I've been quiet for far too long on this issue, but it has finally gotten under my skin to the point where I had to let it out! Reality TV is ruining America! From The "Real World" to "American Idol", "I Love New York" to "College Hill", "Run's House" to "The Cougar", and the madness has got to stop!
Reality TV has become the mirror for everything that is wrong with us. We're a microwave society that's creating instant celebrity out of the talentless, ignorance that is being force fed to us through the intravenous boob tube. These shows are supposed to be so "real", but you can almost see the teleprompter or director's giving cues to these characters to drum up the drama.
Every week there's a new show on the verge of a premiere while talented writers and actors look for guest roles on what seems are the only 10 scripted shows on television throughout the week. Black Exploitation Television (BET) has given shows to the black sheep of Keyshia Cole's family, her mother Frankie and sister Neffie, and a timeslot to T.I.'s and Lil' Wayne's babies mama's Tiny & Toya. Hell, VH-1 has given Terrell Owens a show that's coming on in a few weeks.
Now, there is someone that is reading this that's going to say, at least Black folks are on TV…idiot! How many years have we struggled with the image of what was being portrayed of Black people by television programming? Now we're back to this? We might as well bring back "Homeboys in Outer Space" and "The Secret Life of Desmond Pfeiffer", both of which were so heavily criticized that they were run off the air.
I remember Thursday nights coming up, watching "The Cosby Show" and then "A Different World". When I was older, there was "Martin", "Living Single" and "New York Undercover". These shows were rich with our culture, flowing with our talent, not teeming with our dirty laundry and proof that the inner city public school system is failing our kids. I'm at the point where you can give me the early days of The WB back or Monday nights on UPN, but keep those Tyler Perry minstrel shows!
When "The Real World" first premiered all those years ago, it was a fresh idea that allowed people to explore the dynamics between seven strangers living together while being filmed. Since then, the genre has disintegrated to examine just how far the viewing audience will go to escape their lives to watch the real life pursuit of love, fortune, redemption, or stardom of has-beens and never will-be Reality TV stars.
There are proponents of the genre that will argue that it has given new life to the careers of former stars like Flavor Flav, Bret Michaels or Run. Those stars faded long ago for a reason and launching the careers of New York, Omorosa or The Miz has benefited us how? Puff Daddy has made like 12 bands and how much good music have they made? C'mon now, these overblown talent shows are watering down the music at a rate faster than radio programmers. I understand that the production costs of the shows are relatively low, but at the expense of providing the public with creative programming? We should be ashamed of ourselves for tolerating the shenanigans.
All of these "Of Love" shows follow the same format, down to which episode they bring the ex's in! It almost has the feeling like these execs are saying you're not smart enough to follow the shows, so we're going to give it to you the same way each time. Sure, we'll replace hoochies with White trash, insecure brothers with rocker wannabees, but don't expect the episode format to be any different. You watch because you love.
So while the networks are resurrecting 90's shows (90210 & Melrose Place), importing Japanese game shows (Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show) and British variety shows (American Idol and America's Got Talent), just think, how many shows will premiere with African-American actors and actresses in the leading roles this fall? How many of the new shows will have storylines that you can relate to? How many shows have had low ratings because you decided to watch "Flavor of Love"?
You can watch Reality TV until you're blue in the face and you'll never get a moment like this…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp_2Zp8KcCc
Leave a respond
Post a Comment