Student Life: Reality on the Boob Tube

by Christopher DiRaddo

Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Over the last few years it would seem that his prediction has become somewhat true. The current and unrelenting trend of Reality Television shows (another form of Pop Art) has overtaken the airwaves, offering everyday people the chance to be famous, even if it is for only a brief moment, for whatever it is they do best: sing, scheme, seduce, or survive.

But what cost does this form of popular entertainment have on the medium of television and the careers of artists poised to enter the working world? The Journal caught up with three future NTS graduates to talk about the impact Reality TV has had on their lives and their creative visions.

“I personally detest Reality Television,” says playwriting student Ryan Hughes who, of the three, has perhaps the strongest opinion on the subject. He is quick to add that he isn’t any type of TV snob, that he loves his Buffy the Vampire Slayer as much as the next guy, and is not against Reality shows that look for the next great talent. It is the ones that televise the baser elements of human nature that concern him.

“I worry about the trend of it damaging the audience’s general capacity to think critically.” Hughes believes that Reality TV has picked up where trashy talk shows like Jerry Springer left off. He accepts that it is indeed a type of storytelling, consisting of the same elements as engaging drama (betrayal or people doing extreme things for money), but lacks the introspection that good writing can bring to a show. “Reality Television just shows the people’s actions and there is no reflection. The audience is no longer expected to think about what it is looking at.”

Bread and Circuses

Hughes makes a comparison to early Rome and how it was extreme entertainment like the throwing of people to the lions and deadly gladiatorial combat that in part led to the fall of the Roman Empire. Although he doesn’t think that today’s culture is in anyway on its last legs, he still can’t help but have an ethical problem with Reality TV. “When I watch a show that is all about someone who has been cheated on by his girlfriend and then they make a game of who she decides to stay with, I think that’s evil and cruel and I don’t think I could sleep at night thinking that I helped to get this on the air.”

As a learning actor, Dalal Badr doesn’t see this wave of Reality shows affecting her career. Studying in Montreal for the past three years she sees how it could, however, definitely affect the work of her Francophone counterparts who will be graduating alongside of her and looking for work in a much smaller market. “I’ve had conversations with some of the Francophone students regarding that. Right now, it feels like I have the whole country to explore, while they’re figuring out where they fit in their province.”

Badr herself has no interest in Reality TV but does see how it can be a compelling draw for some audiences. She would much rather see people tuning in for this type of stirring experience than some poorly written sitcom. “If (Reality TV) is what whets people’s appetite and makes them hungry for stories, or if it provokes them or makes them react in these visceral ways of hating or loving something… as a theatre artist, those are the things that I always hope the audience is feeling.”

Badr does think it is unfortunate that people are still in their living rooms and not in theatres, but sees that as an ongoing challenge for theatre artists. The current trend in Reality programming, like any other, is one she thinks will extinguish itself if it needs to. “Anything can be taken off the air, any show can stop running, any book will go out of print if the interest isn’t there. I think it’s almost necessary for us right now to go to the extreme and have this really trashy television or this exciting compelling real people stuff. I think that if the packaging needs to get better it will, or it will just go away.”

A Proper Balance

As for fellow actor Peter Mooney, he too is not that concerned with Reality TV. “I don’t think it will actually satisfy society’s need for stories. What I have discovered in culture and in art is that when society discovers a trend towards an extreme, there is a reaction to the opposite. I just hope there will be more of a reaction towards quality television. Television that works really hard to tell good stories and isn’t as focused on money or commercial success.”

There’s mention at the table of cable shows like Six Feet Under and Sex and the City that take risks and challenge their audiences. Mooney wonders if this HBO phenomenon of new and challenging programming that is written with more thought is maybe in part a reaction to the current crop of lazy and replicated television shows. “I hope that maybe this will be a smaller example of what happened when photography was introduced into the art world. The art world reacted to that and found different ways of representation and different means of expression. My hope of what will come out of this is that it will start to give birth to some new ideas in television.”

Mooney’s hope about a future for good stories is one shared by both Hughes and Badr. Even if television is not the main medium these three theatre artists intend on working in upon graduation, they are still passionate about the need to tell good stories that engage the audience and contribute to the future of Canadian drama.

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