Comments on: The Death of Reality Television. Please?

By: Gina Welch

Gina Welch — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:51:41 +0000

Fabulous idea. A reality show that exists exclusively to feed other reality shows could be the little implosion that makes the whole shop of horrors cave in on itself.

By: davidlosangeles

davidlosangeles — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:24:55 +0000

Ms. Welch,

I have a great idea for a TV show. People will choose a reality TV that they want to be on. The contestants compete to see who can come up with the most stupid and desperate publicity stunt. The winner gets to be on the reality TV show of their choice. Even the losers win!

By: Gina Welch

Gina Welch — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:39:30 +0000

HA! I got a kick out of that too, even though I don’t think of the Hogans as biohazardous, so much as squeakily hairless and sterilized by sunlamps.

By: Colin Horgan

Colin Horgan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:19:25 +0000

Yes, his seething derision is very palpable. I laughed quite a bit at the line, “Hulk Hogan’s biohazard clan of bleached specimens provide endless hours of death-hastening diversion.” Excellent.

By: andygeiger

andygeiger — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Reality TV: proof that evolution is a revolving door.

By: Gina Welch

Gina Welch — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:26:01 +0000

Thanks for passing along those articles, Colin. Guess there’s sort of a critical mass on this issue! Wolcott’s forensics in the VF article are laser-sharp, thorough, hilarious. Love, in particular, his suggestion that reality TV has the ability to “annoy even the uninitiated.”

By: Colin Horgan

Colin Horgan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:30:43 +0000

Cool piece. And yes, Why, indeed?
It’s strange that just before reading this, I was on the Vanity Fair site, where James Wolcott has an piece on how terrible reality tv is for America… it’s here: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/12/wolcott-200912?printable=true
Also, over at Slate, they ask “is the City destroying America?” which is kind of a reply to Wolcott’s piece: http://www.slate.com/id/2236560/

By: Tweets that mention Gina Welch - The Moral Story – The Death of Reality Television. Please? - True/Slant -- Topsy.com

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:09:20 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by James Hupp, Gina Welch. Gina Welch said: The death of reality television, pretty please?: http://trueslant.com/ginawelch/2009/11/30/the-death-of-reality-television-please/ [...]

By: Gina Welch

Gina Welch — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:55:59 +0000

Hmmmm…excellent question! Maybe we might find an answer in the breakdown of historically extra-living room communities? And inside our living room community we feel false intimacy with people on our screens, who shape our thinking and our priorities and our ideals? That we feel somehow invested in their lives, which seem more glamorous and interesting than our own, since the dull parts are taken out, so while we’re involved in their lives, we’re always “less than” they are?

So maybe jumping onscreen is a way of becoming the ideal that controls you?

What do you think?

(And thanks for the rental rec! That’s a movie title that’s sort of lodged in my consciousness but I never knew what it was about…)

By: Caitlin Kelly

Caitlin Kelly — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:09:33 +0000

But why do you think people are so desperate for this attention and putative “validation” of their worth? That’s the saddest piece of all. When did being well-loved or respected by your family, friends or colleagues pale to worthlessness after working just fine for…millennia?

On the other hand, rent “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” about the old contests where people danced until they dropped to win a prize…