Reality TV Makes People Do the Darndest Things!

Mad-scientist/inventor/"Wife Swap" alumnus Richard Heene thought it was a great idea to send a giant flying-saucerish home-built helium balloon into the air and then tell authorities that his 6-year-old-boy Falcon was inside as it careened for hours and 60 miles across the bright blue Colorado skies to the horror of the entire nation. The following day, under the intense stress of TV lights and his dad's lies, poor little Falcon was reduced to vomiting during a "Today Show" interview. The family also appeared on CNN's "Larry King Show." Pressed for details by guest-host Wolf Blitzer, Heene asked his boy why he didn't come out of the attic he was hiding in when he heard them calling for him. "You guys said we did this for the show," he said. He was referring to the reality tv program his parents were aggressively pitching to producers. Blitzer had his now-famous "Aha!" moment, and the rest as they say is history. Heene and his partner in crime, wife Mayumi, now face misdemeanor and Federal charges that include conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and lying to the federal government. Prison time and hefty fines could follow.

The "Balloon Boy" saga proves one thing: that the insatiable hunger for reality TV fame makes people do really stupid things. And once they actually have a show, it can destroy friendships, families, marriages and leave a pile of emotional carnage in its wake. The reality show casualties-list is a long one, and includes Jon and Kate Gosselin, Danny and Gretchen Bonaduce, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, Hulk and Linda Hogan, Carmen Electra amd Dave Navarro, and Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. In fact, having cameras follow you around 24/7 is almost a certain kiss of death in the romance of reality. Yet, people like the Heenes scratch and claw still to get their name in lights. In the case of the Heenes, the party's now over before it even started. And it's their kids who will ultimately suffer the most.

Reality television is a stain on our society and an insult to culture. It's dumbed-down television at its worst, lowest common-denominator. It makes people like Richard Heene act like an anger-management-starved idiot on "Wife Swap." It makes former House Majority Leader Tom Delay dance like a Viagra-fueled, lip-syncing freak on "Dancing with the Stars." It makes former "Taxi" star Jeff Conway expose his tragic, humiliating substance-abuse on "Celebrity Rehab." It makes fat people cry on "The Biggest Loser." It makes people eat bat-shit and lie with rats on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here!" It makes guys act like disrespectful pigs on "The Bachelor/Bachelorette" It makes rich housewives in NJ, NY, Atlanta and Orange County, CA act like a bunch of spoiled, vacuous, obnoxious, catty, neurotic beeyaches. It makes families neglect their children and put them through a life of media hell, all for some quick cash in their pockets and the feel of red-carpet under their feet. It brings out the absolute worst behavior in people, while bringing them to embarrassing levels of prime-time foolishness. And, not to get into a whole other case against it, but it's also put an awful lot of very talented, hard-working television writers out of work. Enough, I say.

Some cultural phenomenons have their watershed moments. The Manson Family murders served to kill the Summer of Love. The violence at the Rolling Stones' Altamont concert dampened the Woodstock generation and effectively put an end to the 60's and peace-and-love. Maybe the Heene's colossal bout with selfishness, irresponsibility and sheer attention-seeking desperation will be the nail in the reality television coffin. Let's hope so

 

Comments

[Gasparilla]

Most of these "reality" shows are simply people acting for the camera. COPS is a reality show because it just records something unexpected happening without direction.

[PatA]

From the moment that a person thinks "hey, I can do that and I want to do that" after they get information about a reality show.....they are on their own, baby. NO ONE dragged Richard Hatch to the casting office for "Survivor"....just like no one dragged that i d i ot "Coach" to apply for the same show.
No one pulled the Kardashian sisters to the network to have a reality show. That is a decision that they made on their own.
Terrell Owens? Give me a break! Most of his ideas have been disastrous and this evidently is another one.
Just you wait til Kanye West decides that he wants his own reality show! People make choices..reality shows do not cause these people to behave like a s s e s.....they were one before reality shows.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

Amen brother.

[SILVANUS]

What's worse is that it makes people who are ACTUALLY talented at something disdain the spotlight because they don't want to be associated with "the stain".

[Fudgefase]

It also makes mere mortals into stars, even for just their 15 minutes, through performing on X factors and AI etc.
It has encouraged a whole generation of kids to neglect their studies because they will 'make it' if they just get that one chance to be on the tv....

[betsy1829]

I couldn't agree more and the dumbing down comment is one that I have been making for years! I hate all reality shows that are currently showing and shutter whenever I hear about the next one in the works!

[Andy Ostroy - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm surprised at you, Talullah! You're a blogger? A Writer? And you're criticizing me for my commentary? I thought that's what writer's are supposed to do. To call attention. To provoke thought. And perhaps, even in some miniscule way, help effect change. Should we have told Tom Paine and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to just "not look at" whatever bothers them? (I'm making a point here about the role of writers in society...and not comparing myself to Solzhenitsyn and Paine)

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

I must add, you didn't get all huffy when I left comments on your piece rightfully condemning Harris's Polanski-defense editorial. (Would you have told Thomas Paine not to defend Polanski?), but then, I was agreeing with you there. Apparently it's only wrong for me to participate when I disagree with you.

Yet, while I was disagreeing with your point, you haven't attempted to defend your point or refute mine; just took a how-dare-y­ou-express­-disagreem­ent stance, which would have pained Paine. of course, it IS difficult to refute a people-are­-responsib­le-for-the­ir-own-act­ions-not-T­V point.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

I had an earlier relpy that didn't go through, basically it was:

I'm disagreeing with your blame-TV point, not with your right to make your incorrect point. I fail to see why my being a blogger should mean I can't express my view on the piece like everyone else.

My point was perfectly clear. These people are responsible for their own actions, and "TV made me do it" cuts no ice with me as an excuse.

Interesting rhetorical device. You equate yourself with Solzhenitsyn and Paine, and then say you're not doing exactly what you've just done.

You called attention, and provoked thought, and I expressed the thought you provoked in me. I didn't say don't make your point. I said, in essence, that your point is bogus.

Interesting that you don't even attempt to refute my point itself, just tell me I shouldn't make one. Would you have told Tom Paine and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to just make their point when they read something wrong-headed? (Not that I'm comparing myself to - oh wait.)

[Dida]

Great article. I think reality TV has contributed to incivility by normalizing the rude, obnoxious behavior we see everywhere. And all the talk shows just make it worse by having these people on as though they should be held up and admired. Its so twisted!

[Katie101622]

Agreed! I for one cannot STAND reality tv, I avoid it at all costs. It's all a giant time and brain suck, and I need my time and brain for much more important things.

The thing I hate most about reality tv is that people in my day-to-day life want to talk about it like it matters. "Did you see American Idol last night?!" No, and I will live.

[pons1595]

Reality TV is like porno; they are vile but people support it with their eyes and money. Go figure the profits.

The AMPTP corporations want to call game shows, comedy-variety programs and documentaries "reality" TV because they can get around offering basic health care, giving lunch, paying $100 million in overtime wages. Because they can get around the law - paying taxes, paying the minimum wage, paying for 40-hour workweek. Society didn't accept such conditions 100 years ago. There's no reason to accept it today. We know better. That is what the issue of "reality" TV and fair, humane representation is about.

A moment of background to put this in perspective: Fremantle is one of the world's largest media conglomerates. Last year, the company generated revenue of $1.8 billion. Its program, "American Idol," alone makes a profit of $200 million. Just one of its stars, Simon Cowell, signed a five-year contract for $50 million yearly. Yes - each year. One person. And the writing staff and production assistants are regularly required to work 15-20 hour days, seven days a week. No healthcare. No pensions. And often no time for lunch breaks. And rest breaks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/the-amazing-reality-of-re_b_118433.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/the-amazing-reality-of-re_b_118433.html

The adult video business grosses at best $520 million, not $4 billion.
http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/25/0524porn.html

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

You say: "[Reality TV] makes people like Richard Heene act like an anger-mana­gement-sta­rved idiot on 'Wife Swap." (He wasn't acting) "It makes former House Majority Leader Tom Delay dance like a Viagra-fueled, lip-syncing freak on 'Dancing with the Stars'." (Better to have him doing that than being in congress) It makes former 'Taxi' star Jeff Conway expose his tragic, humiliating substance-abuse on 'Celebrity Rehab.' (His choice) ... It makes people eat bat-[poop] and lie with rats on 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here!' (I'm very sorry for the rats.) It makes guys act like disrespectful pigs on 'The Bachelor/B­achelorett­e'" (They weren't acting.) "It makes rich housewives ... act like a bunch of spoiled, vacuous, obnoxious, catty, neurotic beeyaches." (They weren't acting. That's them.) "It makes families neglect their children and put them through a life of media hell, all for some quick cash in their pockets and the feel of red-carpet under their feet. "

I am NOT defending Reality TV. Much (not all) of it is vile, but it didn't "MAKE" any of these people do anything. They CHOSE to behave as they did. They can't point a finger and say, "TV made me do it." It's called taking personal responsibility.

Without Reality TV, these jerks and morons would still behave badly, still screw up their lives and their children's lives. It's not TV's fault. It's THEIR fault.

Don't like it? Don't watch it.

[SweetLiberal]

I couldn't agree more.

[deluk]

and that goes for me too...

[jasper48]

And to think. In a past generation they thought game shows were the nadir.

Guess again, huh !!

[66rock]

In answer to the last statement/question in post, sadly, the answer is no, the Heene case will not be the
end of the insanity called reality TV.

No, it will only end after someone is hurt or even killed.

[SweetLiberal]

Didn't someone get killed last spring? By that I mean, wasn't a runner up on some skanky VH1 show wanted for murdering his new bride?!?! That made the news for like, 2 minutes, and even then there was very little outrage.

[Guy Incognito]

As long as networks want to produced programs with nobodies for no budget, no one will learn anything. Reality television is an oxymoron.

[abliss2379]

I hope you are right that this will put the final nail in the coffin of reality TV, but I fear if the Gosselins couldn't do it, maybe it's not possible ...