The 90s docusoaps craze.

[AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta]

Inspired by a thread about old telly shows got me thinking about the 90s docusoaps and my god there were so many of them.

The Cruise (which gave us the fab Jane McDonald)
Holiday Reps
Airport
Hotel
Lakesiders.
Vets in practice.
Driving school.

It all seems so random now, I know the shows documenting the emergency services shows are still popular these days but I cannot imagine now sitting down watching someone's day working in a department store or taking their driving lesson. But me and 10 million other people used to do just that. Different times!

Yep it was like a bubble between 96-99 and then the reality show format took over in the 2000s.

No, it was. 1996 was the real start of it. From there it ballooned for many years.

There was one from around 1998, only had one series as I recall. It was about a fancy London department store (possibly Selfridges) I remember the two security ladies featured hugely (they reminded me of Sandra & Tracy from the Viz). In one episode, a customer had paid a kings ransom for a fully assembled wooden wardrobe...they had to shut the street off so that it could be lifted by a crane into the bedroom of the house, as it wouldn't go up the stairs. The bedroom window had to come out to facilitate it, and of course the customer sent it back due to marks on it...as she did with the next one, and the next.

Yes and then it just seemed to vanish overnight once BB came into play. They were so gentile by comparison though.

Gosh I remember that too!

And there was one on ITV around 1999 featuring loads of different couples getting married. There was a bloke marrying his kids babysitter, who I think was only around 18 years old 🥺.

Yes, that sounds about right, although on reflection it does seem that we (the royal we) on this thread have wandered down the route of mixing "docusoaps" with "reality TV", as the lines were blurred a bit with both on at the same time...like my comments on Changing Rooms...having said what I did, I suddenly thought it wasn't a docusoap at all...it just had ordinary people in it.

Yes but I associate Changing Rooms and Ground Force as being firmly 90s related. Even though genres of both such shows still exist it doesn't quite click the same way.

I remember thinking how lovely the houses always looked after the presenter (Anne Maurice?) Had been in. And how id definitely decorate like that when i left home.

Then I found a clip a few years ago and my word were they boring! All cream walls and seagrass matting

Yes loved them all. Airport was my top favourite followed by airline. Special mention to castaway 2000. I was as an impressionable 15 yr old in love with a young Ben Fogle!

Ha that's so funny, because I watch it now and think "yes, I could still live there. Well done Anne" !!! I liked it, still do.

What I loved about her was she always addressed the element in the room - rather than slap paint over crappy kitchen units (I'm looking at you now, Amanda 'selling houses' Lamb), Anne Maurice would get it all scrubbed to an inch of it's life and de-cluttered, so it said "this is an old kitchen, but look how fresh it is, so you can move in and use it", rather than admitting no one wanted to do a proper job by ripping it out, so they painted it instead.

Also bathrooms with coloured suites - she went mad on the white, and then used the suite colour in the accents & accesories.

Omg Paddington Green was so good. Really takes me back.
Jason the locksmith I remember so clearly as he was quite hot but was a 24 hour locksmith and all his scenes were just him with his extremely posh girlfriend and getting a call in his mobile (when they were rare) and him walking out and her crying. Those locks won't open themselves!
Loved the wig man too, he was so weird with his secret anti aging elixir.

I used to love the one about people working at Lakeside shopping centre but I can't think why...it's just cameras following people during their day working in retail and I think one lady was about to get married to a man with a huge Cypriot family.

I think a couple of people tried to launch singing careers from it so I guess it was the start of the "reality star".

And the hotel one was set in the Adelphi in Liverpool. The manageress was terrifying.

I remember that. Somehow my MIL always got the very white Jason confused with the black guy, I think he was a bus driver, and my MIL said something like "why's he driving that bus now, he had a van a minute ago". I often wished a film crew could spend 24hours inside her head.

I went off Jason because of his illegal parking, though I accept he had a job to do.

People watch reality tv all the time now. Only now it’s brainless crap like z list celebs sitting in a jungle, overly tanned people on an island chatting, posh people pottering about west London etc nothing they do is stimulating the brain, I’d rather watch the emergency services

Yes, that manageress Eileen was something else, and her no.2 wasn't much different...I remember seeing him in the kitchen, screaming at the chef in his Liverpool accent "You're a cooo-oook, so cooo-ooook!"

@Sonowimbackfromouterspace Oh god all the episodes are on YouTube. I might have to dive back in to see if it's as terrible good as I remember.

We spent three hours recently watching Driving School thanks to Youtube...I never realised how volatile Maureen was.

Anyone remember The Garage - following the daily life of a posh garage in Spain owned by a very angry potty mouthed bloke from Glasgow?

She was terrifying and I'm still not convinced the production team didn't bung the instructor a few quid to let her pass because it made for a better ending to the program.

More 00s but Supersize vs. Superskinny. Basically put two people at the extreme opposite ends of the disordered eating spectrum in a live-in ‘clinic’ together and let them thrash it out. Has not aged well.

Yes I do. It had Bianca Gascoigne & Calum Best on it. It seemed to have more Big Brother vibes.

I kind of feel for the staff there - on the USA version it's all drugs and guns but these guys have to look stern about apples and nuts ("Ut's a thrut? Tue aer buoyadoyvurzudoy?")

The best was the Irish version with the one guy who was constantly after a fight. Someone set up a Facebook fan page for him.

I just remembered Marbella belles. When was that on? That was amazing.

There was a woman on there who had a baby son called blue and was very open she left a lot of his care to the nanny, or nannies. At one point a producer asked her something about blue and she said 'blue? Blue who? Oh! The BABY!' as if she had forgotten he existed!