Reality.

I've blathered many times on Xmastime about the absurdity of our demanding that the only "reality" tv shows be those of the insanely rich, probably because, like voting for interests of rich people against those of our own, we think that if we support them long enough we'll become rich like them.  I've always thought a "reality" show about a real, average family getting by would be way more interesting than looking at rich people wondering how to fill up their days, and Matt Yglesias thinks the same thing re: HBO's upcoming movie based on PBS' An American Family.

The irony is that after Gilbert’s efforts (he never made another movie or television show afterAn American Family) and the Louds’ suffering, reality television producers today have almost no interest in American families, unless the parents have dwarfism, or the children have sex tapes, or unless they own a particularly successful pawn business. A genre that was meant to mine the drama in ordinary American life has blown past it entirely, slamming shut the ordinary front door that Gilbert knocked on and that the Louds opened wide in response. Divorce and gayness may not be shameful failures or secrets any more, but there’s something a little sad about our collective decision that our lives, in all their profundity and mundanity, simply aren’t that interesting.

The same could be said about MTV's The Real World - what started out as an incredibly interesting, revolutionary show quickly devolved into "people are probably bored by this, let's just get a bunch of drunk, fat titties into a hot tub", therein sucking all the life out of the show and it's very idea.