Free Reality TV: An Insider's Guide to TV's Hottest Market by Troy DeVolld

evidence and crime scenes so vivid they shocked viewers even more than the operations on E.R ..
    Now don’t get the impression that all Reality has brought to the table is a shooting style and some gory blood-and-guts effects here and there. It’s also dramatically changed the business end of scripted television as well.
    With the exception of a lull in production during the aftermath of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, when some networks grew skittish that we’d all had an overdose of “reality” and needed a break from it on television, 1 Reality programming has continued to wrestle more and more airtime away from traditionally scripted shows.
    With fewer and fewer shows in production, sitcoms and dramas struggle to remain competitive, viable alternatives to Reality. In their favor, there’s always the rare and rewarding jackpot scenario in which they survive a long enough run that they can then be syndicated for years, amortizing their hefty upfront costs over longer runs on the tail end. Even so, since those big wins are rare, traditionally scripted shows have learned to stay light on their feet fiscally, as evidenced by stellar shoestring-budget cable shows like FX’s cop drama The Shield and comedy series It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
    The Reality Genre as Fodder for
Traditionally Scripted Television
    The “mockumentary” 2 style, expertly utilized by Ricky Gervais in his 2001 BBC comedy series The Office , echoes Reality TV with its frequent breaking of the fourth wall both through an in-scene awareness of camera and interview cutaways. While mockumentaries are nothing new (Rob Reiner’s 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap went a long way toward popularizing the genre), their recent proliferation may well be the most visible evidence of America’s obsession with Reality TV.
    A more direct example of Reality as subject fodder is the outrageously funny Reno 911!, created by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver. The show, which satirized Reality TV juggernaut COPS to great effect over six seasons on Comedy Central, remains one of the most successful Reality spoofs, spawning a feature film and a healthy run in syndication on both broadcast and cable stations.
    Still other scripted series that have drawn their concepts from Reality include HBO’s The Comeback , a comedy whose premise centered around the Reality TV “documentation” of a has-been comic actress’s return to sitcom stardom, and Total Drama Island , an animated series for Cartoon Network that sends up the popular Survivor franchise.
    Reality TV production has also been satirized on individual episodes of everything from The Simpsons to popular crime dramas; films that have taken on Reality include The Truman Show and EdTV.
    “Our show was a direct parody of COPS, meant, in fact, to follow COPS on the Saturday night FOX lineup. One of my proudest moments is when I became friends with John Langley, producer of COPS , and found out that our parody of his show was one of his favorite shows!” — Thomas Lennon, co-creator of Reno 911!
    Whether as the subject of ridicule or inspiration for more realistic dramas and comedies, Reality is now inextricably entwined with traditionally scripted made-for-TV programming and films.
    CHAPTER THREE EXERCISES
    REALITY PROGRAMMING AND THE POLICE PROCEDURAL
    View an episode of NYPD Blue, Dragnet, or Hill Street Blues (all of which are available on DVD as of this writing).
    • Compare and contrast your perceptions of the shows versus episodes of contemporary post-1988 procedurals like The Wire, The Shield , or Southland . 3
    • Explain how, by your perception, the police procedural has changed as a result of Reality TV’s influence. Do you feel that it’s for better or worse?
    MOCKUMENTARIES: HAS THE BOOM IN REALITY TV BOLSTERED THE FORMAT?
    Visit IMDb (The Internet Movie Database) at www.imdb.com and conduct a keyword search for “mockumentary” and “mock-documentary.”