Reality TV: The Return of the Working Class Hero
Not having watched much reality television after intentionally avoiding it for years, there’s no way to be sure this was The Reality Low Point. But if not, please don’t tell me what was.
It was one of those dating reality shows where young, generically attractive Los Angelinos go out on a first date followed by a camera crew eager to record and broadcast their every uncomfortable moment. Throughout, and unbeknownst to them, balloons pop over the young couple’s heads to inform the viewer what, supposedly, they’re really thinking. Bon mots such as, “She’s hot,” and “His breath stinks.” The players are the usual, young, undiscovered, wanna-be actors who office temp by day and dream of this chance by night; the chance to exploit themselves in a local television market where their mothers in Ohio won’t see them but a casting agent might — the casting agent who will finally discover what they’ve known all along: That they are the stuff of movie stars.
If this seems like a lot of know-how coming from someone who claims to avoid reality shows, my defense is that the grandkids were in town. Three of them, ages nine to thirteen, were fresh off the plane when the unthinkable happened.
They were innocently splayed out on the floor in front of the television still unaware of the evils of the world and intrigued by dating reality television, something they don’t see back in quaint ole Wisconsin. What plot points led our young television daters into the back of that van, and where the second girl came from, I can’t say. What I can say is that I walked into the television room to find my unspoiled grandkids watching the two young women admiring the young man’s pixilated, uhm, nudity.
This was at four in the afternoon.
My explanation for immediately hustling the kids into the car and off to church probably wasn’t terribly coherent at the time, but in my mind it was our only hope. Surely the apocalypse was moments away and time to get right with God.
That was three years ago. Since then, thanks to their popularity, ability to be produced cheaply, and immunity from writer strikes, the reality genre has only increased. Today, there are few channels out of our hundred-plus where at some time during the day there isn’t some barely-was/has-been shamelessly contriving melodrama — or some off the street never-was, desperate for the validity they are in fact special doing the same. But out of all this — Jerry-Springering-without-the-live-audience — has come something a little wonderful.
The return of the working class hero.
God bless America, the popular new wave of reality shows — and some of the highest rated on cable — have nothing to do with vaguely familiar botoxed faces or the everyday people who ape them. Instead, we’re watching men and women comfortable in their own skin, ingenious at what they do, and unafraid of the hard, challenging work that makes our world go round. They catch the fish, drive the trucks, load the docks, build, create, and craft, often in environments and conditions so harsh they seem like superheroes.
From my perspective, these ‘reality’ TV shows have rendered The History Channel unwatchable. I haven’t watched it since ‘Ice Road Truckers’ drove me away. I now get my history documentaries from Netflix. And I find I enjoy the documentaries even more with all the erectile dysfunction ads and other medical maladies forced upon me.
My TV is off most all the time now and I’m much happier for it.
True, the History Channel has tanked in recent years. However the author brings up a valid point with these ‘reality’ shows, they are more reality than others that claim the name. I doubt I will spend money on the DVDs of these shows, but its a hellava lot better than Hulk Hogan’s dysfunctional family.
Maybe this will start a trend that will take ‘reality’ to a whole new level.
Mike Rowe in Dirty Jobs is great. He handles any job with humor for a day. Most of all he shows his respect to the people who get the job done every day.
I have to agree that the documentary-style reality shows can be interesting and it’s nice that they feature real people doing their real jobs. (As opposed to the Big Brother style idiocies with their faked-up situations.) You can actually LEARN something about the REAL world by watching them. And they can help you appreciate how hard other people work to make the stuff you need and to keep your world running smoothly. Definitely something kids should be exposed to on a regular basis, if only to learn that Hannah Montana’s job is much less important than a coal miner’s.
As for the History Channel – I have given up on it for the most part as well. Most of what they show anymore is the X-Files version of history: Doomsday prophecies, conspiracy theories, crank interpretations of the Bible, and UFOs. These are usually linked thematically to the latest sci-fi or fantasy movie that’s being released. The reality shows, though I appreciate them, also have little or nothing to do with history.
Even some fiction shows on the cable get it. Holly Hunter’s Saving Grace and Mary McCormack’s In Plain Sight both show strong women without designer duds working in law enforcement. The stories are not very real, but the characters are.
“TomJW:
Mike Rowe in Dirty Jobs is great. He handles any job with humor for a day. Most of all he shows his respect to the people who get the job done every day.”
I agree that show is the only “reality” show worth watching. Most “Reality” shows are like reading the inquirer or watching TMZ. Some people like watching dysfunctional families or supposedly famous people screwing up because it shows them their families aren’t so bad and other people do stupid things too. Plus like the saying goes “there’s no accounting for taste”.
What I hate about history shows is after the commercial break they spend 10 minutes repeating what they just showed. Plus you really only get “History Light”. Gotta go “Celebrity Rehab” is on.
Dirty jobs was and is one of my favorite shows to watch (right next to Mythbusters, but that’s a somewhat different genre of show). I also enjoy Deadliest Catch, although the Discovery Channel somewhat overplays it. Ice Road Truckers never really hit with me, but it is still a neat show. Of course, American chopper is a GREAT show, and it’s fantastic to see the incredible success the Tuttle family has had, and yet how down to earth they all still are.
It just goes to show you that there are still Americans out there getting the hard work done while the “Hollow-wood” types waste time. Kudos to Discovery Channel and History channel for having the courage to put these shows on back when there was no guarantee they would be successful.
God Bless the men and women who make and are in these shows, and God Bless America.
My favorite show is “Holmes on Homes” (HGTV): an series on home renovations, showcasing the various trades necessary to “Build it Right”. Each show focuses on one issue: like the one where a 2 story addition to a house turned out to be built on NO FOUNDATION. Or when a designer-stylist did a renovation whereby the house’s support beams were destroyed…I followed its advice in renovating my bathroom, by the way, and found that the various tradesmen involved all respected the show too.
I love it! And Mike Holmes is definitely Hot. It’s great TV.
“Dirty Jobs” works on so many levels. It works because, as one commenter already pointed out, Mike Rowe shows tremendous admiration and respect for those who have to do the dirty jobs day in and day out. It works because it makes us appreciate those people as well, and it teaches us something about the sacrifices others go through so we can lead our comfortable lives.
Best of all, the show works because it reminds women that the ideal men are not the Hollywood pretty boys, but REAL men who will do anything, no matter how dirty or crazy, with a can-do spirit and a sense of humor. Mike Rowe is sexier than all the Tinseltown men put together!
I’m kinda digging on a cheezy show called “Black Gold”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBqEN1HwZrA
More Americans could stand to see where their ‘Texas tea’ comes from, and at what cost in beer, sweat, and financial risk.
I’m kinda diggin’ on a cheezy reality show called “Black Gold” where the crews of three drilling rigs in West Texas compete against each other.
More Americans could stand to learn a little something about the blood, sweat, beer, and financial risk involved in filling their cars and climate controlling their spaces.
Keep these jobs here. Drill Drill Drill.
Dang!
TV has come a long way from David Brinkleys snide remark about the “lunch bucket brigade” during NBCs coverage of the 1968 election. Call me oversensitive but denigrating working people is a sure way to convince people there is something wrong with working with your hands. Any show that paints working people like me as good has my support.
I wonder how much money the crab fishermen are getting for appearing on the show. Likewise the ice road truckers and that dwarf family. Just curious.
The Teutels on American Chopper are successful entrepreneurs. I respect them for recognizing an opportunity and running with it to the tune of a $40 million/yr bike and accessories business.
That being said, there are probably custom bike builders and metal fabricators in your own city who have much more skill at welding and fabricating bikes than the crew at Orange County Choppers, particularly since Vinny left to start his own shop. OCC doesn’t build their own frames (ironic in light of how OCC started as an adjunct to Paul Sr.’s wrought iron business) and the weld quality on their custom bikes is worse than sloppy. I don’t think Paul Jr. really knows how to weld, at least based on the chopper OCC made for Lincoln Mercury. I was at the reveal at the Detroit Auto Show press preview that year (you can even see me in that episode standing behind Mikey when they bring the bike onto the show floor – I’m the guy with the big red beard) and it was remarkable how poor the welds were.
I’m no fan of Jesse James’ but he’s a true master metal fabricator and can hand form complex panels on an English wheel and a power hammer. The OCC guys are parts orderers with some talent at theme bikes.
The producers were originally going to feature another chopper shop, but scheduling didn’t work out so they went with the back up. The first time Paul Sr. and Paulie got into it with each other the producers knew they had a show on their hands.
I’m sorry, it may be unseemly, but I’m a fan of _Cheaters_.. Somehow it just satisfies an urge to see unfaithful swine of all sexes get their comeuppance..
It’s like the TV equivalent of a sack of White Castles, you know it’s no good for you but you can’t stop…
I regularly shoot w/ a group of guys who are HUGE Deadlies Catch fans. Most of them are skilled tradesmen a/o contractors of some sort.
They’ve got shirts and caps w/ the logos of their favorite ship. They know how long you can survive if you fall overboard, the names of the skippers, how the catch is divided, and all sorts of other details.
It’s nice to see hard working guys finally get the respect that they’re due.
I’ve watched those and liked them. But I didn’t think they were “Reality TV.” I thought those were more like the Discovery channel. Reality TV always seemed to be (to me) contrived and made up (“unreality TV”). I never believed any of it unless it had to do with cooking, designing clothes or something that you could tell takes some kind of talent. Just being an unresponsible willing to do anything bozo isn’t a talent.
I’m a storm chaser (hobby for many years). The “reality show” folks have been all over us for years. We regularly get solicitations from producers. Sometimes they do pretty good work (the folks who film for Discovery). Other times they are out for maximum thrill and other hollywood values – to take our activity and find the craziest practitioners, and then hype up the drama – oh, and the folks have to look good, too. The latter shows may give you the feel of truth, but they are as phoney as the original “reality” shows.
I was just commenting over on a thread about how much our family likes these shows because they’re not network trash that portrays men as incompitent imbeciles. I would much rather watch Dirty Jobs or Mythbusters instead of a sitcom where the husband is a dummy, the wife is a shrew, and the children strive to misbehave. These shows are not just a respite from bad reality TV, they are an alternative to most of the shows on network TV as a whole.
Casey:
TruTV has distanced itself from the un-”Reality” trend… their slogan is “Not ‘reality’, actuality.” Almost all of the series they show are documentaries — in other words, stuff that ACTUALLY HAPPENED and wasn’t faked up.
Very little is scripted on your average TruTV series, aside from what’s said by the narrators of each program. Real life and the pursuit of justice don’t come with scripts, and they’re far less boring and more compelling IMHO than most so-called “reality” series.
Deadliest Catch and the like are a hoot. Most of the fleet watches, and I can tell you it’s a hell of a lot more fun to crab from your couch with the heat on and a drink in your hand! I think, having also worked in cushy urban offices, that these shows respond to men’s deep seated need to challenge the elements and work with their hands. We were not meant to sit in a beige cubicle for forty years, neatly dressed like women at church. Most people’s lives have become so detached from the elements that these shows call out to them for a real challenge. Fair winds and following seas…
Dirty Jobs is a fantastic show. I was particularly impressed by the “Brown Before Green” earth day episode. Mike Rowe advocated a surprisingly free-enterprise approach to cleaning up the environment, with some hard-working folks making money doing exactly that. Very refreshing among the usual environmental finger-wagging.
I agree that the History Channel has gotten much too fluffy lately. They still run some good stuff now and then. The occasional “Ancient Discoveries” show is pretty good. The recent reality shows like “Surviving History”, on the other hand, are a disappointment. How’s the History International channel? My cable lineup doesn’t include it but the listings look pretty interesting and I’ve considered subscribing.
REALITY TV BOOTCAMP
“You’ve Watched It…Now Create It!”
This event is planned to start at 9:00 am on Aug 16, 2008 at Hollywood.
My favorite TV shows are “Holmes on Homes” (HGTV in Ontario, about repairing botched up home renovations), “Dirtiest Jobs,” and “Mythbusters” (is that Reality TV?). What’s wrong with those on “Dirtiest Jobs” getting paid for their participation? I hope they do! “Deadliest Catch” has gotten me eating King Crabs in honor of the brave men who catch them!