The Real World: Los Angeles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Real World: Los Angeles was the second season of MTV's popular reality television series The Real World, which focuses on seven diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It was the first Real World season to be filmed outside of New York City, and the first of three to be filmed in California (The Real World: San Francisco in 1994 and The Real World: San Diego in 2004).

Contents 1 Season changes 2 Cast 3 Season highlights 4 Parody 5 References 6 External link

[edit] Season changes

• When this season first aired in 1993, the original title for this season was called The Real World: California. After the re-runs had aired several years later, the season's title was changed to The Real World: Los Angeles, mainly to avoid confusion with upcoming seasons filmed in California (San Francisico and San Diego).

• This season was the only one in which two housemates, Tami and Dominic, picked up a third housemate, Jon, at his home in a state other than the one in which the show would be set, and journeyed overnight to their new home in a Winnebago RV. Interestingly, journeying in a Winnebago would later become a regular motif on the sister show, Road Rules.

• The location in which the cast lived was far more colorfully and elaborately decorated than in the previous season, a trend which would continue in the subsequent seasons.

• The house now featured a small sound proof room for the weekly "confessional" cast interviews, and became known itself by that name.

• This was the first season in which cast members left the show during filming: David, who was asked to leave by his housemates, and Irene, because she got married. Consequently, it was the first season to feature a season total of more than seven cast members, as two additional castmates, Glen and Beth A., moved in to replace David and Irene. The season's total of nine castmates is the series' record.

• In what would become the new norm for The Real World, the entire cast was sent on an overnight trip abroad, whereas in the previous season, only the women were. The group was also sent on a day trip to Joshua Tree, California, the only such season to conduct such a trip.

• The episode run expanded from 13 to 22.

[edit] Cast

• Aaron Behle
• Beth Stolarczyk
• David Edwards
• Dominic Griffin
• Irene Berrera-Kearns
• Jon Brennan
• Tami Roman
• Glen Naessens (replacement for David Edwards)
• Beth Anthony (replacement for Irene Berrera-Kearns)

Aaron Behle is a blonde surfer, politically conservative, and a college student studying to be an accountant. His conservative views often clash with those other housemates when it came to issues such as abortion, gay rights and affirmative action, though he was supportive of Tami's decision during the show to have an abortion. He becomes best friends with his roommate, Dominic.

Beth Stolarczyk, who is referred to as "Beth S." among her housemates to distinguish her from Beth Anthony, is an aspiring actress from Ohio, and is often criticized for being a "drama queen", due to behavior that others perceive as deriving from a desire for attention, sometimes exacerbating delicate situations. She is of Polish descent, and her mother is the host of Polish weekly radio program on PBS in Cleveland. Beth ended up becoming friends with Tami and Jon, in part because Tami believed that Beth came to her aid during the blanket incident with David. Years after her Real World stint, she posed in Playboy in a layout that also featured The Real World: Miami alumnus Flora Alekseyeun, and Road Rules alumni Veronica Portillo and Jisella Delgado. She later produced men’s and women’s calendars in 2005, 2006 and 2007 featuring over two dozen reality television stars, with herself, Tonya Cooley, Robin Hibbard, and Trishelle Cannatella from the Chicago, San Diego and Las Vegas casts, respectively, appearing in the female version.Beth also produces shows on PPV and Indemand based on the making of her calendars. She got a producing deal with VH1 based on her 2006 reality tv calendars. In 2001 Beth optioned a reality spoof script for six figures to Interlight Films as stated in The Hollywood Reporter. She was listed as a lesbian on the Logo "Real Gay" special on reality television. The information was based on an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, which the author has since retracted, citing an erroneous source document.[1] The listing was the result of the writer's confusion between Beth S. and Beth Anthony (see below).

David Edwards is a stand-up comedian who often clashed with his housemates over various issues. He once tried to choke Jon, got into heated arguments with Beth S., and criticized his housemates over what he perceived as the cliques that they had formed. His housemates voted him out of the house a couple of weeks into their stay there after an incident in which he pulled Tami's bedcovers off of her when she was in her underwear, and dragged her, still clinging to them, through the corridor outside her bedroom. Although she was laughing throughout the incident, and David contends the act was intended as playful humor on his part, Tami grew furious afterwards, and left the house for the night. She and the others later voted David out because they did not feel safe. The housemates later interviewed three candidates as a replacement for David, and chose Glen.

Dominic Griffin, a native of Ireland, writes music reviews while he bartends. His drinking concerns the other cast members, as when he falls asleep face down in the sand on a beach during the group's trip to Mexico. He visits his family in Ireland when his father becomes very ill. He becomes best friends with his roommate, Aaron.

Irene Berrera-Kearns is a Deputy Marshal of Hispanic descent. She got married during the show and subsequently left the house. She became good friends with Jon, a friendship that some of his housemates speculated may have derived from romantic feelings that he had developed for her, which they feel were visible when he appeared somber at her wedding. After the show, she and her husband had more than one child, but eventually divorced.

Jon Brennan is a country music singer from Kentucky, and a minor celebrity where he lives. He is also a devout born-again Christian. He does not drink alcohol and is against premarital sex. When Beth A. moves in, he discovers she is a lesbian, but later says that he had already decided that he liked her by the time she revealed her orientation. When Tami decides to have an abortion during the season, Jon, who is pro-life, is against it, and this leads to a discussion he has with Aaron and Aaron's visiting girlfriend, Erin. Refusing to adapt to the style of Los Angeles, Jon's country style of dress, which includes cowboy hats and boots, sometimes embarrass the other housemates, particularly when he insists on wearing them on outings on which they consider it inappropriate, like the beach.

Tami Roman is an African-American aspiring singer, and a Muslim. She grew up in poverty, having lived with her mother in a car. She works with AIDS patients at a clinic, but quits during the show because felt burnt out by watching the turnover of patients who stop showing up when they pass away. Tami's social life is also shown on the show, as when she appears on the dating game show Studs. She becomes pregnant during the show, which is revealed during the group's trip to Joshua Tree, California. She decides to have an abortion, to which an entire episode was devoted, one which featured a parental discretion advisory at the beginning, and a discussion over abortion between the housemates. Tami decides to have her mouth temporarily wired shut to lose weight, much to the astonishment of her castmates.

Glen Naessens, was the lead singer of a rock band named Perch. After David was kicked out, the cast conducted interviews with three potential replacements and Glen was chosen. He was usually very calm and rarely got into heated arguments with the others. One exception is when Glen invited his bandmates to stay at the house without informing his roommates beforehand. When the roommates became irritated with Glen and his bandmates' behavior, Glen told them that they were uninteresting as people. He became very close friends with Beth A.

Beth Anthony, who is referred to as "Beth A." to distinguish her from "Beth S." (Beth Stolarczyk), moves into the house as a replacement for Irene. She works in on-set movie production, and is a lesbian. Her sexuality is revealed to the others when she wears a shirt that says "I'm not gay but my girlfriend is". Despite working with gay people every day, Tami has questions about whether she is comfortable living with one, and ponders whether she is bigoted for this. Jon tells the others that he decided he liked her already by the time she revealed her orientation. Beth answers her housemates' questions about her sexuality, but is disappointed that all of their questions are only on that aspect of her life, and not others. She reveals that she once was very close to getting married, and when the relationship ended, was almost suicidal.

[edit] Season highlights

• Situations involving racial tension and other types of bigotry were a recurrent theme during the season. In the very first episode, Dominic, an Irishman with spiked hair, and Tami, an African-American, experience a bit of culture shock when they pick up country singer Jon at his Kentucky home, whose doorbell plays a country music-inspired horn. Dominic and Tami intend to leave with Jon then, but Jon is under the impression that they would leave the next morning, which entails a discussion in plans, and tension experienced by Jon's family because of Tami's presence. During a rest stop meal on their way to Los Angeles in a Winnebago, Jon is incredulous when he learns that Tami is a Muslim, though he is curious about the religion, which Tami explains to him. Jon attempts to express the tension that his family felt at his associating with "people like them", and questions if Tami and Dominic’s families would not feel the same way, but Tami takes exception to the phrase, and Dominic responds that his family would probably feel comforted at his spending time with a young Christian man like Jon. Later, during the Winnebago ride to Los Angeles, Tami taunts Jon's aspirations of being a country singer, condescendingly saying that she wishes him luck, and dismissing the minor celebrity status he enjoys in his "hick" town. Jon retorts that Tami is saying this because "trash like her" isn't allowed in such towns, and although she initially reacts with laughter, she then becomes angry. Later, in her confessional interview, she expresses the opinion that this sentiment was what Jon was feeling all along about her, begins to cry, and asks the camera to be turned off. After arriving at their new home and meeting their other four housemates, Jon is irritated when her overhears Dominic discussing Jon’s “nasal twang” with Aaron, and accuses Dominic of “stabbing him in the back”. By the end of the first episode, Jon, Dominic and Tami agree to try and put their differences behind them, and start off with a new blank slate. Jon and Tami would go on to become the closest of friends, forming a trio with Beth.

• One of the season's most controversial highlights occurs early in the season when the roommates are in the girl's bedroom, and David tries to pull the blankets off of Tami, who screams that she is not fully dressed. As Tami and BethS struggle to hold onto the bedcover, David pulls it (and them) into the corridor, where Tami is left in her underwear, before dashing into a bathroom. Dominic watches from across the hall, and Jon, thinking the three are enjoying a playful episode, slaps the floor where Tami and BethS are deposited after David escapes with his blankets. Emerging from the bathroom in a robe, Tami places David's boots into a toilet and pours mouthwash over them. Finding David hiding in a closet, Tami kicks and slaps him. When David expresses surprise at Tami's anger, arguing that she and Beth were on the floor laughing along with him during the blanket pull, Tami asserts that it was not funny, and is so angry that she leaves the house for the night. Beth reacts by comparing David's perception that she and Tami were laughing to a rapist's rationale that his victim asked to be raped, a comparison that David angrily rejects. When David discovers what Tami did to his boots, he charges the women's bedroom, but is dissuaded from doing anything. When she returns to the house, she, Beth and Irene tells the men that they no longer feel safe with David in the house, and will leave if he does not. David moves out, but had mended fences with Tami by the time of a reunion show with the combined casts of the first four seasons of The Real World, that took place years later, in which he said he took responsibility for pulling Tami's blanket, but not for "being called a rapist".

• The housemates are sent on a group trip to Joshua Tree, California, but they clash with their two guides, who the cast feels treats them in an infantilizing manner, by refusing to answer questions about their destination, by not stopping for adequate breaks, and for becoming upset when the housemates begin listening to Aaron's instructions on following a map, etc. At one point, the guides, feeling that the housemates are exhibiting an "attitude", have them sit in a circle, where they excoriate their behavior, with the male guide angrily criticizing them for not respecting their authority, arguing that their situation is akin to a "war," an analogy that the housemates reject. Later noting that their normal conflicts evaporated as they came together against the treatment of the guides, Dominic argued to the guides that they were not children, that Irene, for example, is a Deputy Marshall, and that the guides should treat them with greater respect. During a rock climbing portion of their journey, Tami, who was having trouble, erupted in anger at Aaron, criticizing him for not complimenting others on their accomplishments, though she later conceded in her confessional interview that the outburst came about because he was doing well at the activity. Tami also revealed that she was pregnant in the episode. At the end of the journey, the guides presented each member of the cast with merit prizes that they instructed to bestow upon another member that they felt was deserving. In a show of friendship, Aaron bestowed his on Tami.

• In the episode following the Joshua Tree excursion, Tami had an abortion. The episode featured a parental advisory title card at the beginning of the show. Tami's mother came to support Tami during the crisis, and offered her own perspective on abortion, saying that she could not have had one herself when she became pregnant with Tami because abortion was not yet legal. Jon, who is pro-life, is against it, and has a discussion with Aaron and his visiting girlfriend, Erin, who are pro-choice.

• In one episode, Glen invited the other members of his band, Perch, to stay in the house, apparently without informing the other housemates, who, with the exception of BethA, felt that the band were not pleasant guests, playing loud music, eating the group's food from the refrigerator, using the hot tub while fully clothed, etc. When they confronted Glen over it, Glen responded that he invited them in because he didn't find any of his other housemates interesting.

• A recurring motif during the season are the "cliques" into which the housemates divide, sometimes to the exclusion of the others. Roommates Dominic and Aaron, for example, become close friends, as do BethA and Glen, with Tami, BethS and Jon left amongst themselves, which becomes a point of argument during the group's trip to Mexico. When the latter three enter a Mexico nightspot, BethS shouts "Hola, chicos!" and Jon does a chicken dance, which Glen and Aaron later admit embarrassed them. The others are incredulous at this, pointing out that Glen, along with Jon Aaron, participated in a drag show in which they were dressed as women, and even jumped into a pool fully clothed after publicly joking about urinating in it, and that Dominic fell asleep face down on a beach, for which neither were embarrassed. BethS challenges what she perceives as a belief on Glen's part that they are above them, with Glen responding that he doesn't consider himself "above" them, but "beyond" them.

• The Los Angeles cast was so prone to argument that on their last day in the house, six of them (excluding BethA) attempted to do a group confessional (the confessionals are generally conducted individually) in order to appear less contentious than they did during the season, but ended up arguing and storming out.

[edit] Parody

• The show was also satirized in the October 2, 1993 episode of the sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live. The episode, which was hosted by Shannen Doherty, featured a skit depicting a Real World cast patterned after the Los Angeles cast, and poked fun at the discussions of racism, bigotry and political differences that served as a recurring theme that season.[2]
• A Season 1 episode of Chappelle's Show parodied the entire Real World franchise but is particularly aimed at the events of The Real World: Los Angeles. During the DVD commentary Dave Chappelle notes that he is a friend of David Edwards and helped to get him on the cast of The Real World. He notes that much of the impetus for the Chappelle show skit was his perception that the casts of the Real World often display their racist perceptions of African Americans, especially black men, as typified by the incident with David.

[edit] References

• The Real World Diaries (1996; MTV Books/Pocket Books/Melcher Media)

[edit] External link

• The Reality Women - Beth Stolarczyk
• Beth Stolarczyk on appearing on The Duel

Seasons of The Real World
New York | Los Angeles | San Francisco | London | Miami | Boston | Seattle | Hawaii | New Orleans | Back to New York | Chicago | Las Vegas | Paris | San Diego | Philadelphia | Austin | Key West | Denver | Sydney