a few perceptive 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:21.200 individuals at the time recognized that something special was afoot. 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.280 Anthropologist Margaret Mead published an essay in TV Guide. The 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.520 New Yorker writes quote. Her contribution, which wasn't mentioned on 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.840 the cover, appeared in the back of the magazine after 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.840 the listings, tucked between an advertisement for Virginia Slims and 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.920 a profile of Shelly Winters, Bill and Pat Loud and 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.520 their five children are either actors nor public figures, Mead wrote, Rather, 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.280 they were the people they portrayed on television, members of 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.560 a real family. Producers compressed seven months of tedium and 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.320 turmoil into twelve one hour segments, which constituted, in Mead's view, 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.920 a new kind of art form and innovation as significant 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.240 as the invention of drama or the novel. And I 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.200 think that's true no matter how you like reality TV, Like, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.559 of course it's hit that point of cultural relevance already, 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.040 it's had that impact. We have the Trump presidency because 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.000 of reality TV, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. The biggest 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:12.880 shame about reality TV is when it's staged, right, Like, yeah, 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.839 it's the same opinion of documentary. Um, we'll get into that, 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.520 but yeah, but I think that is interesting. They're just 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.560 looking at it as like it's like the birth of 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.440 the novel, you know, Yeah, it will be with us 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:30.320 for a long time. It'll it'll be so broad that 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.880 I think it's like any genre where it's sort of 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:38.439 mixes with other genres. You know. Uh, you could argue 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.120 that just what we're doing, like TikTok uh and like 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:46.000 the the the YouTube's and so on, our offshoots of 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.800 reality TV because we're following people's lives. Uh, people are 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.679 kind of filming genuine moments, stage moments. It's all, it's 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:56.920 all part of the same thing. Yeah, and you know, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.679 it's like with them, and like with novels, there's this 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.319 you know, there's horrible things you can tie to novels. 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.120 You know, Hitler was very influenced by the novels of 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:10.040 Karl may Um, you're right, yeah, yeah, we probably don't 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.480 have novels caused Hitler. We probably don't have the Bosnian 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:17.440 genocide without the Pelican brief obviously, Um, you know. But 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.920 also there's good things that novels have brought us to. 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:26.040 Um probably what assumes good things. I don't read books, Um, 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.480 you know, right, but I do watch Jack Ryan movies. 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.080 I do watch Jack Ryan movies, which it influenced my 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.480 life in a number of ways. Yeah, and I've been 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.320 told they started as some sort of book. Yeah. The 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.440 Jack Reacher series really helped me make peace with the 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.760 fact that, Um, I'm incredibly jacked. Uh. You know, there's 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.760 people it's really hard to be like a jacked white 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:55.880 dude exactly exactly finally representation exactly. It's it's wonderful. Yeah, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.080 that's just like the yeah, anyway whatever, that this bit 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:01.680 has gone on long enough, so yes, yes it had. 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.360 So it's interesting then that it takes like Margaret meets 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.200 right about the how influential this art medium is going 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.560 to be. And it's interesting that it takes like twenty 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.120 years from the first reality TV show before it turns 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.840 into anything, like we have this idea for a long 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:21.800 time before people figure out what to do with it. 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.240 That I mean that happens sort of with found footage 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.840 as well, because there were like there was some found 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.000 footage films and then we kind of went quiet, and 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.280 then the Blair Witch Project brought it back finally, the 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.080 which is again one of one of the great works 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:40.240 of humanitarian right, yeah, the Blair Witch Project, without which 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.480 I don't know, we wouldn't have make a genocide just 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.640 before me yeah, yeah, yeah, we would have the VHS 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.440 movies which have solved world hunger. Sure, yeah, we'll go 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.560 with that. So the first show to take reality TV 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.400 forward was The Real World, which debuted an MTV and 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.280 n Rather than watching a family live there life and 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.160 risk the chance that it might be boring, MTV decided 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:04.840 to throw a bunch of young adults in a house 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.400 and film what happened. Um, the show was successful, but 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.960 it also was not like the kind of successful that 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.200 on its own was going to spawn a world like 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.840 changing industry. You know, um, you know, the real world 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.040 is kind of a proof of concept, but it's not 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.040 as influentialists and later things are going to be the 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.880 key to transmuting these particular these peculiar documentary style shows 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.720 into the thing that devoured television. Happened to be held 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.680 in the head of a Fox executive named Mike Darnell. 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.200 Prior to two thousand, Mike's background had been producing shows 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.880 like When Animals Attack, World, Scariest Police Chases, and a 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:44.240 variety of other premises now met by random weirdos on YouTube. Right, Like, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.080 all the shows he gets started with are like the 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.600 things I watched on random YouTubers collect Yeah, that's oh yeah, 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.320 I remember America's finding some videos where it's like that's YouTube. Yeah, 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.240 that's the only way you can watch people getting hitting 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.880 the balls, and it's like we want that. I I 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.600 would argue reality TV is better than like When Animals Attack, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.439 because that like that was just YouTube, but it was 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:12.119 YouTube done in this like really serious tone. Um, I 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.680 don't know if you like I I actually would see 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.920 you could see people like attack videos on when animals 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.040 attack would get reused on like World's Funniest Animals, and 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.080 they would just cover it in a different tone. Uh, 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.119 and like not mentioned the injuries, you know, like because 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.040 they just it didn't matter. It was just it was 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:38.240 so schlocky. Um, at least Reality TV had, like I 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.680 don't know, people involved a little more drama. Yeah, I 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.520 think like because also I always felt gross about like 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.840 America's Funniest Like a lot of these different videos shows less, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.639 but like a lot of them would have like narration 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.520 that was like generally kind of mean spirited towards the people. 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.159 And I think it's much better to just have context 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.240 free loops of videos of people hurting themselves. That's that's fine. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.720 And it was a whole industry that, Yeah, YouTube pretty 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.480 much killed. It is kind of funny that agree to 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.000 which that used to be the dominant thing on TV 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.760 and now it's just random dudes. One of my favorite 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.119 YouTubers is the car Crash Channel, which is just compilations 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.840 of car accidents right, yeah, what else? Like, you don't 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.320 need a commentary, No, I don't need I don't need 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.520 a word from anybody. Just get in bed, put on 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:29.879 the car crashes, and go to sleep. And go to 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.920 sleep to the car crashes. I love sleeping to train crashes. 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.080 There's nothing as soothing as watching a train hit a 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:40.800 box truck. Yeah. It just goes poof, yeah, just yeah, 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:46.120 just like you just sends right into the deeply soothing. 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.920 So Darnell is also the mind behind a two hour special. 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:52.560 So you know, this is how we get to start 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.439 doing these, like when animals attack. But then near the 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.440 end of the nineteen nineties, he has an idea for 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.040 a two hour TV special with the title who Wants 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.919 to Marry a Multimillionaire? So this is gonna be the 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.680 show that births all of modern reality TV. Really um. 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.240 It airs on Fox on February two thousand. In her 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.000 book Reality Bites Back, Jennifer Posner describes it this way. 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.920 The special, which predated the game changing Survivor, was a 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.160 hybrid of Miss America and a Male Order bride parade. 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.879 With executive producer Mike Flice of Next Entertainment, Darnell brought 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.320 fifty brides to be to Las Vegas to be auctioned 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.959 off to a complete stranger. The sachet and swimsuits tittered 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.040 nervously and answered pageant style questions to assess their moral 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:42.000 fortitude and sexual prowess in thirty seconds or less. Groom 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.560 Rick Rockwell was hidden as he and the audience determined 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.520 who deserved the biggest prize of all. A brand new 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:52.920 multimillionaire husband, nurse and future playboy centerfold, Darva Conjure, Rockwell's 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.119 eventual choice got her first glimpse of her fiance moments 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.320 before they were legally wed on air nearly twenty three 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.520 million view We was tuned in. It's funny how when 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:07.160 read that academically, it really is horrifying. It's a nightmare, right, 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.840 Like that's that's like like an auctioning human beings off 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.239 to a rich man. It's pretty bad. Yeah. It's one 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.600 of those where he's like, you had to you had 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:21.120 to be there. I guess I think if you were 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.000 there a lot of people but no, but it was, 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.359 but they were part of they watched it. Reality TV 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.720 created I think more than most things they hate watch right, yes, 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.280 oh god, yes, yes, um so the series got a 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.360 twenty eight share um, which is basically is a big 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:42.960 hit in terms people don't use as much anymore to 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.800 talk about success because streaming is kind of like who 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.520 gives a ship about those old terms. But anyway, it's 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.840 a big hit. Mike Darnell declared it the best show ever. 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.760 Uh or Chris Darnell. I think it was Chris ship. 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.119 How many Darnell's we got here? What's Mike? No? It is? 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.560 I think they're both my? Are they both? Mike's the 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.120 TV executives? It all checks out. Mike Flice, who's the producer, 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.240 later bragged Mike and I knew that the National Organization 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.240 for Women would hate us, that this would be the 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.680 most controversial show ever. We thought it was all good, 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.119 but it got so hot, so crazy red hot. They 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.520 said it was the most talked about show since Roots. 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:24.680 It was the lead sketch on Saturday Night Live. It's 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.400 maybe your reality show that involves auctioning human beings shouldn't 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.480 be compared to Roots. No, you might. You might not 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.000 want to be drawn attention to that, buddy. Yeah no. 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:39.240 This this also begins this problem, which is the it's 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.560 it's kind of resonates all the way to the Internet obviously, 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.560 which is like, oh, they're talking about us, and it's like, yeah, 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.600 that doesn't you know, that's not a good measurement of 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.679 whether or not something's good or not. But I mean 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:54.919 it is for their purposes, because it's a measurement of 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.359 whether or not something can be worth money to advertisers, 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:01.520 which is all that matters. Now, speaking of advertisers, Dave, No, 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:04.840 you know what, we can say whatever we want on 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.560 this show because it gets advertisers. So I can say, 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:11.760 for example, Dave has an island off the coast of 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:15.479 Indonesia where you can make grab a crude weapon spear 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.000 you know, um, a club you know, like you'd use 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:21.680 on a seal, a rock, and you can hunt children 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.520 in the open preserves that they keep on this island, 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.120 and they'll get cooked for You don't have to cook 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.520 the child brisket yourself. Takes care of that. I know. 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.240 It's the opposite actually how normally works. Yeah, right, all right, 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.720 but that's that's kind of the the appeal. That that's 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.040 the appeal, right normally, since you the ingredients and you 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.919 cook it on the child hunting island, you provide the 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:47.160 ingredients and cooks the food, right, because that's the most 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:50.520 fun part of that process, of the child hunting process. 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:53.000 How much does it cost? What does it go for? Oh? 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.080 I mean, you know you have to donate a significant 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.879 amount to coke industries. But but really, Dave, can you 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.000 put a price on hunting children on an island off 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.000 the coast of Indonesia? I mean no, but also yes 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.680 if you well, yes, they do, they do, they do. 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:10.800 But if you sign up for their meal box plan, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.520 you'll be entered into a raffle to win a spot 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.760 on the next yacht over to the child hunting island, 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:28.120 which is worth quite a bit. So here's here's our sponsors. Uh, 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:33.399 we're back, We're back, and we're talking about the only 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:40.080 mattress made entirely with linen stolen from the graves of 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:46.119 dead Egyptian peasants. That's right. It is named because the 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:50.000 ghost of dead Egyptian peasants lingers inside each mattress. You know, 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:52.680 that's the guarantee. Yeah, I mean, what are they doing 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.320 with all that linen? Nothing? Nothing, tons of wasted linen. 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:02.040 It sounds super sustainable, yeah, environment exactly, there's so much 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.160 carbon wasted by getting linen that doesn't come from Egyptian 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.400 peasants who were buried in lost desert cities. Um steals 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:12.840 those corpses and passes the carbon savings onto you. Yeah, 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:16.440 it's it's Yeah, it's convenient, it's good for the environment. 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:19.280 It's great for the environment. Yeah, and it's affordable. Is 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:21.840 there promo code? Can we make it even more affordable? 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:25.280 Promo code? Bastards? And they'll throw in a free ounce 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:29.199 of mummy dust, which if if my eighteen nineties medical 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:31.440 textbooks or anything to go by is useful in a 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.239 variety of ailment, stay, you can at least snort it, 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:37.520 and you've got the grip. You've got the shallots, the 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:41.840 shingles will cure them all. Mummy dust. Sprinkle it on 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:46.880 your mac and cheese. It's delicious. That was like three 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:49.080 and a half minutes of how we do it? Are 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:51.960 you happy, Sophie? Did you get what you wanted? I 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:55.040 said that bits getting gold, you made a worse one. Yeah, 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:57.919 it's great. That's that's that's that's how what I've been 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:02.560 doing since the Bits, Sophie. I missed the bit well 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:08.240 too bad, So you probably won't be surprised to learn, 0:25:08.359 --> 0:25:10.960 Dave that a show that was premised on basically taking 0:25:11.000 --> 0:25:14.080 the idea of an arranged marriage and making it television 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:17.120 would turn out to have been unethical in some way. Right, 0:25:18.359 --> 0:25:21.080 So they do this whole competition, right, some lady wins 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:25.240 this marriage to this fucking multimillionaire Rockwell, but they never 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:28.560 consummate their marriage, and for a very good reason, the 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:31.720 woman conjure has it annulled because she learns that Rockwell 0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:35.640 has a long history of violence against women. Um, so, 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:39.160 you know, good call on on her part. Um comes 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.320 out like right as the show comes out that his 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:45.080 former girlfriend had filed a restraining order against him for 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:48.960 vandalizing her car, breaking into her home, and repeatedly physically 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:52.280 assaulting her. Good God, she stated, he said he would 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:55.520 find me and kill me. Also, Rockwell is not a multimillionaire, 0:25:55.720 --> 0:25:58.840 but that's hardly seems like the primary issue here. Who 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:01.080 who would have thought that guy who goes on a 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:06.919 TV show to uh look to like essentially buy a 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:11.280 woman from an auction, Yeah, would be a liar and 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:19.600 a violent abuser. Who who? Yeah, so his his former girl. Yeah. 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:21.960 So all this hits the press right after the show 0:26:22.000 --> 0:26:24.960 comes out, and it's a big problem for Fox, because again, 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:27.040 this is two thousands, so there was just a little 0:26:27.040 --> 0:26:29.639 bit of shame left in the world. Was back when 0:26:29.720 --> 0:26:31.879 we cared it was it was like the rest of 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:35.240 WIRs in southern California. There was still this like tiny 0:26:35.400 --> 0:26:38.080 layer of water. It's not going to be there in 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:40.320 a couple of years, you know, just like the water 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:42.680 in southern California, but it was still a little bit there. 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:45.200 Now you can kind of see the boats that didn't 0:26:45.200 --> 0:26:47.320 really have enough water, but there was at least something, 0:26:47.440 --> 0:26:50.760 you know, Yeah, you could pretend like, oh, it's just 0:26:50.800 --> 0:26:52.920 a dry and the rain will come back, It'll be 0:26:52.960 --> 0:26:56.960 all right. Yeah, So there's a little bit of shame, 0:26:57.000 --> 0:27:00.000 and it causes a problem for Fox. Darnell tells the report, 0:27:00.359 --> 0:27:03.800 this is the worst day of my life. What a 0:27:03.840 --> 0:27:07.840 great guy. Um. He gets excoriated by media, who, by 0:27:07.920 --> 0:27:10.080 the way, like all of these journalists yelling at them 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:11.760 were a lot of the same people who had been 0:27:11.800 --> 0:27:14.760 like raving over how groundbreaking the show was and who 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:18.200 would who would go on to celebrate other horrible reality things. 0:27:18.200 --> 0:27:21.639 So whatever, Um. But in private, like he pretends that 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:24.040 this is a horrible day for him in public. In private, 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:27.040 he is a static Flice later recalled that his first 0:27:27.080 --> 0:27:30.600 reaction was, quote, great more publicity. Mike said, we gotta 0:27:30.600 --> 0:27:33.520 get out in front of this. I'm like, absolutely, fuck, 0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:36.200 it's a restraining order. Let's get an interview with the girl. 0:27:36.440 --> 0:27:38.359 We'll put it on as part of as part of 0:27:38.359 --> 0:27:40.960 the special. We had a whole plan because that's the 0:27:40.960 --> 0:27:43.679 way we like it. Because that's the way we like it. 0:27:44.000 --> 0:27:47.000 What an amazing kind of dude. I love it because 0:27:47.680 --> 0:27:51.120 we had it all as a plan because and then 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:54.720 something is the shame center of his brain like kicked 0:27:54.760 --> 0:27:58.600 in and like like turned it into because that's the 0:27:58.640 --> 0:28:02.080 way we like it. That is just his ego protecting 0:28:02.160 --> 0:28:05.960 himself from something he knows. I think somewhere deep in 0:28:06.080 --> 0:28:10.200 he shouldn't do this. He is a bad person. Yeah, 0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:13.200 when when you become aware that on your show where 0:28:13.240 --> 0:28:16.520 women are auctioned off to the highest bidder, the guy 0:28:16.560 --> 0:28:20.240 buying the auction was a spousal abuser on a horrific 0:28:21.000 --> 0:28:23.560 kind of level of abuse and also lying about being rich, 0:28:23.960 --> 0:28:27.000 you should be like, well, huh, maybe I should rethink 0:28:27.040 --> 0:28:30.000 some things about like not just the show, but my life. 0:28:30.680 --> 0:28:34.159 You know. He's the thing is that I don't know 0:28:34.280 --> 0:28:37.760 much about how the biz works, the specifically the reality 0:28:37.880 --> 0:28:43.200 TV biz. But I imagine that when you're casting reality TV, 0:28:43.600 --> 0:28:46.600 you're looking for outrageous people who are willing to do 0:28:46.680 --> 0:28:50.680 whatever on camera. Yes, and I'm not saying they all are. 0:28:51.200 --> 0:28:54.239 I'm just saying that that type of person tends to 0:28:54.280 --> 0:29:00.720 have some personal problems. Yeah, let's say a higher level. Yeah. Yeah, again, 0:29:01.000 --> 0:29:03.520 not all of them, not all. Yeah, it's just that 0:29:03.680 --> 0:29:07.040 I can see why that would say attract people who 0:29:07.040 --> 0:29:10.600 are problematic in a lot of ways. And so yeah, 0:29:10.680 --> 0:29:15.440 it's I imagine that's why you have several stories similar 0:29:15.480 --> 0:29:20.200 to this of reality TV where it's yeah, it comes 0:29:20.200 --> 0:29:24.120 out that these people have done something horrifying, and it's like, yeah, 0:29:24.280 --> 0:29:30.200 because you barely vetted them, they're they're not a professional performer. Uh, 0:29:30.200 --> 0:29:33.400 and you stuck them on TV and made him a star. Yeah, 0:29:33.480 --> 0:29:37.360 it's not the best thing to do, you know. It's like, 0:29:38.000 --> 0:29:39.560 you know, Dave, I don't. I don't have a lot 0:29:39.600 --> 0:29:43.880 of shame. Um, obviously, Like I think we both chose 0:29:43.960 --> 0:29:46.320 entertainment as career, so we probably have a lower shame 0:29:46.360 --> 0:29:50.120 threshold than a lot of people. Um, But like like 0:29:50.160 --> 0:29:52.720 every now, like on Twitter, I'll just like get see 0:29:52.720 --> 0:29:54.760 a tweet that I think is funny, and I'll share 0:29:54.800 --> 0:29:56.720 it and then someone will like inevitably be like, oh, 0:29:56.760 --> 0:29:58.960 you know, this guy did this horrible thing, and I'm like, well, no, 0:29:59.080 --> 0:30:01.040 I didn't. It was just a random person on Twitter. 0:30:01.080 --> 0:30:02.600 But then I forget that about it for the rest 0:30:02.600 --> 0:30:06.080 of the day. It's incredible that this guy can be like, oh, 0:30:06.120 --> 0:30:09.440 we filmed the whole several hour long TV special with 0:30:09.520 --> 0:30:12.320 like a man who beat the ship out of his 0:30:12.360 --> 0:30:16.240 girlfriend and as a restraining order against him. Yeah. Right, 0:30:17.640 --> 0:30:22.960 that complete lack of shame. Yeah, it's amazable. I envy it. Yeah. Yeah. 0:30:23.560 --> 0:30:26.680 It would make some things easier, like getting access to 0:30:26.720 --> 0:30:31.000 a Lamborghini. That's like getting money. It makes that a 0:30:31.040 --> 0:30:34.800 lot easier. And then you make YouTube videos about telling 0:30:34.840 --> 0:30:37.080 people how to get money, and you tell them to 0:30:37.120 --> 0:30:40.200 buy your book, which also will help them pick up women. 0:30:40.400 --> 0:30:43.400 That's another kind of guy without much shame. Yeah. Um. 0:30:43.480 --> 0:30:45.560 And also this does lead to all that because the 0:30:45.600 --> 0:30:48.960 pickup artist culture is heavily related to reality TV show 0:30:49.000 --> 0:30:51.040 and that show with what was a mystery? What was 0:30:51.080 --> 0:30:54.200 it called? I assume it was a mystery because that's 0:30:54.320 --> 0:30:57.080 that's one of them. The guys. Yeah, he definitely was 0:30:57.080 --> 0:30:59.719 in a bunch of reality ships. So when this all 0:30:59.760 --> 0:31:02.800 blows up and there's this big backlash against who wants 0:31:02.840 --> 0:31:07.480 to marry a multimillionaire, everyone kind of assumes that Darnelle 0:31:07.560 --> 0:31:10.880 is going to get fired. Fox cancels the rebroadcast of 0:31:10.920 --> 0:31:12.680 the show, and they had been talking about turning it 0:31:12.720 --> 0:31:14.400 into a series because it was a huge hit, and 0:31:14.400 --> 0:31:17.960 they declined to um and they promised never. Fox promises 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:20.080 to never be a part of any similar show in 0:31:20.080 --> 0:31:25.280 the future, which is extremely, extremely funny, like yeah, Fox, 0:31:25.440 --> 0:31:30.880 absolutely wow. So it's worth noting that even while the 0:31:30.920 --> 0:31:33.480 heat is on other networks, as soon as Fox is like, well, 0:31:33.480 --> 0:31:35.280 I guess we won't turn this into a show like 0:31:35.480 --> 0:31:39.160 up N offers to buy it, of course, other TV 0:31:39.280 --> 0:31:41.040 networks are like, well, we'll make it into a show. 0:31:41.040 --> 0:31:43.640 I don't give a fuck im up N. All we 0:31:43.800 --> 0:31:49.280 have is Voyager reruns right now, up N, please help us. 0:31:49.840 --> 0:31:52.480 Most of that was actually their motto at the time. 0:31:52.920 --> 0:31:55.200 Most of people listening to this podcast right now are like, 0:31:55.360 --> 0:31:58.920 I don't know what UPN. That's because this episode of 0:31:58.960 --> 0:32:01.680 our podcast will have more viewers than up and got 0:32:01.680 --> 0:32:06.320 in its entire time on the air. Absolutely, Um, But 0:32:06.360 --> 0:32:09.520 Mike Flye turns up and down. He's like, now, I 0:32:09.560 --> 0:32:11.760 don't want to give this guy to you, and I 0:32:11.880 --> 0:32:15.600 got a better idea. So flies who had produced the show, um, 0:32:15.760 --> 0:32:18.280 takes a variation of the pitch that he and Darnell 0:32:18.360 --> 0:32:20.920 had made to ABC. Now they clean it up a 0:32:20.920 --> 0:32:24.160 little from Middle America, right, and they relaunch Who Wants 0:32:24.200 --> 0:32:26.840 to Be a multi Millionaire with some changes as a 0:32:26.880 --> 0:32:35.160 new series called You're Either This Dave The Bachelor? Yeah, baby, Yeah, 0:32:35.200 --> 0:32:40.200 that's where that starts. Yeah, and obviously The Bachelor is 0:32:40.200 --> 0:32:44.160 a lot less problematic, although not to look there, there's 0:32:44.200 --> 0:32:46.080 so much more and all of these shows. I'm sure 0:32:46.080 --> 0:32:48.080 people will be like, no, there's like, yeah, of course 0:32:48.080 --> 0:32:50.880 a bunch of ship happened. It's tough. I've never seen 0:32:50.880 --> 0:32:53.240 a single episode of The Bachelor. No, this is not 0:32:53.320 --> 0:32:56.120 about The Bachelor, but it's funny where it comes from. Yeah. 0:32:57.680 --> 0:33:00.720 So Big Brother comes out later into two thousand. It's 0:33:00.760 --> 0:33:02.840 after Who Wants to be a Multimillionaire, and it's actually, 0:33:02.880 --> 0:33:04.960 this is interesting. Big Brother is an import of a 0:33:05.080 --> 0:33:07.800 Dutch show that's itself inspired by the real world, which 0:33:07.840 --> 0:33:10.120 is like this thing that increasingly like up to this 0:33:10.200 --> 0:33:13.320 day is big in reality where like some foreign country 0:33:13.360 --> 0:33:16.120 will make a show that's inspired like these other shows, 0:33:16.160 --> 0:33:18.280 and then like we'll steal that idea and then that 0:33:18.320 --> 0:33:20.920 will like I don't know, it's fine, right, I've noticed that, 0:33:21.040 --> 0:33:23.560 Like I assume it's all owned by the same people, 0:33:23.560 --> 0:33:26.120 but it seems like you just have to change like 0:33:26.160 --> 0:33:29.000 a few words. Yeah, yeah, it's it's not it's not. Honestly, 0:33:29.040 --> 0:33:31.080 there's not really a meaningful difference between like what they 0:33:31.120 --> 0:33:33.200 did with the Office, you know, like it's not fucked up. 0:33:33.200 --> 0:33:37.720 It's just like the way artworks like Foreigner painted this thing, 0:33:37.800 --> 0:33:43.560 like shows where you can legally make a slightly different 0:33:43.800 --> 0:33:47.840 version of this and it's fine. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, 0:33:47.840 --> 0:33:49.600 this is fine. I just bring it up because I 0:33:49.640 --> 0:33:52.680 find it interesting, not because it's like bad that they 0:33:52.720 --> 0:33:55.040 imported the idea behind this Dutch show like who gives 0:33:55.040 --> 0:33:57.960 a fuck? So yeah, the War on Terror starts not 0:33:58.040 --> 0:34:00.960 long after you know this this whole period of time, 0:34:01.480 --> 0:34:04.239 and as it gets down to the business of just 0:34:04.280 --> 0:34:07.320 like fucking up a bunch of stuff, Reality TV is 0:34:07.360 --> 0:34:10.759 becoming the biggest thing in US media. The Bachelor is 0:34:10.800 --> 0:34:14.640 a Titanic hit. Basically overnight, it becomes ABC's top rated 0:34:14.680 --> 0:34:17.160 show among eighteen to forty nine year olds, otherwise known 0:34:17.200 --> 0:34:20.480 as the demographic with money. Well, that's what we knew 0:34:20.480 --> 0:34:25.719 it as in two thousand colics. Yeah, definitely there was 0:34:25.760 --> 0:34:30.000 in two thousand, especially smoking cigarettes. So despite the promises 0:34:30.040 --> 0:34:32.160 they'd made in the wake of their disaster with Rockwell, 0:34:32.280 --> 0:34:36.080 Fox committed themselves to reality TV more than any other network. 0:34:36.400 --> 0:34:39.840 Jennifer Posner writes, by February two thousand three, Fox was 0:34:39.880 --> 0:34:43.440 devoting a whopping in ABC thirty three percent of their 0:34:43.440 --> 0:34:47.400 sweeps offerings to reality shows. These percentages increased over the years, 0:34:47.480 --> 0:34:50.160 limiting the number of quality comedies and dramas available to 0:34:50.239 --> 0:34:54.000 viewers and reducing opportunities for union represented actors, writers and crew. 0:34:54.320 --> 0:34:57.520 Instead of firing their previously shamed reality group Guru, Fox 0:34:57.560 --> 0:35:02.080 promoted Darnell to executive vice president of Alternative Programming. So 0:35:03.520 --> 0:35:06.120 they it's they get to bust some unions and give 0:35:06.120 --> 0:35:09.160 a creep a good job and then nice. Yeah, that's 0:35:09.320 --> 0:35:12.239 that's the American dream, right, They're good for them. It 0:35:12.360 --> 0:35:15.040 is nice, that is, and we will not be getting 0:35:15.040 --> 0:35:16.480 into it enough. But that is a big part of 0:35:16.520 --> 0:35:19.920 like why reality is so popular with producers and stuff 0:35:19.920 --> 0:35:21.959 like high level producers. Is like, well, you can gotta 0:35:22.120 --> 0:35:23.720 you can get away from a lot of union ship 0:35:23.760 --> 0:35:27.080 with this. That is very true. You have people who 0:35:27.160 --> 0:35:29.640 work for a lot less and you can cut out 0:35:29.760 --> 0:35:35.320 the writer's guild, you know. Yeah, yeah, as a real bummer, 0:35:36.440 --> 0:35:42.319 it's very fun. So with that August title behind him, 0:35:42.400 --> 0:35:44.640 Darnell helped to bring to life a number of the 0:35:44.680 --> 0:35:48.200 most noteworthy early reality shows. There was two thousand ones 0:35:48.280 --> 0:35:51.520 Temptation Island, in which real life couples were separated and 0:35:51.560 --> 0:35:57.200 tempted into adultery. Unbelievable premise Joe Millionaire, in which a 0:35:57.239 --> 0:35:59.600 bunch of women dated a guy they thought was a millionaire, 0:35:59.640 --> 0:36:02.640 only to realize he wasn't right. Isn't the twist? At 0:36:02.640 --> 0:36:04.680 the end, they give him a million dollars they get, 0:36:04.719 --> 0:36:06.800 they get, they split like it's either a million or 0:36:06.840 --> 0:36:09.080 half a million between him and the woman who agrees 0:36:09.120 --> 0:36:11.640 to go out with him after note learning he's not rich, Like, 0:36:11.680 --> 0:36:13.839 if she agrees to still go out with him, then 0:36:13.840 --> 0:36:16.080 they both get money. I don't know what the moral 0:36:16.280 --> 0:36:19.400 is there, Yeah, I mean there's no moral. It's Mike Darnell. 0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:25.040 This guy doesn't have morals. Yeah, and just seeing what happens. Yeah, 0:36:25.200 --> 0:36:28.680 it's just Magan TV. In two thousand four's The Swan, 0:36:28.840 --> 0:36:31.439 a bunch of women are given plastic surgery and other 0:36:31.520 --> 0:36:34.120 risky surgical procedures so they can compete in the beauty 0:36:34.120 --> 0:36:40.640 Badget Man Mike Darnell. Baby, he's the fucking He's the 0:36:40.719 --> 0:36:45.200 Chuck Bearriss of reality TV, is what I'm getting from this. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:36:45.480 --> 0:36:48.680 he just sat there all day and came up with 0:36:48.800 --> 0:36:51.960 horrible things to do. Yeah, and killed for the government 0:36:51.960 --> 0:36:54.640 on the side. My favorite show he did was the 0:36:54.680 --> 0:36:58.520 short lived series Mr. Personality, in which a woman dates 0:36:58.520 --> 0:37:01.200 a bunch of men wearing masks that they can't take 0:37:01.239 --> 0:37:03.520 off until the show winds, so she has to pick 0:37:03.520 --> 0:37:06.000 the woman she wants to be with without saying without 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:08.960 a mask. They have one of those now too, they 0:37:09.000 --> 0:37:11.640 have like a blind date, but Dave. This one was 0:37:11.680 --> 0:37:20.120 hosted by Monica Lewinsky. Oh, I mean what we know 0:37:20.200 --> 0:37:23.400 about her now, it's like good for her. Yeah, I'm 0:37:23.440 --> 0:37:25.440 not going to condemn her for like you gotta like 0:37:25.520 --> 0:37:27.759 what other kind of for one thing? One other kind 0:37:27.760 --> 0:37:29.960 of jobs are open to you. As Monica Lewinsky in 0:37:30.000 --> 0:37:32.880 the early two thousand's like not a lot of hiring 0:37:32.920 --> 0:37:35.799 opportunities after going through that ringer, So yeah, get get 0:37:35.800 --> 0:37:40.680 what you can, Monica. But it's it's incredible, it's extreme, 0:37:40.800 --> 0:37:43.680 Like the opening to this show is extremely funny and 0:37:43.719 --> 0:37:47.000 we're just gonna play it well. Please now for indoor 0:37:47.160 --> 0:37:52.080 bow food go it's this season finale Mr Personality. This 0:37:52.120 --> 0:37:56.640 season on Mr. Personality, Hayley Valentine arm, a twenty six 0:37:56.719 --> 0:38:00.320 year old career woman from Atlanta, was introduced to Quantity 0:38:00.480 --> 0:38:07.920 eligible men their faces covered by match because he's touched 0:38:07.920 --> 0:38:09.920 my heart in a different kind of way, like men 0:38:10.040 --> 0:38:15.760 range from unemployed to peacemaker masks. Hold on, do yourself 0:38:15.760 --> 0:38:18.680 a favor. Look up the other Fox show Secrets of 0:38:18.719 --> 0:38:22.560 Magic revealed with the Mask Magician, and I'm almost certain 0:38:22.640 --> 0:38:25.160 they just reused those masks. I'm not. I mean, I 0:38:25.239 --> 0:38:28.800 haven't looked in a while, going by memory look for people. 0:38:29.120 --> 0:38:32.719 For people who aren't watching this, they look like servants 0:38:32.880 --> 0:38:36.319 at an eyes wide shut or yeah, they all have 0:38:36.400 --> 0:38:40.080 the same masks. They all kind of look like M. F. Doom, 0:38:40.120 --> 0:38:44.120 but with a little bit of like, uh, like the 0:38:44.160 --> 0:38:48.239 fucking skeletor from the Masters of the Universe movie. Mixed in. 0:38:48.719 --> 0:38:53.839 I'm shocked that they all have so funny. Here's more 0:38:54.719 --> 0:38:59.200 speaker with a strategy of mind control. Ever, and I 0:38:59.320 --> 0:39:04.800 kept hearing the verse seventeen, the influences really unconscious. Haley 0:39:04.920 --> 0:39:09.440 was forced to send ten suitors packing. Their masks were removed. 0:39:09.680 --> 0:39:12.680 I think this totally sucks. The remaining ten were given 0:39:12.760 --> 0:39:18.960 new colored masks, and the competition taked in. Haley watched 0:39:19.000 --> 0:39:22.319 as a law unraveled and the boys gone wild. That's 0:39:22.320 --> 0:39:27.480 what I'm talking about. This is my lovely bedroom and 0:39:27.640 --> 0:39:31.080 two men eliminated themselves. That's what I'm just gonna have 0:39:31.080 --> 0:39:36.600 to do. I can't do this, so another bit of contemtible. 0:39:37.040 --> 0:39:40.200 Like most reality TV, this is men wearing tuxes and 0:39:40.320 --> 0:39:44.920 masks that takes place in what looks like a like 0:39:45.120 --> 0:39:49.439 upper upper middle class like mcmanchion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's 0:39:49.440 --> 0:39:51.600 what's amazing about it too, is it's like an eyes 0:39:51.640 --> 0:39:56.200 wide shut orgy on a budget. It's it's I'm not 0:39:56.239 --> 0:39:59.480 saying I'm not saying I have this kind of money, obviously, 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:02.440 but it's like this is like someone who owns like 0:40:02.480 --> 0:40:06.160 a tow truck company, like several old air house um 0:40:06.160 --> 0:40:08.840 which again nothing against that, but I'm just trying to 0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:12.440 It's like a party, but all of the food is 0:40:12.480 --> 0:40:14.920 like from Kirkland. You know, it's like Kirkland. It's like 0:40:14.960 --> 0:40:19.120 a Kirkland brand rich people orgy. Right, it's not it's 0:40:19.120 --> 0:40:22.600 not not wealthy, Like these people have money, but they 0:40:22.680 --> 0:40:27.320 don't have that much. The next clip please, oh yeah, yeah, 0:40:27.320 --> 0:40:29.520 here's I. I picked this one because it's got a 0:40:29.560 --> 0:40:32.040 little bit of that sweet Lewinsky action that I know 0:40:32.080 --> 0:40:35.720 everybody's looking for. She really is just kind of barely 0:40:35.760 --> 0:40:46.600 in it, right, that's Monica behind the two talking now, Pilly. 0:40:46.800 --> 0:40:50.200 He had initially said that he took your breath away 0:40:51.719 --> 0:40:54.680 and that you could get lost in his green eyes, 0:40:56.239 --> 0:40:59.240 but you also said he seemed a little too smooth 0:40:59.440 --> 0:41:03.960 in a big occulating. This is the mind control motivational 0:41:04.040 --> 0:41:08.040 speaker and life coach for teenagers. He's thirty years old 0:41:08.760 --> 0:41:34.239 in the dark green mask. Meet Chris Burg. So I 0:41:34.320 --> 0:41:40.400 love Burg who's into mind control. And he didn't die 0:41:40.600 --> 0:41:43.279 in a bar in Florida like ten years ago he 0:41:43.320 --> 0:41:46.239 had died in a bar and tabbed that or he 0:41:46.320 --> 0:41:50.040 was part of the CIA's Enhanced Interrogation program in Iraq, 0:41:50.239 --> 0:41:53.560 like one of the two. It's just it's one or 0:41:53.560 --> 0:41:56.400 the other. Either he is in fact good at what 0:41:56.480 --> 0:41:59.400 he does or yeah, he's been stabbed in the stuff 0:41:59.480 --> 0:42:03.759 at a bar. Florida one an incredible show. Holy shit, 0:42:04.040 --> 0:42:07.720 it's so funny. It's like it's like junk food. Because 0:42:07.760 --> 0:42:09.080 as soon as he was like I'm going to take 0:42:09.120 --> 0:42:11.239 off my mask, I'm like, here we fucking go. I 0:42:11.280 --> 0:42:14.440 can't wait to see this. Let's see this weirdo. And 0:42:14.480 --> 0:42:16.799 then he was just some honky. He's just some he's 0:42:16.840 --> 0:42:20.800 just some some hockey. Yeah, he's just some fucking hockey. 0:42:20.920 --> 0:42:24.879 It's so funny. I think it got like five episodes, like, 0:42:26.800 --> 0:42:29.360 which is why Monica Lewinsky is not a staple of 0:42:29.440 --> 0:42:33.600 reality TV to this day, which is tragic. Um, just 0:42:33.920 --> 0:42:35.560 you can see that he's just like throwing ship at 0:42:35.560 --> 0:42:38.160 a dartboard, Like all right, let's put him in masks 0:42:38.160 --> 0:42:40.360 and let's get who's famous that people wouldn't expect to 0:42:40.360 --> 0:42:43.080 see in a show. Monica Lewinsky got her for some money, 0:42:43.160 --> 0:42:45.319 put her in the show. It didn't work, but they 0:42:45.360 --> 0:42:47.399 probably had a list. They probably look at one point 0:42:47.400 --> 0:42:50.439 William Shatner was going to host. You know, like it's 0:42:50.480 --> 0:42:52.680 probably just like we have a list of people who 0:42:52.880 --> 0:42:55.719 we know, we'll do it. Yeah, we know they do it. 0:42:55.800 --> 0:42:58.440 They need work, and like it'll people will be like, well, 0:42:58.480 --> 0:43:01.480 what I gotta I guess I'll try that. Yeah, yeah, 0:43:07.360 --> 0:43:11.440 we're back so yeah, and it's worth It is kind 0:43:11.440 --> 0:43:13.759 of interesting to me that, like, having just gone through this, 0:43:14.160 --> 0:43:17.520 the first reality show ever was like pretty complex and 0:43:17.560 --> 0:43:20.359 intelligent entertainment for its day, and there's some like real 0:43:20.440 --> 0:43:24.960 cultural value there, but it winds up as this, you know, 0:43:25.080 --> 0:43:30.920 because reality TV and documentaries could be the same thing, right, 0:43:30.920 --> 0:43:34.440 Like if you're just documenting something that you find interesting, 0:43:35.680 --> 0:43:39.560 a slice of you know, life in America, like that family, 0:43:40.160 --> 0:43:44.640 Like that makes sense. It's just they realized quickly that's boring. 0:43:44.920 --> 0:43:47.880 And yeah, it's like even you can see in shows 0:43:47.880 --> 0:43:49.840 that are still around, like the Real World when it 0:43:49.920 --> 0:43:52.200 debuted nineteen ninety two, it dealt with a lot of 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:55.800 ship like aids and drug addiction and like LGBT issues 0:43:55.840 --> 0:43:57.879 in a way that was a lot of folks will 0:43:58.040 --> 0:44:00.239 argue at least I'm not a comprehensive I don't know 0:44:00.320 --> 0:44:02.200 much about the real world, but people who are critics 0:44:02.239 --> 0:44:05.040 of culture will argue was more intelligent than it is today. 0:44:05.400 --> 0:44:08.319 UM Cultural critic LaToya Peterson writes that while growth and 0:44:08.360 --> 0:44:11.120 development were early on parts of the real world, in 0:44:11.239 --> 0:44:15.360 later days it became quote specifically cast for racists, assholes, 0:44:15.400 --> 0:44:18.360 and agitators. It's like a formula. Every season has some 0:44:18.480 --> 0:44:21.520 huge racial altercation. Every season as some kind of woman 0:44:21.560 --> 0:44:24.200 trying to sleep her way into self esteem. Every season 0:44:24.239 --> 0:44:27.440 has a guy coping with a breakup angrily. Right again, 0:44:27.480 --> 0:44:32.360 they saw out people, Yeah we're unstable, yeah, yeah, and 0:44:32.360 --> 0:44:35.320 then they gave them money and fame. Well. And also 0:44:35.960 --> 0:44:38.520 as we saw with the very first with like Darnell's 0:44:38.560 --> 0:44:41.960 first show and positive notes that like, a big part 0:44:41.960 --> 0:44:45.880 of this change is that folks follow Darnell's lead in bating. 0:44:46.000 --> 0:44:49.360 Advocacy groups like the National Organization of Women are the 0:44:49.480 --> 0:44:52.640 double a CP or of clad with content that where 0:44:52.680 --> 0:44:56.320 people were like have controversies, which will get these groups 0:44:56.360 --> 0:44:59.080 to weigh in, which will cause like journalists to write 0:44:59.080 --> 0:45:03.680 about this controversy, which generates press and views. UM. And 0:45:03.719 --> 0:45:07.160 that's a big part of it too. Clicks. It clicks. 0:45:07.160 --> 0:45:10.839 It's all that clicks. It's it's triggering the libs, and 0:45:10.880 --> 0:45:13.839 it's all built upon the same idea, which is that 0:45:13.960 --> 0:45:18.160 like any reaction is there is a reaction there for succeeds, 0:45:18.480 --> 0:45:22.280 even if the reaction is someone saying that's not funny, 0:45:22.360 --> 0:45:25.040 They're like we did it, and it's like did you though, 0:45:25.760 --> 0:45:29.960 Like it's funny to me. The kind of what's happening 0:45:30.000 --> 0:45:33.279 here is the way bullies work, right, which is like 0:45:33.320 --> 0:45:35.160 if you react to them at all, you're giving them 0:45:35.200 --> 0:45:37.799 what they want that we have just applied to like 0:45:37.880 --> 0:45:40.319 all of culture now and reality is kind of how 0:45:40.360 --> 0:45:42.080 that happens, where it's like, well, I guess the way 0:45:42.080 --> 0:45:44.120 everything should work is that if you get people to 0:45:44.160 --> 0:45:48.879 react by being shitty, then than the person being shitty wins, 0:45:49.000 --> 0:45:51.640 right exactly, like if you run a show that's just 0:45:51.760 --> 0:45:54.560 someone going out in public and taking dumps in the 0:45:55.040 --> 0:45:57.359 ground at a mall. All right now, Dave, I told 0:45:57.360 --> 0:45:59.719 you that in confidence. We'll have our pitch meeting with 0:45:59.800 --> 0:46:03.160 the h one in a week and maybe you can 0:46:03.200 --> 0:46:06.680 have multiple versions of that. It's like volcano and deep impact. 0:46:07.040 --> 0:46:10.040 You can never get too much of mull shitter. That's 0:46:10.280 --> 0:46:12.879 that's gonna be gold and it's spin off. Who wants 0:46:12.920 --> 0:46:18.160 to watch a multimillionaire ship in a fucking a Spencer's 0:46:18.160 --> 0:46:21.879 gifts exactly. Oh, that'd be great because people at first 0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:24.600 they'd be like, something smells like ship, but they'd look 0:46:24.640 --> 0:46:28.919 and there's all the novelty ships and they're like, which 0:46:28.960 --> 0:46:31.680 one is it? Like one of them is? God. I 0:46:31.719 --> 0:46:34.000 want to go into a spencer's gift and leave a 0:46:34.080 --> 0:46:37.040 real dump and then solve the novelty ones. They wouldn't 0:46:37.040 --> 0:46:41.920 find it for months. Anyway, this is going to be 0:46:42.040 --> 0:46:45.360 stolen by Fox in like a week and make somebody 0:46:45.440 --> 0:46:48.400 forty seven million dollars. I mean that could legitimately be 0:46:48.480 --> 0:46:52.040 like a sub chackass. It could be. It could make Yeah. 0:46:52.480 --> 0:46:55.920 In two thousand one, VH one launched it's Celebriality Block. 0:46:56.320 --> 0:46:59.000 The lynchpin of this was the surreal life based off 0:46:59.040 --> 0:47:01.560 the real world and people who were only celebrities in 0:47:01.600 --> 0:47:04.040 the loosest sense of the world, like at this point, 0:47:04.120 --> 0:47:08.040 Flavor Flav would live together on camera. Flavor Flav became 0:47:08.040 --> 0:47:11.319 a lot more famous later, but um, he was you know, 0:47:11.719 --> 0:47:13.439 this is kind of what like blew him up into 0:47:13.480 --> 0:47:17.160 being a reality star. It was huge. The production company 0:47:17.200 --> 0:47:21.000 behind it, fifty one Minds Entertainment, started spinning off next 0:47:21.040 --> 0:47:24.800 from Entertainment Weekly quote. That's when they found Megan Hauserman, 0:47:24.960 --> 0:47:27.520 a former playboy model who appeared on season three If 0:47:27.560 --> 0:47:31.720 the WB turned c W reality competition Beauty and the Geek. 0:47:32.000 --> 0:47:34.880 She and her partner Alan Scooter Zackheim took home the 0:47:34.880 --> 0:47:38.000 two hundred and fifty thousand dollar prize with her bombshell 0:47:38.040 --> 0:47:40.640 looks and sassy wood. Houserman became a fan favorite on 0:47:40.719 --> 0:47:43.640 Rock of Love with Brett Michaels Think The Bachelor but 0:47:43.680 --> 0:47:46.600 with poisons Michaels as its prize, and it spent off 0:47:47.160 --> 0:47:50.720 I Love Money and Rock of Love Charms School. Fifty 0:47:50.719 --> 0:47:53.000 one Minds decided to give the model her own show, 0:47:53.160 --> 0:47:56.160 Megan Once a Millionaire. The funny thing about Megan was 0:47:56.200 --> 0:47:59.760 her stated ambition, which was to marry a millionaire, says Cronin. 0:48:00.080 --> 0:48:01.719 So we said, what if we filled a house with 0:48:01.800 --> 0:48:04.680 millionaires and they were competing for you as their trophy wife. 0:48:05.480 --> 0:48:09.160 Here we go. This is um I sort of know 0:48:09.280 --> 0:48:12.160 what's to come here. Yeah, this does not sound like 0:48:12.200 --> 0:48:14.120 a TV show from Mr Timmy Dave. It sounds like 0:48:14.160 --> 0:48:16.120 a spell to in the world. But a lot of 0:48:16.440 --> 0:48:19.000 a lot of studio executives were convinced it would be 0:48:19.040 --> 0:48:23.200 a hit. So VH one Green lights, this motherfucker. In 0:48:23.239 --> 0:48:26.000 the casting notice, they asked for a quote single men 0:48:26.080 --> 0:48:28.080 of the highest degree with a net worth of a 0:48:28.120 --> 0:48:32.120 million dollars or more. Now, rather than rely entirely on 0:48:32.200 --> 0:48:35.720 traditional casting, they sent producers to nightclubs to throw parties 0:48:36.000 --> 0:48:38.640 where rich guys would audition by just like being at 0:48:38.640 --> 0:48:43.000 a nightclub. Um, they sound like the worst parties. Imagine 0:48:43.000 --> 0:48:46.520 that sounds yeah, that sounds like a nightmare. Imagine working 0:48:46.880 --> 0:48:50.120 a service job at one of those parties. What an 0:48:50.160 --> 0:48:53.920 absolute That's that's the that you could write a horror 0:48:53.920 --> 0:48:56.560 movie just about one of these nights. There aren't a 0:48:56.600 --> 0:48:59.960 lot of ethical reasons to make and deploy a chlorine 0:49:00.040 --> 0:49:03.680 gas bomb using the cleaning chemicals commonly found in any bar, 0:49:04.040 --> 0:49:06.880 but this would have been one, right. Oh yeah, I 0:49:06.920 --> 0:49:10.600 don't think they would have arrested you. Yeah, it would 0:49:10.600 --> 0:49:15.200 have been self defense. We all agreed this with self defense. Yeah, 0:49:15.520 --> 0:49:19.440 so um yeah, they do this thing. Um And one 0:49:19.480 --> 0:49:23.040 of the men they find through this process is Ryan Jenkins, 0:49:23.080 --> 0:49:26.200 a thirty two year old real estate developer from Las Vegas. 0:49:28.239 --> 0:49:30.680 It sounds like a perfectly rounded individual that I'm sure 0:49:30.719 --> 0:49:34.320 we'll have no problems around him. Now. One one casting 0:49:34.360 --> 0:49:37.120 producer later recalled of him, Ryan Jenkins had one of 0:49:37.120 --> 0:49:39.719 the best personalities on this planet. He was intriguing, he 0:49:39.800 --> 0:49:42.040 knew it. He wasn't the best looking guy in the world, 0:49:42.080 --> 0:49:45.120 he just had this charisma. So all reality shows have 0:49:45.200 --> 0:49:49.359 a process for vetting candidates. This was clearly necessary after 0:49:49.360 --> 0:49:51.680 the first Millionaire show blew up due to its lead 0:49:51.680 --> 0:49:55.760 Mail being an abusive monster with a restraining order against him. 0:49:55.800 --> 0:49:58.239 Every network and production company, though, did this in a 0:49:58.280 --> 0:50:01.359 different way. The most Rigorou shows included the kind of 0:50:01.400 --> 0:50:03.960 like applications included the kind of information you need to 0:50:03.960 --> 0:50:06.360 get a mortgage you have to file it, every address 0:50:06.400 --> 0:50:09.359 you'd ever had, every job you've had. There were psychiatric 0:50:09.440 --> 0:50:14.880 ski screeners, inc. Block tests, Etcetera. Entertainment Weekly continues. The 0:50:14.880 --> 0:50:17.560 other key component is the criminal background check, which involves, 0:50:17.560 --> 0:50:20.080 in parts, searching court interest records in every county a 0:50:20.120 --> 0:50:22.520 candidate has ever lived. When it came time to run 0:50:22.600 --> 0:50:25.600 checks on all of Megan's potential millionaires, VH one turn 0:50:25.640 --> 0:50:28.800 to Collective Intelligence, a Washington State based company the network 0:50:28.800 --> 0:50:31.520 had been working with since two thousand three, but Collective 0:50:31.560 --> 0:50:35.040 only specialized in US based criminal searches, so for Jenkins 0:50:35.040 --> 0:50:38.640 a Canadian citizen. The company subcontracted out the search to 0:50:38.680 --> 0:50:42.759 another firm, Straight Line International. Ryan Jenkins's record came back 0:50:42.760 --> 0:50:45.560 clear and he was invited to join the cast. So 0:50:46.160 --> 0:50:50.200 this is gonna go. Yeah, is a Canadian? You know 0:50:50.880 --> 0:50:55.359 they're they're nice people. Sure, no problems there. Megan Wants 0:50:55.400 --> 0:50:58.600 to Marry a Millionaire launched on August second, two thousand nine, 0:50:58.680 --> 0:51:02.200 and it is one of the cringest shows I've ever experienced. 0:51:02.440 --> 0:51:08.560 Let's watch the introduction. Okay, I've a milk and when 0:51:08.640 --> 0:51:13.879 a man who takes her there, a gentleman extraun enough 0:51:16.200 --> 0:51:27.040 wants me wants Megan gets oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:51:27.120 --> 0:51:31.120 yeah yeah, what Megan wants Megan gets. That's that's the 0:51:31.200 --> 0:51:37.120 good stuff. Dave. Wait, you already explained who Megan is, right, Yeah, 0:51:37.320 --> 0:51:40.600 she's a playboy model whose primary ambition is to marry 0:51:40.640 --> 0:51:44.360 a millionaire. I still feel like saying, who does she 0:51:44.520 --> 0:51:47.960 thinks she is? It's just like, my god, all right, 0:51:48.360 --> 0:51:51.759 I mean, good good for her, I guess, I mean, 0:51:51.880 --> 0:51:54.680 you know, I'm saying that definitely not good. Good for 0:51:54.719 --> 0:51:57.720 her for wanting a millionaire and knowing what she wants, 0:51:57.760 --> 0:52:00.600 and I get I assume this will end really happy 0:52:00.640 --> 0:52:02.920 with her getting a millionaire. Yeah, I mean I think 0:52:02.920 --> 0:52:06.200 she gets rich eventually. So there you go. Uh so, 0:52:06.360 --> 0:52:09.040 Ryan Jenkins in this episode, like the first that it's 0:52:09.080 --> 0:52:11.880 interminably long. She's just like meeting all of these guys, 0:52:11.920 --> 0:52:17.520 it's unbelievably awkward. Um some of them are like creepy 0:52:17.560 --> 0:52:21.760 old dudes who are like really weird and it's it's whatever, 0:52:21.920 --> 0:52:24.120 like it's it's it's they're all creepy in some way. 0:52:24.160 --> 0:52:25.920 They're all the kind of people who would show up 0:52:25.960 --> 0:52:29.360 on a show with this premise. Um, so it's horrible. 0:52:29.560 --> 0:52:33.000 And in his introduction, Ryan Jenkins describes himself as quote 0:52:33.040 --> 0:52:35.160 a little bit of Prince Charming, a little bit of 0:52:35.200 --> 0:52:38.680 a bad boy. And here's here's here's him showing up 0:52:38.719 --> 0:52:43.520 on screen for the first time. Okay, hello Ogan, look 0:52:43.560 --> 0:52:46.600 we're matching already, we are matching. Have you met any 0:52:46.640 --> 0:52:50.200 Canadians before? Never looks about time, don't you think absolutely? 0:52:50.719 --> 0:52:55.040 Let you know a little secret please to Ryan whispers 0:52:55.120 --> 0:53:02.560 in my ear, you're gonna love Canadian bacon. Oh oh 0:53:03.200 --> 0:53:08.320 fuck fuck that was a dick thing, right, I think? Yeah, 0:53:08.400 --> 0:53:11.400 I probably I just lost a year of my life. 0:53:11.520 --> 0:53:14.600 Yeah that that takes a lot out of you. My god, 0:53:14.760 --> 0:53:19.239 just the facial hair on Oh it's horrible, legal. I 0:53:19.239 --> 0:53:24.239 mean this was you know, the early two thousands. Every time. Yeah, oh, 0:53:24.360 --> 0:53:26.720 I can't defend it. I know there's a different time 0:53:26.760 --> 0:53:30.839 back then, but still that facial hair. You're gonna love 0:53:31.000 --> 0:53:37.880 Canadian bacon's flat because yeah, flat and flat, not not 0:53:38.160 --> 0:53:41.560 quite cooked. Right. Yeah, here's the thing, if he was 0:53:41.600 --> 0:53:45.879 actually just talking about Canadian bacon, that would be delightful, right, 0:53:46.400 --> 0:53:49.960 if he just wants to like cooker some Canadian He 0:53:50.080 --> 0:53:54.440 was not. He was not, but that would have made 0:53:54.520 --> 0:53:57.160 him a winner. He probably could have gotten all the 0:53:57.160 --> 0:53:59.960 way to the top that way. But no, it's probably 0:54:00.200 --> 0:54:03.480 Yeah about his like tapeworm dick, like his flat, floppy, 0:54:04.760 --> 0:54:08.640 floppy tapeworm dick? Is it Canadian big in like round two? 0:54:08.719 --> 0:54:12.320 Like it's like a it's wrong, it's not right. It's 0:54:12.360 --> 0:54:14.640 like poutine. You're not supposed to put it in your body. 0:54:14.760 --> 0:54:19.600 It just exists because we you know, because America, the 0:54:19.680 --> 0:54:22.600 one time we pull our punches, it's with Canada. And 0:54:22.640 --> 0:54:25.400 look at this nonsense that exists. Now, look what we 0:54:25.960 --> 0:54:28.200 let happen. I'm gonna I'm going to need Garrison to 0:54:28.360 --> 0:54:35.560 fact check everything you just said. So Ryan advanced to 0:54:35.640 --> 0:54:38.399 the final round of the show. Um Hauserman liked him, 0:54:38.400 --> 0:54:41.319 although she saw some quote unquote red flags, like the 0:54:41.360 --> 0:54:43.520 fact that his rolex was fake and that he only 0:54:43.520 --> 0:54:47.080 brought a single pair of pants for five weeks of filming. Amazing, 0:54:47.760 --> 0:54:53.399 all right, I wish I could, I wish I could 0:54:53.400 --> 0:54:57.120 act better than him, but I do only own a 0:54:57.200 --> 0:55:00.239 single pair of pants. Dave. I know this about having 0:55:00.320 --> 0:55:03.760 lived with you, but also, you're not a millionaire. That's true. 0:55:03.800 --> 0:55:08.600 I'm not. You're right. Yeah, I can't. I can't afford 0:55:08.680 --> 0:55:11.560 multiple pairs of pants. You're right. That's why. That's why 0:55:11.600 --> 0:55:15.000 I only have one pair. I'm the victim here, You're right. So, yeah, 0:55:15.080 --> 0:55:17.879 it's weird. Yeah, it is weird for him. It's weird 0:55:17.920 --> 0:55:22.000 for him. Um. So she thought he was sweet, um, 0:55:22.040 --> 0:55:24.439 and she almost picked him as the winner. She looked 0:55:24.480 --> 0:55:26.719 him up on Facebook one night during shooting and got 0:55:26.719 --> 0:55:28.920 his phone number and called him privately to tell him 0:55:28.960 --> 0:55:31.120 she planned to pick him. But then she told the 0:55:31.160 --> 0:55:33.480 show's producers what she planned to do, and they were like, 0:55:33.520 --> 0:55:37.600 oh no, absolutely not. Um. They justified this as saying 0:55:37.640 --> 0:55:40.239 he wasn't likable and was just putting on a show 0:55:40.280 --> 0:55:43.480 for her, and she eventually agreed to send him home. Quote, 0:55:43.520 --> 0:55:47.400 he was really upset, and I was upset also, so 0:55:47.880 --> 0:55:50.360 that's a shame. She planned to call him once filming 0:55:50.400 --> 0:55:52.120 was over and explained that she had just been doing 0:55:52.160 --> 0:55:55.840 what her producers wanted. The show flopped, but Hauserman remained 0:55:55.880 --> 0:55:58.520 in contact with Ryan. He told her that after she 0:55:58.560 --> 0:56:00.560 sent him home, he was so upset that quote, I 0:56:00.600 --> 0:56:03.439 went to Vegas and I met a girl. Um As 0:56:03.520 --> 0:56:06.560 is normally the case on reality shows. Producers hired several 0:56:06.560 --> 0:56:09.239 of the failed contestants of this show for other projects, 0:56:09.239 --> 0:56:12.279 and so four years later, in two thousand nine, Ryan 0:56:12.360 --> 0:56:15.360 Jenkins has cast for a show called I Love Money three, 0:56:15.920 --> 0:56:19.880 vying her two d and fifty thousand dollar prize because 0:56:19.920 --> 0:56:21.959 you know, he's not actually a millionaire and he could 0:56:21.960 --> 0:56:26.080 really use the cash. Entertainment Weekly continues he kept calling 0:56:26.120 --> 0:56:28.560 her on the phone, his wife, saying, I'm going to 0:56:28.600 --> 0:56:29.840 win this and you and I are going to have 0:56:29.880 --> 0:56:33.120 the life I've always promised, recalls Mark Cronin, co founder 0:56:33.160 --> 0:56:36.680 of fifty one Minds Entertainment, the production company behind Money, 0:56:36.760 --> 0:56:38.960 Megan the Surreal Life and the majority of the h 0:56:39.040 --> 0:56:42.880 one wildly successful celeb reality shows of that era. Then 0:56:42.920 --> 0:56:45.400 he would ask her where were you last night? Because 0:56:45.400 --> 0:56:47.440 he's in Mexico shooting the show and she lives in 0:56:47.480 --> 0:56:50.279 Las Vegas. He was very jealous and very suspicious of her. 0:56:50.560 --> 0:56:52.600 We were actually making a story of it on the show. 0:56:52.680 --> 0:56:54.640 We were like, look at this guy. He's obsessed with 0:56:54.640 --> 0:56:58.160 this model he married. Cronin continues, it was funny until 0:56:58.200 --> 0:57:01.720 it wasn't funny at all. I guess why it stops 0:57:01.760 --> 0:57:05.319 being funny. I have an idea. Yeah, it's pretty bad. 0:57:05.480 --> 0:57:09.399 It's pretty it's not funny. On August fifteen, two thousand nine, 0:57:09.480 --> 0:57:12.480 soon after I Love Money three wrapped fire, his his 0:57:12.560 --> 0:57:15.440 wife's strangled and mutilated body was found stuffed in a 0:57:15.520 --> 0:57:19.800 suitcase tossed to a dumpster in Buena Park, California. I 0:57:19.840 --> 0:57:23.760 wonder what happened? Yeah, So Jenkins goes on the run, 0:57:24.000 --> 0:57:27.040 and as this all gets public, TMZ finds out that 0:57:27.080 --> 0:57:30.400 he has an extensive criminal record, um including an arrest 0:57:30.440 --> 0:57:33.240 in two thousand five for assaulting a girlfriend in Calgary, 0:57:33.480 --> 0:57:35.760 which v H one and fifty one mind said was 0:57:35.800 --> 0:57:39.320 not on his background check. Uh. Jenkins eventually kills himself 0:57:39.360 --> 0:57:43.080 in a hotel room in British Columbia in auguste. Um. 0:57:43.120 --> 0:57:46.160 And yeah, it's this whole big story, big big, ugly 0:57:46.240 --> 0:57:50.840 story for the reality TV industry. Yeah, collective intelligence gets 0:57:50.840 --> 0:57:52.560 most of the blame for this, and they wind up 0:57:52.640 --> 0:57:56.600 laying off their workforce. Um. The whole nightmare reportedly leads 0:57:56.640 --> 0:57:59.520 to an increased willingness for production companies and networks to 0:57:59.520 --> 0:58:04.920 pay for thorough background checks. So that's good. It feels 0:58:05.040 --> 0:58:08.600 like everybody in America should go to jail for a day. 0:58:08.880 --> 0:58:11.040 It feels like we all got to go to jail 0:58:11.120 --> 0:58:15.360 for that one. It's just like our culture everything. Everybody 0:58:15.520 --> 0:58:18.720 should just for your shift and then you're the guard next, 0:58:18.840 --> 0:58:22.200 because like we got to get through everybody, right, we 0:58:22.240 --> 0:58:26.600 should all feel fucking ashamed. If some refugee comes into 0:58:26.640 --> 0:58:29.240 the country, it's like, hey, sorry, it's been so tough 0:58:29.240 --> 0:58:33.280 over in Ethiopia or Ukraine. Glad you're here. You gotta 0:58:33.280 --> 0:58:35.600 go to jail for a day. Now. There was this 0:58:35.680 --> 0:58:40.200 show like fifteen years ago. No one has stopped it 0:58:40.240 --> 0:58:45.480 from happening. He stopped it obvious that this person was Yeah, look, 0:58:45.520 --> 0:58:47.600 we know you new here, but every American has some 0:58:47.680 --> 0:58:52.400 collective responsibility for this show. I mean, listen, in our defense, 0:58:52.480 --> 0:58:54.720 he did say he was kind of a bad boy, 0:58:55.080 --> 0:58:58.080 so this is this would fall under the kind of 0:58:58.160 --> 0:59:01.280 a bad boy ages. Yeah, he's like, that's what he 0:59:01.360 --> 0:59:04.200 actually whispered. He's like in her ear, he's like, I'm 0:59:04.240 --> 0:59:09.040 a murderer. I am. I am going to be a murderer. Yeah, yeah, 0:59:09.280 --> 0:59:12.320 Oh my fucking god. Now the good news, Dave, is 0:59:12.360 --> 0:59:15.280 that sketchy, violent dudes getting through vetting is no longer 0:59:15.320 --> 0:59:18.760 the main threat faced by reality shows. We're gonna talk 0:59:18.800 --> 0:59:22.000 about what is in part two of this series, Dave. 0:59:23.560 --> 0:59:28.640 How you like in reality is in reality? And you know, 0:59:29.000 --> 0:59:33.960 I'm mixed feelings always on reality, so you know, I 0:59:34.000 --> 0:59:37.880 can't can't complain, but really I don't have many compliments 0:59:37.920 --> 0:59:41.000 for it either. Yeah. I feel the same about reality 0:59:41.040 --> 0:59:44.200 as I do about Reality TV, which is I feel 0:59:44.200 --> 0:59:47.040 like we could do better. Yeah, I feel like we 0:59:47.080 --> 0:59:49.760 could do better. You know. Um, But you know who's 0:59:49.800 --> 0:59:53.960 doing great, Dave, is your podcast network Gamefully Unemployed, where 0:59:53.960 --> 0:59:56.959 people can listen to hype casts and hear about what's 0:59:56.960 --> 0:59:59.520 coming out in in a Hollywood. They can listen to 0:59:59.600 --> 1:00:03.240 Fox Older is a Maniac and learn how the FBI 1:00:03.760 --> 1:00:08.640 definitely really functions. Um, yeah, it's been Yeah, it's our 1:00:08.680 --> 1:00:14.240 own behind the bastards for Fox Molder and Fox Molder only. Yeah. Yeah, 1:00:14.480 --> 1:00:16.920 it's so detailed in fact that if you listen to 1:00:16.960 --> 1:00:19.440 every episode of Fox Molder is a Maniac, you are 1:00:19.560 --> 1:00:22.560 legally an FBI agent and can carry out raids and 1:00:22.680 --> 1:00:26.600 stings on whoever you want it. Yeah. I mean, you know, 1:00:26.640 --> 1:00:29.200 the government might say otherwise, but it's like a little 1:00:29.240 --> 1:00:32.200 wink wink, what do they know? What do they know? Yeah, exactly, 1:00:32.280 --> 1:00:35.160 They're just working with you. Yeah. So yeah, everybody check 1:00:35.240 --> 1:00:41.280 that out. Gamefully Unemployed, game fully, patreon dot com dot wait, 1:00:41.360 --> 1:00:44.560 I can do it, Patreon dot com, slash gamefully Unemployed. 1:00:45.160 --> 1:00:48.880 We're on Twitter as well, gamefully and I think just 1:00:48.920 --> 1:00:52.640 gooding like that, something like that. All right, google them 1:00:52.720 --> 1:00:56.200 and then google yourself, but like in a sexual manner, 1:00:58.520 --> 1:01:02.240 your name just happen. Okay, cool, Yeah, google your name 1:01:02.280 --> 1:01:06.160 plus nude. See what happens. You'll get something. It won't 1:01:06.160 --> 1:01:08.760 be you won't be happy you got it, but you'll 1:01:08.800 --> 1:01:13.520 get something. Anyway. This has been the podcast. I've been 1:01:13.600 --> 1:01:16.760 Robert Evans, you've been David Bell and Sophie has been 1:01:16.760 --> 1:01:17.600 disappointed in me,