Reality TV and the American Family

Wednesday, 06. 24. 2009  –  Category: T2 Communications

America’s interest in reality TV has encouraged a new wave of celebrity.  The most dramatic members of MTV’s The Real World were offered positions as video jockeys in the 1990s.  These days the least liked and most problematic contestants of shows like Flavor of Love and Rock of Love are given their own reality shows on VH1.  Now unwed and jobless “Octomom” Nadya Suleman, who was artificially inseminated and now has 14 kids to raise on her own, is rumored to have been offered her own reality show.  When did America start encouraging this behavior?  What ever happened to privacy and, more importantly, morals?  Now that we have been introduced to reality TV, we are not only able to watch the real lives of real people throwing fits when put into challenging situations, like Survivor or America’s Next Top Model, we are able to watch real families crumble apart on national television.

If you grew up in the 1980s like me, you watched the families on Growing Pains, The Cosby Show, and Full House every week.  We tuned into every episode for laughter and enjoyment, while we watched our favorite characters live out their lives with a few ups and downs; but mostly they showed America what a solid family life looks like.  When each show ended, their countless reruns were aired on multiple channels, while another great family took the Prime Time spotlight.

Then our view of family life changed and we started to watch shows like Rosanne and Malcolm in the Middle.  Although these shows had fictional families that were a little quirky and sometimes far fetched, they showed off a current and more “realistic” side of the American family’s interaction with one another.  Our need to relate to our favorite characters changed our desire from watching the perfect family, to watching the not-so-perfect family.

The search for more content left us hungry for a larger variety of entertainment.  The generations of Family Matters and Home Improvement are now over, and we are looking for bigger and better (and more importantly) more real.  But when did our entertainment needs turn from comic relief while watching the American family to watching loving couples and good families fall apart?  Is America’s need for reality television ruining lives and encouraging what used to be unacceptable behavior?  The answer is “yes”!

An early and famous example is Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.  Once a young couple very much in love, they let the American public into their home.  The two fell in love while young pop stars and had a fairy tale wedding.  They soon started the show, Newlyweds, and soon after their marriage started falling apart.  They both cracked under the constant pressure to be a good wife, who cooked and took care of the house; and to be the faithful husband, who adored his wife and came home for dinner every night.  This is despite the fact that both had successful and very busy careers.

We all know that relationships aren’t perfect, but when the camera filmed their every spat, the American public was there to criticize and judge as if these two young kids should be the ideal example of a loving relationship.  Famous people often have difficulty maintaining a relationship due to their celebrity status, but Nick and Jessica had a successful relationship for years before Newlyweds aired.  The tabloids took over, and Nick and Jessica filed for divorce.  America tuned in with our mouths watering for every detail, and when it was over, we lost interest.

But there are non-celebrity families that enter the world of reality TV, not expecting to be the center of negative media attention.  When a regular, yet unusually large, family began the show John & Kate Plus Eight, we tuned in to watch eight cute, little kids grow up and their parents raise a very large family.  Americans loved it and could not get enough of the Gosselins’ personal lives.  It wasn’t enough that they let us into their home to watch the daily interactions of a family of ten.  We had to know what was going on behind the scenes, too.

We sent emails, both praising and judging John and Kate for their parenting skills, and then we decided that fame had brought them too many perks.  Tabloids gossiped about how Kate neglected her children while pampering herself with manicures and massages, and made public the alleged infidelity of John.  America tuned in, hoping to get their fix of real drama, even at the expense of what was once a close family with a sound foundation.  Soon enough, America began to hate the Gosselins for their imperfections, and as soon as rumors of the family falling apart hit the news stands, we were done with them.  Ratings were cut in half, and now John and Kate have filed for divorce.

We publicly announce our disapproval, while channel surfing and hungering for more.  We forget that these are real people, with real kids and real lives that are put under the magnifying glass, torn apart, and cast aside.  Additionally, we see countless poor examples of contributing citizens pasted across our televisions competing for the lime light while sacrificing their moral reputations.  Acting like spoiled brats and back-stabbing gossipers, reality TV stars have become household names.  I think it’s time we change our focus to bringing the family together and encouraging ethical behavior.  America needs new programming with a new direction that shows what the family could be like at its best, not what it is at its worst.

Katie Petre works for T² Communications, an IPTV provider and subsidiary of CornerWorld Corporation.

Tags: family, Katie Petre, MTV, reality TV, television, values, VH1