DC ExtraTime: Real World Los Angeles - Reunited

Following is an excerpt originally posted in the ExtraTime section of this week's 

MTV Trifecta WRAP earlier tonight, re-posted here for the interest of readers.

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

The two guys who represented the original third component of MTV's reality triple crown, Darrell and Shane from Road Rules Campus Crawl fifteen years ago this summer, may have fallen short of making it to The Challenge Invasion final, but it leaves the torch to CT to carry the flag of both the champions and the old school challengers of years past. And if you happen to see who we might see on the next season of this show which is filming right now out of country, this might as well be just the beginning. This offers the segue way to this nostalgic piece of ExtraTime.

   This month marks exactly twenty five years since the lineage of the MTV Trifecta began in a loft in SoHo in New York City. There, seven strangers from around the Tri-State area and Alabama came together to create TV history in the first season of The Real World. What we saw with Eric, Heather B., Kevin, Norman, Becky, Julie and Andre helped set the pace for cable's longest-running series and reality TV as we know it. And a quarter of a century later, the show has evolved a bit, but the core elements of what makes MTV original unique in this voyeuristic genre still remain today.
   A year later came season 2 of Real World which, after an ode to the originals who paved the way for 31 succeeding seasons and a new TV genre, brought viewers 3,000 miles west to that sun-baked west coast paradise known as Los Angeles. There, a new group was tasked of following up that first class of seven strangers, which would eventually grow to nine once they moved out. That season saw an expanded 20 episode slate compared to Season 1, an RV which would be the motif of Road Rules, and the introduction of that private place of intimacy known as the confessional.
   There, we saw the first TV appearance of longtime reality staple Tami Roman, who came to SoCal and established herself as one of the genre's most enduring personalities thanks to her tough, no nonsense personality that set the mold for many others to follow. Her presence was first felt in her fight in the hallway and the bedroom with comedian David Edwards, which saw him become the first castmate to be evicted. And she also dealt with real life herself: on the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, Tami decided that she was not ready to become a mom this early in her life, and took the bold move of having an abortion, which was documented on camera in its rawest form. Of course, she has gone on to bigger and better things as star of VH1's Basketball Wives, appeared on Marriage Boot Camp and Celebrity Wife Swap - first as wife to NBA veteran Kenny Anderson and currently as partner to Reggie Youngblood.

Twitter @MTVBeth

Last week, two members of that second class of seven strangers got together back in the city where they became part of this esteemed community, and revisited the same house near Venice Beach where they lived. This brings us back to 1993 when, of course, The Real World was MTV's only reality show and one of a few on TV overall -- Cops and America's Funniest Videos most notable. Of course, Real World was much different back then as it is now, and if you're one who came onto the scene in the past ten years or so, you'll notice things were much simpler back then when you were 20 years younger and in many cases, you weren't even born yet.
   First, there's someone who is a would-be Challenge Hall of Famer. Beth Stolarcyak came to us from a Cleveland suburb and was a production assistant and "starving actress" who came, appropriately enough, to Tinseltown to further her resume… she would go to casting calls, took headshots and the like there. Like what happened to Jenny two decades later, Beth also had to endure her own Ex-Plosion moment when both her ex- and new boyfriends came to the house in the same episode and had to cover up that moment when she had sex in the closet. In the longer term, she would make her mark in The Challenge's first decade, taking part in the first one in 1999 and six more after that. She developed a rivalry with fellow RW original Coral, got slapped around by Tina, had her clothes thrown in the pool by Tonya, and having something in common with Mike of RW Bad Blood and AYTO 3 in quitting two MTV shows. And Beth added to her resume when she joined fellow MTV alumni to pose for Playboy Magazine… before she got married after The Gauntlet III and is now a proud mommy in her post-MTV life.
   And the person who came along with her was a pioneer himself. Jon Brennan was a 20-year-old from Kentucky who had a career going for himself: he was a country singer, and perhaps the first country artist to appear on MTV. Him moving to, and performing around, the Southland, took place at the same time a man named Garth Brooks had ascended into being the most-popular country artist of his era and kickstarted his genre's rise from a regional happening to a national phenomenon. Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Florida Georgia Line, and of course Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, have all made successful crossovers into the mainstream and become even bigger stars than those early pioneers had envisioned. And also, Jon was a virgin, which given his conservative roots was a key storyline that season during a time when romance and hooking up in the Real World house wasn't as commonplace as it is now. These days, he has stayed true to his beliefs as a youth pastor in Birmingham, AL, and whose journeys have also taken him to Uganda as his church has a missionary in that African country.

Twitter @MTVBeth

First, Beth and Jon got to catch up with someone from across the pond. Dominic was the first-ever Real World roommate of non-American origin, having been born in Dublin, Ireland and whose favorite bands were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - both proud native sons of the British isles. He was the first person cast for the season and became known for his humor, charisma and, yes, that rock star's hair. Before that famous fight with Tami, David found himself at odds with Dom at a bowling night, and with Jon over his music tastes. Dom came to the U.S. to pursue a career in music journalism, which he would eventually do after leaving the house, and expanded his horizons in working in movie journalism including being a film critic for Variety magazine, being a radio show producer, and also a music executive for Disney.

Twitter @MTVBeth

   Then another original: Irene came to that house in Venice Beach with no idea of what this TV thing is all about after casting directors sought to put someone in law enforcement in the house in the wake of the L.A. Riots. She was working as an L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy and Marshal well after her MTV days ended, but she knew that her time in the house was fairly limited as she was also anticipating the biggest day of her life. Tami remembered, "We always felt like she was the mom because she was the oldest and because she was getting married." And the roommates joined Irene as she and her husband Tim walked down the aisle and uttered their "I do's" as the two got married and went off on their honeymoon and into becoming a mom to two kids like Beth, and Real World's first lesbian castmate, Beth A., took her place in the house.
   We've talked before about how The Real World and the show's production company, Bunim-Murray Productions, have been the first stop for many in the reality TV biz. Also in that photo above, two producers from that second season in LA and have gone on to bigger things production wise in this industry: Dave Albrecht - an associate producer during RW's first few seasons and who's also been on the production teams of The Bachelor franchise and the first season of Big Brother; and veteran reality producer Matt Kunitz - whose first TV job was as a production coordinator in LA, then AP in San Francisco, and in London became coordinating producer right up until the Hawaii season - the first RW season I watched in its entirety. There, Kunitz emerged from behind the fourth wall to give Ruthie the ultimatum of leaving the house for a month to go to alcohol rehab after a bout with drunk driving. He would go on to establish a stellar reality TV resume: executive producer of the original NBC run of new MTV show Fear Factor, ABC's Wipeout, and FOX's Kicking & Screaming... earning the fitting title from the L.A. Times, "king of reality TV."

That year of 1993 in television saw the last episode of Cheers, David Letterman's move from NBC to CBS, Conan O'Brien's late night debut, and the Mickey Mouse Club welcome Britney, JT and Christina. MTV wise, Beavis & Butthead got their own show, Jon Stewart made his talk show debut that year, as did the cult sketch comedy The State. And by our count, many of those in this current generation of Trifecta cast members were either still babies (around age 24-25) or were not around back then to see Jon, Beth and that season.
   While the first season in New York 25 years ago this month was, as we coined in our look back at the legendary Las Vegas season last year, the baptism of fire for The Real World - and graduation day was the memorable San Francisco season the next year, RW Los Angeles helped to set the mold for the show's long tenure: some more big time drama that wasn't prevalent much in the Big Apple, the room that become a staple of MTV shows, and memorable personalities: one who would go on to become a Challenge legend, another who became an enduring reality TV personality, a third who helped bring a sense of Nashville to the MTV airwaves for the first time, and a lot more.
   Below is the moment Tami and Dom get to meet Jon for the first time during their journey from New York, through the rest of the country to pick up their roommates en route to L.A.

- I AM DC