AllMovie

The reality show craze of the late 1990s and early 21st century found its roots in PBS's seminal 1973 series An American Family, which presented a fly-on-the-wall look at the day-to-day dramas of an "average" suburban clan, with as little narrative intrusion as possible. This kind of approach was then copied by MTV in the early '90s with The Real World, which contrived to bring together seven "average" young adults -- some might say contestants -- to live in the same space; as The Real World went on, it began to introduce challenges for its cohabitants, including various business and charity initiatives that the seven cast members would have to successfully complete. It was this "challenge" element, combined with the warts-and-all, documentary-style portrayal of "average" Americans, that gave birth to the so-called "reality show" TV subgenre. Although many reality shows were content with merely chronicling events in a real person's life (A Wedding Story), the most successful ones pitted contenstants against each other for prizes (Survivor) or, in some cases, for each other (The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire).