The Real World: Los Angeles

The Real World: Los Angeles
Title frame
Format	Reality
Created by	Jonathan Murray Mary-Ellis Bunim
Starring	Aaron Behle[1] Beth Stolarczyk David Edwards Dominic Griffin Irene Berrera Jon Brennan Glen Naessens Tami Roman Beth Anthony
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	21[2]
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV Syndication
Original run	1993 – 1993
Chronology
Preceded by	The Real World: New York
Followed by	The Real World: San Francisco

The Real World: California (retrospectively referred to as The Real World: Los Angeles, to distinguish it from subsequent installments of the series) is the second season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of several diverse strangers living together for several months, as the cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships.

The Los Angeles season featured a total of nine cast members over the course of the season, as one cast member was evicted and replaced, and another was replaced when she got married. The Real World expanded from 13^[3] to 22 episodes with this season.^[4]

Season changes

When this season first aired in 1993, the original title for this season was The Real World: California. Years later, the season's title was retroactively changed to The Real World: Los Angeles, mainly to avoid confusion with later seasons filmed in California (San Francisco, San Diego, and Hollywood). The show also expanded from 13 half hour episodes to 21.^[4][5]

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. Journeying in a Winnebago would later become a regular motif on the series' sister show, Road Rules. This was the first season in which cast members left the show during filming: David Edwards, who was asked to leave by his housemates, and Irene Berrera-Kearns, 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 Naessens and Beth Anthony, moved in to replace Edwards and Berrera-Kearns. In what would become the 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 house 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. It also now featured a small sound proof room for the weekly "confessional" cast interviews, and became known itself by that name.^[6]

The residence

The $2 million (1993 dollars), three-story, 4,520-square-foot (420 m²), four bedroom, four bathroom house is located at 30 30th Avenue in Venice Beach, one block east of the beach. According to the owner, after the filming of the series was complete, the interior and exterior of the house was repainted back to its original pink color. The only room not to be repainted was the room that was renovated into the Confessional room, which was painted blue with white clouds for the filming of the series. When the current owners purchased the house in 1996, the house was painted light blue/gray with a white trim and the interior pink carpeting was changed to gray. A sign outside the house read:

"This area is being used by Bunim-Murray Productions for taping of a television program. By your entrance into this area and your presence, you give unqualified consent to Bunim-Murray to record, use and publicize your voice, actions, likeness and appearance in any manner in connection with the program. If you do not wish to be taped as part of the program, please exit the area until all taping has been completed."^[7]

Cast

The Cast of The Real World: Los Angeles.

Cast Member	Age1	Hometown	Biography
Aaron Behle[1]	21	Orange County, California	Aaron is a 21-year-old business/economics major at UCLA already with an accounting job lined up for the next fall. Originally from Orange County, California, Aaron appreciates the diversity of the people in Los Angeles, but his conservative politics are at odds with the liberalism of the area. Aaron voted for George H.W. Bush, and isn't happy about having a Democrat in the White House. Despite his conservatism, he is pro-choice on abortion, which provides conflict with Jon in one episode.[8]
Beth Stolarczyk[9]	24	Cleveland, Ohio	Beth is a 24-year-old graduate of Ohio University,[10][9] where she studied film, television and radio production. She is an avid fan of the entertainment industry, and is in Los Angeles to pursue her career, to meet new people, and challenge herself. Her friends describe her as a "drama queen" whose life is like a soap opera. She has worked as a production assistant, worked in a casting office, but is not interested in acting. During the season, she clashes with David, and later, with Glen.[11]
David Edwards	21	Washington, D.C.	David is a 21-year-old stand-up comedian from Washington D.C. who has been in Los Angeles for a couple of months. He has been doing his comedy in local clubs, and has appeared on FOX's In Living Color. He often comes into conflict with his other housemates, especially Tami and Beth S., which at one point, leads to his eviction from the house.[12]
Dominic Griffin	24	Dublin, Ireland	Dominic is a 24-year-old writer who writes reviews of bands and television for magazines, though most of his income comes from bartending. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Dominic first came to the United States for a vacation, but liked the weather and people so much he that decided to stay. Distinguished by his spiked black hair, he becomes closest friends with his roommate, Aaron. He visits his family in Ireland during the course of his season, and his drinking sometimes causes incidents, such as one during the group trip to Mexico in which he passed out face down on the beach.[13]
Irene Berrera-Kearns	25	Southern California	A Southern California native, 25-year-old Irene is a Deputy Marshal for the Los Angeles County Marshals Department who works as a courtroom bailiff, delivers subpoenas, and handles evictions. She develops a close relationship with Jon. Irene met her fiance, Tim, at work, who is also a Deputy Marshal. Their wedding is one of the highlights of the series.[14]
Jon Brennan[15]	18	Owensboro, Kentucky	Jon is an 18-year-old country singer, and the youngest in the house. He is taking a semester off from Belmont University in Nashville to pursue his music career in Los Angeles. In Owensboro, Kentucky, he is a local celebrity and performs regularly at Goldie's Best Little Opry House in Owensboro. He hopes one day to be a successful recording artist. He becomes known for drinking copious amounts of Kool-Aid, for his outspoken conservative views, his devout Christianity, and his status as a pro-life virgin who has never consumed alcohol.[16]
Tami Akbar[1]	22	Los Angeles, California	Tami is a 22-year-old African-American singer from New York state. She works as an AIDS care specialist, but as a part of her aspirations, she is a member of a four-girl R&B group.[17]
Glen Naessens		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Originally hailing from Pennsylvania, Glen was chosen from three candidates to replace David after his eviction. Glen is the lead singer of his band, Perch. Much to some of his roommates' dismay, Glen doesn't take too much time to get to know his housemates, and invites his band out to L.A. to spend time at the house. Glen's ultimate career goal is to make movies and film.[18]
Beth Anthony[19]		Eugene, Oregon	Beth A. is a craft services employee from Eugene, Oregon who replaces Irene after Irene leaves the house to get married. Although she initially gets along with all her housemates, her status as a lesbian causes Tami to ponder her own biases, and she comes into conflict with Tami on the Mexico trip.[20]

^Note 1 : Age at the time of filming.

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. Tami and Dominic see Jon perform at Goldies, where Jon attracts a large crowd. 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 Beth S. 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 Beth S. are deposited, in the style of a wrestling referee, after David escapes with the blankets. Emerging from the bathroom in a robe, Tami places David's boots into a toilet and pours mouthwash on his bed. 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 "wasn't not funny," and is so upset that she leaves the house for the night. Beth reacts by comparing David's reasoning 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 later 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 Beth A., 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 Beth A. and Glen, with Tami, Beth S. 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, Beth S. 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 and 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 got drunk and passed out face down on a beach, for which neither were embarrassed. Beth S. 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 (with the exception of Beth A.) 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.

• In one episode Tami gets her jaw wired shut, rendering her unable to eat, in order to lose weight.^[21]

Parody

The show was 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.^[22]

The incident that led to David's eviction was parodied in a 1993 episode of the sketch comedy show, The Jon Stewart Show, with Jon Stewart portraying Tami in the skit.

A Season 1 episode of Chappelle's Show parodied The 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 Edwards.

After filming

Real World/Road Rules Challenges

Cast Member	RW/RR Challenges	Challenges Won
Aaron Behle	-	-
Beth Stolarczyk	RW/RR Challenge, Battle of the Seasons, Battle of the Sexes, The Inferno II, The Gauntlet 2, The Duel, The Gauntlet III	None
David Edwards	Battle of the Sexes	None
Dominic Griffin	-	-
Irene Berrera-Kearns	-	-
Jon Brennan	All-Stars, Battle of the Seasons, The Inferno II	All-Stars
Tami Akbar	-	-
Glen Naessens	-	-
Beth Anthony	-	-

^{^*} The contestant was a finalist on the Challenge, but lost in the Final Race.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Weinstein, Steve. "TELEVISION - A 'Real World' of Difference" Los Angeles Times September 19, 1993; Accessed November 19, 2009
2. ^ Episode synopsis list for The Real World: Los Angeles at MTV.com
3. ^ Episode synopsis list for The Real World: New York at MTV.com
4. ^ ^{a b} "The Real World: Los Angeles Show Summary" MTV.com
5. ^ Episode synopsis list for The Real World: Los Angeles at MTV.com
6. ^ The Real World Diaries; Pocket Books; 1996.
7. ^ "The Real World: Los Angeles Beach House" realworldhouses.com
8. ^ Biography page for Aaron at mtv.com
9. ^ ^{a b} Boost, Shannon (1993-07-05). "Garfield native talks about part in 'Real World'". The Plain Dealer: p. 2C. 
10. ^ Woodman, Tenley (2008-01-23). "Older, wiser? `Gauntlet' combatant eager to commingle with `trashy' housemates". Boston Herald: p. 043. 
11. ^ Biography page for Beth Stolarczyk at mtv.com
12. ^ Biography page for David Edwards at mtv.com
13. ^ Biography page for Dominic Griffin at mtv.com
14. ^ Biography page for Irene Berera-Kearns at mtv.com
15. ^ White, Susan (8 July 1993). "Teen Faced Realities Of 'The Real World'". Orlando Sentinel: p. E.1. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1993-07-08/lifestyle/9307070839_1_jon-brennan-real-world-jon-began. Retrieved 21 November 2010. 
16. ^ Biography page for Jon Brennan. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
17. ^ Biography page for Tami Roman at mtv.com
18. ^ Biography page for Glen Naessens at mtv.com
19. ^ Masson, Charles (10 October 1993). "Beth Anthony: Reality Check". Times-Picayune: p. T4. 
20. ^ Biography page for Beth Anthony at mtv.com
21. ^ Dehnart, Andy. "After 19 seasons, ‘Real World’ hasn’t changed", MSNBC, April 15, 2008
22. ^ Information on the October 2, 1993 episode of Saturday Night Live at tv.com

External links

• MTV's The Real World: Los Angeles Official Site
• "The Real World: Los Angeles: Full Episode Synopses and Recaps". MTV.
• "The Real World: Meet the Cast". MTV.
• The Real World: Los Angeles Beach House Real World Houses.
• The Real World and Road Rules Blog