Sivart was talking about Breaking Bonaduce when he joined our not-so-humble blog and while I do think that Bonaduce is about a half bubble off plumb, the camera being there intensifies his personality.
Aside from newscasts for the most part, when reality is televised it's rarely real. And even when the news is concerned, people act differently when the little red light is on.
Bonaduce has several problems going on in his life. One is alcohol, the other is steroids and the final one is the camera that is filming his meltdown. Sure that might be his life, but he's always on when the camera is on.
No reality TV show can translate real life because me getting up in the morning and going to work isn't entertaining. They have to set up a game or environment for people to interact within. Breaking Bonaduce would be really close to reality if he wasn't so jacked up all of the time where viewers just can't believe that it's real. When he has to go on CNN and FoxNews and tell the world that it's real, it's probably not. His true off camera reality isn't something middle class America can't identify with because we aren't all steroid-filled drunken sex addicts who make $1 million a year doing a radio show.
MTV's the Real World isn't even close to being real either. Sure they put 7 people in a house, but they either make sure they have rich kids in the house or they supply all the booze and party money. How many college kids could afford to have an endless supply of booze at home and still afford to go clubbing every single night? At this point they should just see if they can find a cast for MTV's Real Porn and get it over with because all they are there to do is drink and hook up.
Recently ABC was sued over their show Extreme Makeover. The reason is because they pressured the sister of a participant on the show to say terrible things about the way her she looked. Apparently the woman who was made over wasn't going to heal up by the time the show needed to air so they axed the show after this woman's family and friends had been filmed hammering the way she looked.
So the apparently bipolar sister of the participant couldn't handle the fact that they encouraged her to badmouth her sister and she killed herself.
That being said, I don't think that ABC will be held responsible for her death, but I think they'll settle out of court and give the family a little cash just to make it go away.
However, can you call it a reality show when you have producers instructing the people on what they should say?
It sounds to me like reality TV is just an easy way to get cheap actors and the actors don't have to join the Screen Actors Guild because they are just regular people like you and me...
Or something.
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I saw a show the other day about reality TV as a genre and how people are picked and what goes on behind the scenes. Bonaduce, among others were interviewed for this show. Bonaduce was talking about the thrill of being on camera and why people would do the things they do to be on TV a la Fear Factor and such.
He said that he gets such a rush from being on camera that he passed on a trip with his family to Disnyeland. He pretty much said being on TV was more important than being with his family. This was in 2003. Before Breaking Bonaduce came on, when was the last time he got his TV fix? Maybe this is something he is hoping to parlay into a second, third or fourth chance shot at TV stardom.
Perhaps he and his wife have talked things out and he is going over the top to get more viewers and such a buzz as to land a full-time TV gig. In other words it is like WWE and things are not as they seem. If not, then he needs a full-time shrink.
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