Origin of trainwreck reality shows

[Pantastic]

@msmith537

I believe the turning point was Season 3 when they brought in a guy who called himself “Puck”. Until then, the show was just normal boring “people living together” conflicts. But he came on the show specifically to act like as big of an asshole as possible. He would constantly get into fights with the other housemates, particularly Pedro, the gay guy with AIDS.

Puck was famously bad in Season 3, but I think they tried the same thing with David Edwards in Season 2. After looking it up he’s definitely the one who said in the interview that he just likes to press people’s buttons to see what happens, and he did get kicked out for physically assaulting another cast member. He might not be as famous as puck, but I wouldn’t categorize him as being part of ‘just normal boring’ conflicts.

@Colibri

As a matter of fact, yes. Posting a link without explanation is a good way to have your post ignored.

I agree, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that if a poster doesn’t care enough to write how their link is relevant to the thread, I don’t care enough to follow their link to find out whether it’s relevant, boring, trolling, or malicious.

[planetcory]

@Pantastic

Puck was famously bad in Season 3, but I think they tried the same thing with David Edwards in Season 2. After looking it up he’s definitely the one who said in the interview that he just likes to press people’s buttons to see what happens, and he did get kicked out for physically assaulting another cast member. He might not be as famous as puck, but I wouldn’t categorize him as being part of ‘just normal boring’ conflicts.

David was more of a practical joker than a malicious force, though. I think he isn’t treated with the same disdain as Puck, because his personality was generally jovial. Even the ‘physical assault’ was more of a physically invasive prank. The kind of guy who thinks everything is a joke, including dragging the covers off a woman in sleepwear screaming, ‘no.’

[Andy_L]

@msmith537

I believe the turning point was Season 3 when they brought in a guy who called himself “Puck”. Until then, the show was just normal boring “people living together” conflicts. But he came on the show specifically to act like as big of an asshole as possible. He would constantly get into fights with the other housemates, particularly Pedro, the gay guy with AIDS.

Strangely, this Tvtropes page claims that the producers expected Puck to be a supportive, accepting roommate https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/TheRealWorld

[ftg]

Similar to Queen for a Day but in another medium are newspaper agony aunts (the best known of which in the US is Dear Abby). Date back to 1690!

Visceral reading of the trainwreck lives of others has been popular a long time. TV just adds a few more dimensions.

(Note that Cecil has sometimes slipped into agony aunt mode in offering advice to pensive questioners.)

[RickJay]

@Pantastic

Puck was famously bad in Season 3, but I think they tried the same thing with David Edwards in Season 2. After looking it up he’s definitely the one who said in the interview that he just likes to press people’s buttons to see what happens, and he did get kicked out for physically assaulting another cast member. He might not be as famous as puck, but I wouldn’t categorize him as being part of ‘just normal boring’ conflicts.

You have to keep upping the ante. I think you will find almost any reality show’s first season or two seems really tame compared to what follows.

Even American Idol - a competition, not exactly a reality show - got, well, showier and more overproduced as it went.