2003 was the year Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, was captured by U.S. forces—but only a handful of Americans recall the incident, at most. A few others may remember it as the year a suicide bomber killed 44 civilians on a commuter train in southern Russia—but, as most Americans reasoned, people die every day.
So what made the first episode of MTV’s “The Newlyweds,” which aired five years ago, so monumental, so astounding, so newsworthy?
As any honest American knows, the scene that sealed the deal featured pop singer Jessica Simpson, a B-list celebrity at the time, eating a can of tuna in front of the television with her husband, then asking nonchalantly, “Is Chicken of the Sea really chicken? Or is it tuna?”
Reality television shows such as “The Newlyweds,” which gained more and more viewers as Simpson grew more and more flagrantly dumb, have became a staple of our nation’s popular culture, a phenomenon most Americans outwardly laugh off, citing shows such as “American Idol” and “Flavor of Love” as their guilty pleasures.
And such mindless shows are certainly guilty—guilty of inevitably influencing viewers to become close-minded and inane.
First of all, reality television shows are usually decidedly fake. When it was revealed several years ago that the plotlines of shows such as “Survivor” and MTV’s “The Real World” were fabricated, Americans reacted with astonishment and chagrin. They should have known better—the shows were almost laughably obvious in their exaggeratedly dramatic storylines and poor acting skills.
But the shows, which often feature fights and bikini-clad women—take “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” -- , are addictive in that they satisfy the same viewers who seek out R-rated movies. The difference between the cinema and reality TV: viewers inexplicably come to believe, despite their age and better judgment, that the shows represent actual reality, which makes the shows’ events even more enthralling.
The consequences of this are devastating: the misleading term “reality” has led to the phenomena of belly-baring eight-year-old girls and the international community’s crumbling opinion of Americans. Viewers become infatuated with shows they believe accurately represent reality, and the hours they spend in front of their televisions replace time they could have spent reading newspapers or learning about the goings-on in the real world.
It’s a strange time in American entertainment—the first time a can of tuna has overridden international war in headlines throughout the country.
It’s time to change the channel.
So what made the first episode of MTV’s “The Newlyweds,” which aired five years ago, so monumental, so astounding, so newsworthy?
As any honest American knows, the scene that sealed the deal featured pop singer Jessica Simpson, a B-list celebrity at the time, eating a can of tuna in front of the television with her husband, then asking nonchalantly, “Is Chicken of the Sea really chicken? Or is it tuna?”
Reality television shows such as “The Newlyweds,” which gained more and more viewers as Simpson grew more and more flagrantly dumb, have became a staple of our nation’s popular culture, a phenomenon most Americans outwardly laugh off, citing shows such as “American Idol” and “Flavor of Love” as their guilty pleasures.
And such mindless shows are certainly guilty—guilty of inevitably influencing viewers to become close-minded and inane.
First of all, reality television shows are usually decidedly fake. When it was revealed several years ago that the plotlines of shows such as “Survivor” and MTV’s “The Real World” were fabricated, Americans reacted with astonishment and chagrin. They should have known better—the shows were almost laughably obvious in their exaggeratedly dramatic storylines and poor acting skills.
But the shows, which often feature fights and bikini-clad women—take “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” -- , are addictive in that they satisfy the same viewers who seek out R-rated movies. The difference between the cinema and reality TV: viewers inexplicably come to believe, despite their age and better judgment, that the shows represent actual reality, which makes the shows’ events even more enthralling.
The consequences of this are devastating: the misleading term “reality” has led to the phenomena of belly-baring eight-year-old girls and the international community’s crumbling opinion of Americans. Viewers become infatuated with shows they believe accurately represent reality, and the hours they spend in front of their televisions replace time they could have spent reading newspapers or learning about the goings-on in the real world.
It’s a strange time in American entertainment—the first time a can of tuna has overridden international war in headlines throughout the country.
It’s time to change the channel.
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