Smile, fool, the world is watching.
– Last week I wrote a post about a Denver-based former reality TV star that was kind enough to give us some insights into how it all works. This week we return with more stories from our guy about the industry in general and Bunim/Murray Productions, which created “The Real World,” in particular.
– Our anonymous friend (trust us, he’s for real) has been helping us wrap our heads around the economics and hiring tactics of many reality TV programs for a few weeks now. He started off by talking about the current “Real World” Denver crew:
“I’ve had one run in with crew members and they were complete pricks,” he said. “From what I know many of the crew with Bunim/Murray are newbies in the TV/reality TV industry. In the past a lot of the crew members got their start in the industry with Bunim/Murray, partly because I’ve heard the pay is sh**. So experienced reality TV crew members won’t work for MTV or Bunim/Murray because the pay is so bad.”
– Would this explain the rude treatment and outright lies many citizens around Denver have experienced from the pushy “Real World” crew, or is that just part of how every TV show does things? His comments seem to point to the former.
“From what I saw, the (‘Real World’ Denver) crew was fairly young, early-to-late-20s, which was definitely not the case on my show. So I think with being young and immature, the crew might have a sense of entitlement and ‘I’m better than you’ attitude all because they work in television, especially if this is their first real job. I’m not really sure. A glaring difference between my show and the crew I’ve seen has been the drastic age difference in the crew members.”
A “Real World” Denver crew member films a crane shot in LoDo’s Larimer Square.
– Our guy actually has some frame of reference since he’d previously met some Bunim/Murray crew members (and Jonathan Murray himself) while taking a Semester at Sea cruise on which “Road Rules” (another Bunim/Murray show) was filming (read that post here).
– So what’s his motivation for spilling all this info to us? Does he want to somehow get on another reality TV show, or have some axe to grind with the industry? He says no.
“I rarely watch TV anyhow, and it’s not that I am trying to hide behind anything… I never even applied for the show I was on. A friend of mine nominated me. I got a phone call asking for an interview so I went along with it and it all just kind of happened. So I wasn’t one of those people trying or seeking to get on television.
“Furthermore that is why you find me back in Colorado doing exactly what I did before and not in L.A. trying to extend my two seconds of fame, like so many other reality TV people try and do. I’ve been asked to do some other things since my show, but I’m content with just living a normal life.
“My producer used a great line on defining exactly what reality TV is, ‘It isn’t reality, it is a suspension of reality.’ This is the best way in which to define one’s experience.”
– He then elaborated to that end on one amusing experience on his show…
“A funny thing that never gets captured in reality TV is the battery changing on the portable microphones. The batteries only last a couple of hours at best, so I could be mid-sentence in a conversation with someone and the director would say, ‘Cut!’ and the sound crew would come in and change my battery and then expect me to resume my conversation where I left off. Hardly reality…”
– Jennifer, a former star on Bunim/Murray’s “Starting Over,” responded to our guy’s posts with this:
“There were no points in time where I was asked to stop my conversation so that they could do a battery change. As far as the filming of the show goes, that is as real as it could be. Just my two
cents…”
More from Get Real Denver
- The last days of “The Real World” Denver
- Behind-the-scenes on reality TV
- More from “The Real World’s” Cameran
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do you think MTV discriminates?
Comment by very worried — August 2, 2006 @ 9:49 am
I have no reason to think they do. Why, do you think they do? Why or why not?
Comment by leslie — August 2, 2006 @ 10:09 am
Hey John,
Isn’t filming almost over? Don’t they finish up at the end of this month?
Brando
Comment by Brando — August 2, 2006 @ 11:46 am
Brando — Should be like mid-to-late September. They moved in the last week of May and are shooting for 17 weeks.
Comment by John Wenzel — August 2, 2006 @ 11:57 am
Very worried – are you serious? I hope you’re just being sarcastic….if not, I’d watch out, the internet has a entire conspiracy going on where it discriminates against those who aren’t able to have access to a computer! How rude!
Comment by laughing — August 3, 2006 @ 10:13 am
I’ve been reading about how the crew is so terrible to people. It’s quite possible that the reason the crew is so cranky is that they have to put up with the cast. I was sitting at Starbucks at 16th and Curtis this week and overheard (OK – eaves dropped!) a Real World film crew talking about how “horrible” the cast is to be around. The crew said the cast acts like they’re “rock stars ” and that much of their time is spent “babysitting the little punks”. Also, this man mentioned that one of the cast was arrested last week for assault and that some on the cast think they’re above the law because of their position on the show. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so hard on the crew. I’d hate to have to put up with these little punks.
Comment by Just a Guy — August 4, 2006 @ 12:16 am
ooops didnt mea to post this twice…I put it in the wrong place before.
This source is totally Preston Mercer. He was on the news with you and anyone who watched his show or was a fishbowl.com fan knows he did a semester at sea and that he didnt apply to be on the show.
Comment by Sara — August 5, 2006 @ 11:24 am