15-12-2012, 11:31 AM
Reality Television
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Abstract
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted melodramatic or "humorous" situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded.[1] Reality television began in 1948 with Alan Funt's TV series Candid Camera.[2] The genre exploded as a phenomenon around 1999–2000 with the success of such television series as Big Brother and Survivor.[1] Programs in the reality television genre are commonly called reality shows and often are produced in a television series. Documentaries, television news and sports television are usually not classified as reality shows.
The genre covers a wide range of television programming formats, from game show or quiz shows which resemble the frantic, Japanese variety shows produced in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s (such as Gaki no tsukai), to surveillance- or voyeurism-focused productions such as Big Brother.[1] The most popular reality TV show for 2010-11 was American Idol, and the least popular was Shedding for the Wedding.[3]
Reality television frequently portrays a modified and highly influenced form of day-to-day life, at times utilizing sensationalism to attract audience viewers and increase advertising revenue.[4][5][6] Participants are often placed in exotic locations or abnormal situations,[1] and are often persuaded to act in specific scripted ways by off-screen "story editors" or "segment television producers", with the portrayal of events and speech manipulated and contrived to create an illusion of reality through direction and post-production editing techniques.
History
1940s–1960s
Precedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the 1940s. The 1946 television game show Cash and Carry sometimes featured contestants performing stunts. Debuting in 1948, Allen Funt's hidden camera Candid Camera show (based on his previous 1947 radio show, Candid Microphone) broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks."[7] In 1948, talent search shows Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts featured amateur competitors and audience voting. The Miss America Pageant, first broadcast in 1954, was a competition where the winner achieved status as a national celebrity.[8]
In the 1950s, game shows Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences involved contestants in wacky competitions, stunts, and practical jokes. The Groucho Marx-hosted game show, You Bet Your Life, was primarily composed of Marx' prescripted comebacks to what was most often candid interviews of the contestants, although some contestants were well-known actors (usually playing for charity).
Subgenres
The genre of reality television consists of various subgenres.
[edit] Documentary-style
In many reality TV programs, camera shooting and footage editing give the viewer the impression that they are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is often referred to as fly on the wall or factual television. Story "plots" are often constructed via editing or planned situations, with the results resembling soap operas—hence the terms docusoap and docudrama. In other shows, a cinéma vérité style is adopted, where the filmmaker is more than a passive observer—their presence and influence is greatly manifest.
Ethnic American
The most recent subset of documentary-style reality television programming is the Ethnic American subcategory. On November 13, 2011 "All-American Muslim" premiered on TLC (previously The Learning Channel). The show followed five Lebanese-American Shia Muslim families living in Dearborn, Michigan, the largest community of Muslim-Americans in the United States. It is believed that TLC cancelled the show after one season because advertisers had pulled advertising due to many Americans' resistance to a program that depicted Muslim-Americans in a positive light. TLC formally cited low ratings as the reason for cancelling the show.
On March 11, 2012 "Shahs of Sunset" debuted on Bravo. This Ethnic American program follows six affluent Persian-American friends who live in Beverly Hills, CA. The Los Angeles area has notoriously been referred to as "Tehrangeles" due to the large volume of Iranian-Americans who live in the LA area.
Both "All-American Muslim" and "Shahs of Sunset" have been considered controversial since these ethnic groups have been associated with terrorism. In addition, critics of Ethnic American reality shows frequently state that the portrayals of a particular ethnic group are inaccurate or fictionalized as opposed to "real".
Self-improvement/makeover
Some reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives. Sometimes the same group of people are covered over an entire season (as in The Swan and Celebrity Fit Club), but usually there is a new target for improvement in each episode. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects meet with a group of experts, who give the subjects instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, appraise the changes that have occurred. Other self-improvement or makeover shows include "How Do I Look?" (fashion makeover). The Biggest Loser and Fat March, (which covers weight loss), Extreme Makeover (entire physical appearance), Queer Eye and What Not to Wear (style and grooming), Supernanny (child-rearing), Made (attaining difficult goals), Trinny & Susannah Undress (fashion makeover and marriage), Tool Academy (relationship building) and Charm School and From G's to Gents (self-improvement and manners).
Renovation
Some shows make over part or all of a person's living space, work space, or vehicle. The American show This Old House was the first such show,[citation needed] debuting in 1979. The British show Changing Rooms, beginning in 1996 (later remade in the US as Trading Spaces) was the first such renovation show that added a game show feel with different weekly contestants.[citation needed] Other shows in this category include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Debbie Travis' Facelift, Designed to Sell, While You Were Out, and Holmes on Homes. Pimp My Ride and Overhaulin' show vehicles being rebuilt. Some shows, such as Restaurant Makeover and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, show both the decor and the menu of a failing restaurant being remade. The issue of "making over" was taken to its social extreme with the British show Life Laundry, in which people who had become hoarders, even living in squalor, were given professional assistance.
As with game shows, a gray area exists between such reality TV shows and more conventional formats. Some argue the key difference is the emphasis of the human story and conflicts of reality shows, versus the emphasis on process and information in more traditional format shows.[citation needed] The show This Old House, which began in 1979, the start to finish renovation of different houses through a season; media critic Jeff Jarvis has speculated that it is "the original reality TV show."[22]
Social experiment
Another type of reality program is the social experiment that produces drama, conflict, and sometimes transformation. Wife Swap which began in 2003 on Channel 4 and has aired for four seasons on ABC is a notable example. People with different values agreed to live by each other's social rules for a brief period of time and sometimes learn from the experience. Other shows in this category include ITV's Holiday Showdown, Oxygen's The Bad Girls Club (lifestyles and actions), and Channel 4's Secret Millionaire. Faking It was a series where people had to learn a new skill and pass themselves off as experts in that skill. Shattered was a controversial 2004 UK series where contestants competed for how long they could go without sleep.
[attachment=43873]
Abstract
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted melodramatic or "humorous" situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded.[1] Reality television began in 1948 with Alan Funt's TV series Candid Camera.[2] The genre exploded as a phenomenon around 1999–2000 with the success of such television series as Big Brother and Survivor.[1] Programs in the reality television genre are commonly called reality shows and often are produced in a television series. Documentaries, television news and sports television are usually not classified as reality shows.
The genre covers a wide range of television programming formats, from game show or quiz shows which resemble the frantic, Japanese variety shows produced in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s (such as Gaki no tsukai), to surveillance- or voyeurism-focused productions such as Big Brother.[1] The most popular reality TV show for 2010-11 was American Idol, and the least popular was Shedding for the Wedding.[3]
Reality television frequently portrays a modified and highly influenced form of day-to-day life, at times utilizing sensationalism to attract audience viewers and increase advertising revenue.[4][5][6] Participants are often placed in exotic locations or abnormal situations,[1] and are often persuaded to act in specific scripted ways by off-screen "story editors" or "segment television producers", with the portrayal of events and speech manipulated and contrived to create an illusion of reality through direction and post-production editing techniques.
History
1940s–1960s
Precedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the 1940s. The 1946 television game show Cash and Carry sometimes featured contestants performing stunts. Debuting in 1948, Allen Funt's hidden camera Candid Camera show (based on his previous 1947 radio show, Candid Microphone) broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks."[7] In 1948, talent search shows Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts featured amateur competitors and audience voting. The Miss America Pageant, first broadcast in 1954, was a competition where the winner achieved status as a national celebrity.[8]
In the 1950s, game shows Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences involved contestants in wacky competitions, stunts, and practical jokes. The Groucho Marx-hosted game show, You Bet Your Life, was primarily composed of Marx' prescripted comebacks to what was most often candid interviews of the contestants, although some contestants were well-known actors (usually playing for charity).
Subgenres
The genre of reality television consists of various subgenres.
[edit] Documentary-style
In many reality TV programs, camera shooting and footage editing give the viewer the impression that they are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is often referred to as fly on the wall or factual television. Story "plots" are often constructed via editing or planned situations, with the results resembling soap operas—hence the terms docusoap and docudrama. In other shows, a cinéma vérité style is adopted, where the filmmaker is more than a passive observer—their presence and influence is greatly manifest.
Ethnic American
The most recent subset of documentary-style reality television programming is the Ethnic American subcategory. On November 13, 2011 "All-American Muslim" premiered on TLC (previously The Learning Channel). The show followed five Lebanese-American Shia Muslim families living in Dearborn, Michigan, the largest community of Muslim-Americans in the United States. It is believed that TLC cancelled the show after one season because advertisers had pulled advertising due to many Americans' resistance to a program that depicted Muslim-Americans in a positive light. TLC formally cited low ratings as the reason for cancelling the show.
On March 11, 2012 "Shahs of Sunset" debuted on Bravo. This Ethnic American program follows six affluent Persian-American friends who live in Beverly Hills, CA. The Los Angeles area has notoriously been referred to as "Tehrangeles" due to the large volume of Iranian-Americans who live in the LA area.
Both "All-American Muslim" and "Shahs of Sunset" have been considered controversial since these ethnic groups have been associated with terrorism. In addition, critics of Ethnic American reality shows frequently state that the portrayals of a particular ethnic group are inaccurate or fictionalized as opposed to "real".
Self-improvement/makeover
Some reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives. Sometimes the same group of people are covered over an entire season (as in The Swan and Celebrity Fit Club), but usually there is a new target for improvement in each episode. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects meet with a group of experts, who give the subjects instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, appraise the changes that have occurred. Other self-improvement or makeover shows include "How Do I Look?" (fashion makeover). The Biggest Loser and Fat March, (which covers weight loss), Extreme Makeover (entire physical appearance), Queer Eye and What Not to Wear (style and grooming), Supernanny (child-rearing), Made (attaining difficult goals), Trinny & Susannah Undress (fashion makeover and marriage), Tool Academy (relationship building) and Charm School and From G's to Gents (self-improvement and manners).
Renovation
Some shows make over part or all of a person's living space, work space, or vehicle. The American show This Old House was the first such show,[citation needed] debuting in 1979. The British show Changing Rooms, beginning in 1996 (later remade in the US as Trading Spaces) was the first such renovation show that added a game show feel with different weekly contestants.[citation needed] Other shows in this category include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Debbie Travis' Facelift, Designed to Sell, While You Were Out, and Holmes on Homes. Pimp My Ride and Overhaulin' show vehicles being rebuilt. Some shows, such as Restaurant Makeover and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, show both the decor and the menu of a failing restaurant being remade. The issue of "making over" was taken to its social extreme with the British show Life Laundry, in which people who had become hoarders, even living in squalor, were given professional assistance.
As with game shows, a gray area exists between such reality TV shows and more conventional formats. Some argue the key difference is the emphasis of the human story and conflicts of reality shows, versus the emphasis on process and information in more traditional format shows.[citation needed] The show This Old House, which began in 1979, the start to finish renovation of different houses through a season; media critic Jeff Jarvis has speculated that it is "the original reality TV show."[22]
Social experiment
Another type of reality program is the social experiment that produces drama, conflict, and sometimes transformation. Wife Swap which began in 2003 on Channel 4 and has aired for four seasons on ABC is a notable example. People with different values agreed to live by each other's social rules for a brief period of time and sometimes learn from the experience. Other shows in this category include ITV's Holiday Showdown, Oxygen's The Bad Girls Club (lifestyles and actions), and Channel 4's Secret Millionaire. Faking It was a series where people had to learn a new skill and pass themselves off as experts in that skill. Shattered was a controversial 2004 UK series where contestants competed for how long they could go without sleep.