Bench Talk: Reality Television

Welcome to our first edition of, 'Bench Talk'. We ladies will discuss and debate, giving our opinions on life, and events which surround us. Feel free to add your comments, giving your opinions. We welcome all comments, whether you agree with us or just one of us or not at all!


Reality Television, you either watch it or not. Some people watch the shows but will not admit to it. I was never a reality TVwatcher. I thought they were silly. Why would I watch people making fools of themselves? My fellow ladies all started watching them and I would exclaim proudly that I did not! I think the first reality TVshow was, 'Survivor'. We would get together for tea and they would discuss what happened and who they thought would be the next to be voted off!


I remember, it was summer and the kids were all playing in the park. It was Thursday, early evening. The kids played in the park until 8pm when they all rushed in to watch the latest episode of, 'Survivor'. My youngest came in asked if he could watch, too. I decided he could and my husband, older son and I watched with him. The younger son loved it and was excited for the next episode! My husband and I decided we would make it a family hour complete with popcorn. I have to admit we have watched, 'Survivor', ever since then! It's fun to see how the contestants adapt or not to the 'game'.

There are so many other reality TV shows and I have only watched a few episodes of, 'The Amazing Race'. I really enjoyed seeing the different cities. Other than those two shows, I do not have the time or the inclination to watch any of the others. I think the genre has been used so many times the shows are just getting sillier. I also think a lot of what we see on the TV is fixed. We see what the director wants us to see. In essence, we are led along a predetermined path.


I don't know about the shows being fixed. There is definitely editing and there has to be. It's similar to editing a wedding video. You could tape the whole day lets say 17 hours or so and watch it but who would be able to stay awake for that" Once it is edited to include the most important, funniest and most touching parts you end up with a great memory of an incredible day. My kids love watching our video. For reality TV, they tape the entire day/days then someone painstakingly edits it and we get to see the final product.


If the person has done something great then it will show on the tape and if something ridiculous has occurred, then that will be shown also. The point is that we are all human and very imperfect and its okay. You end up liking or disliking the person based on who they are and I think that after watching someone ever and over again for a number of weeks, you can tell a good soul.

Carolin here, in our house we watch Survivor every Thursday night. It is a tradition for the little one to watch Survivor, eat popcorn and she can have 1/2 can of pop. I look forward to Sunday when I can watch Amazing Race. My extended family participates in a Survivor and Amazing Race pool. We have two pools one for AR and another for Survivor, we pay $5.00 for one Survivor castaway and another $5.00 for an AR couple. The family member who has the winning castaway or the winning couple wins the pool money. I have won Survivor once and the husband won the latest AR season.

Between you and me I like watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels and I did like watching Housewives of Orange County until they kept changing the day and time it was on. But keep my little vices a secret, don't tell Cathy! We don't have cable at our house so I get Family Jewels from our local library then the husband and I can watch the whole season over a week. I even read Shannon Tweeds autobiography and have Gene Simmons book on hold for me at our library.

So I can make fun of Sunshine when she watches all of her reality shows as long as she doesn't know about my little reality fix!

This just in: I just read on the internet that the King and Queen of reality just had a bouncing baby girl in July. Welcome to the world Lucia Rose and Congratulations to Boston Rob and Amber.