Influenced Reality

Memories of growing up as a child in the 80’s include watching shows like “The Wonder Years” and “The Cosby Show”. These shows were popular with families, because young kids and teenagers could watch the shows and relate to the storyline, but parents still felt that the shows included appropriate topics for their children to watch. This type of family programming can still be found on TV listings, but as one flips through the channels on the television they will more often stumble upon shows that are not considered appropriate for children even though they are televised during daytime and after-school hours. One of the main offenders of this standard is reality shows. Reality television shows challenge traditions of regular family programming by exploiting family’s problems in a way that is glamorized for television ratings.

Our society has become a reality entertainment industry. There is not one major network or cable television channel that does not host a reality-based show because these shows are popular and they get high ratings. Reality shows take many different forms. Some of these shows are a competition in which contestants win something at the end or achieve a goal, like dating to find a soul mate, competing in cooking competitions to earn a position as head chef in a restaurant, or showing off talent to land a recording contract. Many celebrities have their own shows, and even your average all-American families are being taped from the inside.

Before reality television, family programming included shows that depicted the average family who worked through their problems together. Although children watching the show might wonder how a middle class family could afford such a large house and seem to not have any problems that couldn’t be solved within their thirty minute timeslot, the answer given to children about these shows was, “it’s not real, it’s just TV.” Now the popularity of documenting family lives has created this type of reality shows all over television programming. These shows are meant to be tailored to a family audience, but often the episodes show “reality” life as more “Hollywood” than reality. Families cannot answer their kids with the same response, because these shows are taping an actual family and not just “TV”. They are meant to be real.

While watching reality shows, one wonders if the producers are really showing us these families’ average daily lives. It is natural to wonder how much of the show is cut and edited to create drama and events that will keep large audiences watching the show. In Kevin Arnovitz’s article “Virtual Dictionary” he describes that “reality TV, like most professional worlds, has a nomenclature all its own” (438). He goes on to explain a term that is used in the reality television industry, frankenbite:
“An edited reality show snippet, most often found in contestant testimonials, that splices together several disparate strands of an interview, or even multiple interviews, into a single clip. A frankenbite allows editors to manufacture “story” efficiently and dramatically…this is the reality show editor’s most potent tool for manipulating viewer perception of the contestant” (438).

If these shows were reality, the viewer would see the family struggling to pay the bills and deciding what extra activity would need to be cut out that month. Instead most episodes show the family taking off on amazing costly adventures, which leaves the audiences wondering if the life were are seeing is achievable without their TV paycheck.

It seems that each of these families in the early days of their show were struggling to make ends meet while driving averages cars and wearing average clothes, but after a season or two of filming, this once down to earth family is now jetting off on expensive vacations, and going on trips for book tours and speaking engagements. They have become instant celebrities. For example, Jon and Kate Gosselin from TLC’s hit show “Jon and Kate plus 8” began as an average family from Pennsylvania. About five years ago, after giving birth to sextuplets, the family was taped for a documentary on The Learning Channel. The popularity of that one hour special led to a full-time show with multiple episodes. This show has now been taped for a few seasons and the family has become so well-known that they have bodyguards and the paparazzi following them everywhere. This family who originally didn’t have funds to diaper, clothe, and feed their eight kids, now lives in a million dollar home and does not need to work aside from their TV show. This income does benefit the family in many ways, but the drawbacks have not been considered until it is now too late. The fame-hungry Kate Gosselin may have driven her marriage to divorce and these children are practically working full time at age five and nine. When do they get a day off?

One could argue that reality shows do show real life and not the sugar coated scenarios like some family programming. It does show real families living with real issues and sometimes these problems are bigger than what can be shown in a thirty minute episode. In a society with many single parent homes, some of these families could be role models to young people as they can watch families eating dinner together and working out their problems.

Reality television shows make for exciting television watching, but are not truly the reality they claim to be. These shows intrigue a wide audience, but are a modified form of reality that is showing children and young adults entertainment that is essentially exploiting other young children who are being constantly taped for television.