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Reality tv

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funkyrich | 14:59 Wed 11th Feb 2004 | Film, Media & TV
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Where did the current trend for 'reality tv' come from? I'M getting sick of it!
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It depends how you define 'reality TV'. In terms of reality TV elimination shows, it began with the first series of UK Big Brother back in 2000; in terms of reality TV in general, you could go back to the 'docu-soap' craze of 1997/8 onwards, which began with Driving School.
You may be getting sick of it, but you are in a minority as a viewer. TV companies love 'reality TV' (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) because it's cheap to make, and produces massive viewing figures - that's nirvana to tv companies - maximum revenue for minimum outlay, so it's very very popular. The bubble will burst eventually - these trends do move on, so hang on in there - remember 'NYPD Blue' is on Thursday nights - be soothed by that thought.
If I remember correctly there was a sort of reality TV in the 70s called something like "The Family". It was more a kind of fly-on-the-wall type of thing, but still pretty much reality TV. Maybe even more so than BB et al because the situations were real rather than staged.
Yep, BenDToy, it featured the Wilkins family of Reading. They did a follow-up sometime in the mid-nineties.

There was also one in the 80s called (I think) The Wedding which followed a Welsh couple in the build-up to (you've guessed it haven't you?) their wedding.

I also remember a fly on the wall show from the early/mid 1990s called Sylvania Waters.
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