Tag Archives: reality tv

“Bravo” for Bravo

One of my wonderfully opinionated friends, Mizz  JLSandler, has officially joined the blogosphere. You can find her at http://jlsandler.wordpress.com/. In the meantime, I want to bring attention to one of the articles my now fellow online scribe wrote a bit ago about the resurgence of Bravo TV entitled, ”Bravo is Art.”

Anyone who watched Bravo prior to 2000 knows that it was pretty much the channel for television shows to find a second wind (or die) and movies. They didn’t really have any original content – rather, original content that was buzz-worthy and worthwhile – and did not have any sort of idea of what its brand’s potential was.

Somewhere around 2005 the clouds parted, the sunlight shown through and Bravo brought on Andrew “Andy” Cohen on as it’s Vice President of Programming and Production after it taking over his previous employer, Trio. (Info which I learned here).

Mr. Cohen, currently owner to a slew of Executive Producer credits to the majority (all?) of Bravo’s programs, is not only a genius at bringing on buzzworthy (read: addicting) programming for the network, but is also one of it’s brightest stars through his hosting gig on “Watch What Happens: Live”, now renewed for a fifth season on the channel. Admittedly, Mr. Cohen has turned a non-Jew into a constant praiser of people’s actions through offering them what are deemed never-appropriate “Mazel’s” – a recent congratulations was sent to a friend for not regressing after a seemingly questionable weekend. Catchphrases aside, WWHL also offers incredibly entertaining interviews, performances (Danielle Staub’s “Close to You” scarred me for life), and games – anyone remember when Anderson Cooper tried to guess NeNe Leakes’ quips?

Any article about Bravo and Mr. Cohen would be remiss to not include the Housewives series, or as Mizz S affectionately calls, “Really Rich Housewives of insert selected city here.” This franchise, the most successful and longest running of all Bravo’s programs, is now the cornerstone of the channel’s non-competitive based reality programs and is apparently trying to expand north to Toronto. Housewives of DC aside, viewers can always rely on the series to provide constant entertainment by following around a number of well-to-do women in their daily lives. While the feuds between all of the “Bravo-lebrities” help fuel the show (Camille v. Kyle, Danielle v. the state of New Jersey, NeNe v Kim, etc) it’s the interaction of all these women as well as their flock of gays, which helped to propel the Housewives series into upper echelon of reality television.

I have to disagree with my friend on one thought though. Bravo has not reinvented reality television – it has now set the standard for what reality based entertainment should achieve to be.

Reality Reality.

I took an unexpected break again from entertaining the masses with my written tomfoolery, and for that I apologize. It’s been a very weird/complicated/busy/blahh last few weeks.

Today is my day off from interning and for some reason I’ve been stuck in the vacuum that is The City marathon. There’s something about reality television that is just completely flabbergasting, disgusting, and intriguing all at the same time – possibly because we see ourselves in one (or multiple) people on these un-scripted programs.

There are, of course, the requisite dating programs – from the uptown chic Bachelor/Bachelorette series on ABC to the utterly repulsive – who in their right mind would ever want a shot-at-love with anyone whose last name resembles that of a panty-dropping substance? (Not that I don’t enjoy copious amounts of said substance in question…)

Then there are the competitions! Anyone who says they are not a fan of competition, be it television based, video games, sports, etc. etc.. -are…… Okay, let me just be blunt – whoever says they don’t like shows like Project Runway, Top Chef, or Survivor are just blatant liars! Shows like these take everything that are appreciated by the millions and mass produce it for all with cable to enjoy. And the competition+ format (i.e. TC is competition + food) is a no-fail system because like I mentioned, everyone loves a good competition (the Colosseum in Rome wasn’t built fuh nothin’). When you add special interests that are enjoyed by the masses – like fashion, food, and survival, as provided by the shows I listed – it’s just a complete recipe for success.

People these days are really taking a liking to the picked from obscurity, family oriented programs that have been taking over the airwaves these last few years like John and… I mean.. Kate Plus 8, and some other program which tends to catch my attention that is based around multiples. Anything about babies immediately grabs my attention… and when you add 5, 6, 7, 8, whatever, more babies to the equation… Ah just thinking about it brings about thoughts of butterflies and rainbows and those weird jean diapers.

I would be entirely remiss to not discuss the holiest of all reality programs; the mother ship whose masts set sail one fateful day in the early 90s with 7 strangers picked to live in an apartment, work together, and have their lives taped, to find out what happens what happens with… (you catch my drift). The Real World! I was a major Real World fan and even went to far (embarrassingly enough) to try out for the program!… :/ Whatevs I woulda been perfect! Haha. I have to say, though, that I lost my love for the program once I got to college and lived the life of the 7 strangers, minus the film crew. It’s bad enough that people had still-cameras to document the debauchery that occurred in my 4 years in Hamden… if you added a film crew – eesh… there goes my future.

What would a reality show based around your life be called?