To think reality shows of the early 2000s have not aged well! Doing a rewatch

[Imcomingovertoyourplace]

So far I’ve watched
Playing it Straight (the homophobia is rife!)
Fat Families (just horrific, ‘lard busting’ and shaming overweight kids)
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings (did the producers never want to intervene with what is essentially child abuse?)

Yeah it was made into a huge deal, it was fascinating to see how small things become huge when your world is reduced to that, how people can form a mob against an ‘enemy’ etc

Yep, I did!

Get snooty, and immediately make a tit of yourself…..this is the way of things :)

I wish that dress over trousers thing would come back. It was great for my short fat legs. I always thought it looked like a Western version of the shalwar kameez, which I think is beautiful.

Was 'The Biggest Loser' around that time?
I can't imagine that being made nowadays.
I used to cry sometimes at their stories.

@Daybrake Yes that's the one. He gave an incredible speech to his year group just before they left school forever that had me in pieces. I didn't know that he'd gone onto become a teacher himself, that's lovely.

One guilty pleasure reality TV show that I did like back in the day was Brat Camp, where a bunch of spoilt teenagers were sent to a cattle ranch in Utah and removed of all privileges, mobile phones and the like and had to learn new skills and discipline.

Mostly underneath the attitude they were good kids who'd been thoroughly overindulged by their parents but I do remember one girls horror at being rostered to wash up after dinner because at home they employed someone to do that for them 🤣.

I think Kinga and the wine bottle signalled the end of BBs innocent days.

Wear it! We only live once

🤣😂, forgot about that, along with Makosi and Anthony shagging in the pool 🤦‍♀️🤣.

I disagree. The producers originally looked for schools with really good Ofsted reports and asked quite a few, around the country. Lots said no. I don't know where all those schools were but they weren't all in Essex. The series went to London, Salford and Cardiff too. I could well be wrong but I always read the title as a play on Educating Rita.

I have a friend who is a headteacher in an Oxfordshire secondary school who has a very mixed intake of kids and struggles with many of the same challenges we see in the 'Educating' series.

I seem to remember Jo Brand getting quite upset. Mind you, I think one or two of the styles might have grown on her because she seems to dress more brightly these days, but it was an uncomfortable watch at the time.

Yes Jo brand said later that it was an awful humiliating experience they kept hoicking at her boobs and sniggering about the size of her bra !

Bring it back! I’m all for everyone wearing what they want / like and what suits them. I even gave it a go myself once or twice it just always seemed a little odd to wear trousers and a dress (for me) as there was a lot of material going on.

Yeah that’s not cool, humiliating someone isn’t entertainment.

I read her books during lockdown. She mentioned that when she went on WNTW she just had a baby a few weeks earlier and whilst she didn't say anything overtly negative about T&S she was very clear that she hated the whole experience with a passion.

Yes, there was Back in Time For Dinner, Christmas etc. Someone here says they simplified things a lot, which may be the case, but they did have good talking heads: proper academics like Amber Butchart.

I remember my mum watching some of those and yeah they were bad, also see benefits street and Jeremy kyle. I did quite like the filth fights show that was on and the shows about hoarders but I think they are quite rightly regarded as exploitative these days.

Recently a video surfaced on social media of one of the really early series of Pop Idol or X Factor, and Simon Cowell was absolutely tormenting this poor 20 something girl over her weight. You'd think she'd shot someone's nan the way he was reprimanding her about it. Not that it even mattered but she was only about a size 14!! She kept saying how much she was really trying to diet and be thinner, she was getting tearful and he just kept saying "yeah well you've really got to darling".

I wanted to cry watching it it was so fucking heartbreaking, I cannot believe how awful those shows were.

Yes, I liked Castaway. There have been a couple where people had to live like stone aged man, too. I found those interesting.

And I Kissed a Boy, which has a girl in it. It's like they're just doing this for the "It Was Fine in the 2020s" look-back shock show, to be scheduled somewhere circa 2045.

Shows I liked back in the 00s were That'll Teach Em, where kids went back in time being educated using old strict teaching methods. And Rock School, where the lead singer of Kiss made a rock band out of some school kids. I think one of the main kids later committed suicide, which is tragic.

Oh my God I watched that! The wife (I think) was saying something like "I'll be fine with anyone as long as they're not black" 😬

There was also an episode where the family were very clearly neglecting their little baby and the woman who swapped was so upset to leave her there at the end of it 😔

The thing is, I know a lot is scripted now, but there was a time when it wasn't.

Before reality TV was a 'thing', we had fly on the wall documentaries. And they really were what they purported to be. Documenting the lives of other people.

Most famously, 7 Up. Genius idea. Take a group of kids from different backgrounds and film them every 7 years. Last one they were 63. Next one should be 70 Up, due next year, but might not happen as the original filmmaker has died. It was an experiment exploring the impacts of social class in early years and what truth there is in the idea of 'give me a child until the age of 7 and I will show you the man'.

There was a fascinating one about a boy with Tourette's called, 'John's not Mad'. It wasn't about exploitation, it was about giving the public insight into a little-known condition at the time. Not mockery, but education.

It's all become too 'knowing' now. The shows aren't made to educate or inform, they are made to shock, manipulated for maximum drama and too far removed from 'reality'.

And it all started with bloody Driving School.

Talking of the school one just reminded me of the one about young men being out through basic training which everyone did in the days of National Service.

I’ve been watching reruns of Wife Swap on YouTube and I cannot believe the misogyny! Even when the husband pulls his weight, they all still refer to it as helping the wife!

Oh I loved that programme!