My first thought is Survivorman, if that counts as a reality show. Wikipedia puts it under “Canadian reality television series” so why not? He doesn’t have a camera crew, am I right?
They go two ways: either become the hardass cop, or commonly act that way and get all paternal. The most depressing part is that so many people sign the release to show their faces so that they get their [del]15[/del] [del]10[/del] 5 minutes of fame.
Lots of words I could use to describe him, that is not one of them. I mean how could he be in a world where Guy Fieri exists! The Beirut episode was nominated for an Emmy. They did a little bit of food, and then Israel started shelling the city… That episode seemed less “polished” but quite real.
These endless hidden camera restaurant/bar shows, where an owner wants to see what his employees are up to. Every single one features behavior so outrageous and reactions so fake it is laughable!
“OMG he is stealing wine from the kitchen and selling it to preschoolers in the parking lot!”
“Is he trying to pimp out hookers to customers while they order?!?”
I was going to say that The Incredible Doctor Pol but when I looked it up (to see if it was spelled ‘Pol’ or Pohl’) I found that he was on probation for incompetence and was ordered to take continuing education classes. They never showed that part on the show.
Survivorman is about as real as you can get. It’s just him in the wilderness with some cameras recording how he copes with different survival scenarios. He doesn’t have secret stashes of food or gear. He’ll use whatever he started out with and forage for the rest.
He does have a radio he can use to call his crew for help, but I don’t think that’s ever happened.
Is Hoarders considered a “reality show”? That gets my vote.
I understand that the video must be edited to conform to a viable 22 or 44 minutes narrative, that’s part and parcel of the medium. So saying that something was “edited” to make a story kind of misses the point of the OP, imho. On the other hand, “scripted” is what I have in mind when I hear the phrase “fake reality shows”. Are the stories made up, are the people reciting a script, etc? I can’t believe that the houses and people on Hoarders are, in fact, scripted. OTOH, I can believe that Clean This House (or whatever) did have a fair amount of scripting to it.
I tweeted back and forth with Darrell Sheets of Storage Wars and asked him why he was so hard on his son. He responded that having the TV camera on you makes you a different person… and not necessarily a better one. He has lightened up on Brandon since then (at least the last time I watched the show - it could be cancelled for all I know.)
Well, if we’re counting renovation shows, I never sensed any chicanery from Holmes on Homes, at least from Holmes and his crew. Rather, they exposed the chicanery of the building contractors who’d screwed the house up in the first place.
I’ve been reviewing that series lately, and there was a moment I thought interesting - a mother and son hoarding duo get understandably upset as their stuff is being taken away and there’s a moment of “drama” where something the hoarders tried to save got put on one of the trucks. The son whispered to his mother “they’re doing it on purpose.”
And it occurred to me… he might be right. It’s more likely that he’s just expressing the same paranoia and delusions of persecution that many of the hoarders share, but I don’t think it’s impossible that the crew might be pushing a few emotional buttons for better footage of a hoarder freak-out.
Storage Wars at one point had me foolded that it was a true reality show until I learned that the producers seed some of the spaces with valuable items. Between that and a truly asshole bidder I quit watching.
I think there was a cold-weather (Arctic?) episode where he had to bail early because conditions were so terrible that his life was at risk. He does carry his own cameras, usually having one strapped to him with some kind of arm to film his moving around, and setting up one at each site. I think the support team films drop-off and pick-up.
I apologize for coming off as an ass. I was attempting to be light and humorous. It was not my intention. Although when I reread my post I sound like a know it all asshole.
The Kiltchers have never been loved much up here. The whole show is considered a joke by everyone around here including them.
My dad has an acquaintance that owns storage lockers and he said he does something similar. If he sees boxes on the side of the road for valuable items (big screen TVs etc), he’ll keep them and toss them in to lockers he’s going to auction off to help bump the price.
FTR, I don’t know the guy and I’m not looking to get into an argument about it or discuss the pros and cons of it, I’m just saying that, at least to a point, it actually does actually happen.
I’d say the most realistic show is “Abby and Brittany” on TLC. They’re conjoined twins who graduated from college a couple years ago and are now schoolteachers.
Do you have a source on Bourdain saying that? He’s done a few episodes of his various shows in Los Angeles, during which he visited a bunch of L.A. restaurants he seemed to love. And I know some of his friends are chefs in L.A. I know the guy can be abrasive, but that really doesn’t sound like something he’d think.