DC ExtraTime: A Trifecta of Real World Flashbacks

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

As MTV continues its current resurgence in ratings, recognition and regard, a series that helped to kick start the channel as we know it now, as well as inventing an entire television genre in the process, is among the next series to receive its closeup. The Real World began the story of MTV Reality twenty-seven years ago next month when the first season in New York with Eric Nies, Heather B. and the rest of the original cast of seven strangers first moved into a loft in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood and created a new form of entertainment that's everywhere now. Everything from the family in the White House and the Kardashians to the YouTube culture of making ordinary people stars can be attributed to this groundbreaking show.

The Real World documented several generations of MTV'ers becoming stars of their own show, tackled real life head on and taught everyone in the business how to do reality TV, and will very soon will be moving to a new home on Facebook Watch. Last week - along with announcing RealityCon that will bring everyone in the genre together this fall and next year, MTV confirmed Atlanta as one of the host cities of The Real World's arrival at the world's most-interactive online community, with Mexico City and Bangkok, Thailand hosting the other two seasons to air this summer on the fledgling but rapidly growing free video platform.

So many seasons, roommates and moments stand out in the thirty-two seasons it aired on MTV prior to its upcoming worldwide journey to Zuckerberg-ville, taking it from America's big cities to global destinations outside our borders. And thanks to something that were only dreams at the turn of the century in social media and advanced mobile phones, the pre-Easter weekend saw memories of three memorable seasons come flashing back to those who remember the show's good old days. For one alum, she traveled to where she spent a summer in paradise that became iconic for her being part of the show's first intra-cast romance, while another posted his memories of when he began his ride fifteen years ago. And for a few others, they gathered in the same suite that helped to turn the series upside down in the town where being wild & free is par for the course.

 LAS VEGAS - Season 12 

A Follow-Up to RW Las Vegas: The Game Changer

When one thinks of The Real World, the first season that comes to mind to those who began watching in the early 2000's was the one that practically changed the game for the entire series. Before fall 2002, RW was a mere documentary series that can be mundane at times... but when the Season 12 class of seven strangers left Las Vegas, it became much more in adding an entertainment element in the world of voyeurism just before the genre it created would become the TV of the new millennium. And to add more spice, this season and the ones that proceeded and succeeded it served as the undercard to MTV's biggest hit of that era in The Osbournes.
   The saying "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" certainly did not apply to the show's first of three visits to America's epicenter of adult pleasure when the seven strangers of Alton Williams, Arissa Hill, Brynn Smith, Frank Roessler, Irulan Wilson, Steven Hill and Trishelle Cannatella moved into The Palms Casino Resort off the Strip in 2002. Their season helped shape the show's future in many ways: them having more romance, sex and hookups than in the past set the table to others to follow in their footsteps when it came to love. The fork fight with Steven and Brynn established the parameter for other big blowups to go down in later Real World seasons, while there was also a pregnancy scare years before MTV made household names of teenage girls getting knocked up.
   And of course, the image that is most recognizable from the season that changed it all and saw the series ascend to further greatness came on that second night when a night of fun in the club led to three of the roommates getting together in the hot tub of their bathroom on their third night in town. The result of what went down with Steven, Trishelle and Brynn creating a threesome in that tub and them getting together under the covers in their bedroom created an iconic moment that defined that season and paved the way for the craziness that would ensue both during their season and all other seasons that followed.

Instagram @TrishelleC, via TooFab

Over a week ago, five of the original seven strangers - Trishelle, Frank, Brynn, Arissa and Irulan -- got together in the same hotel where the enjoyed the time of their lives seventeen years after TV history was made there in the Palms. Only Steven and Alton couldn't make time for the trip, though the cast did spend some quality time on FaceTime with the former as he has since become the first dad of the original Vegas cast. The cast has grown older quite a bit, with a Southern belle becoming a household name after her Real World aired, and a guy from a small town in Pennsylvania having his own MTV romance with Road Rules alum Jillian Zoboroski and gaining a Challenge title as part of the Underdogs team who benefited from Big Easy in the infamous Gauntlet III final.
   The group returned to a 28th floor suite that hasn't changed much since it was became the first Real World living space to be made available to the public to rent after the housemates left... everything from the pool table and the bathroom to the confessional room and bedrooms are very much the same as those who watched Real World who can fork over four figures to spend a night in the lap of luxury. And for a hotel that opened months before the cast moved in, The Palms saw its status grew thanks to its MTV status, and which unveiled a new version of itself earlier this month thanks to a $600 million renovation, including launching the new KAOS dayclub where some of EDM's biggest names will tend the 1's and 2's just in time for next month's Electric Daisy Carnival.
   As for the cast themselves, they no doubt enjoyed this opportunity to look back at what was a game-changing season for their show and a memorable time for all of them, seeing how much has and hasn't changed. Trishelle posted on Instagram @TrishelleC (before she deleted them to add to "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" mantra of course), "Our suite was eerily the same after all these years! I'm also thankful to say that my roommates are still as hot as they were in 2002! What an amazing weekend."
   And it was back then after the famous threesome as it is now, Arissa still found herself in her natural element of having just a robe and slippers on and even pulling off a Nilsa and grab a late night box of pizza. And she added on her IG @MissArissa, "...reconnect with your people... make a point to show up and spend quality time together... the cool thing about seeing how much people change, is seeing what still remains. Don't put off the reconnect. It's worth it. Always. In all ways."

The Real World Las Vegas was the focus of an In-Depth retrospective that appeared on here when future Challenger and Lohan Beach Club VIP Kailah Casillas got her MTV start on Real World Go Big or Go Home almost a decade & a half after that legendary season... the link is above.  And earlier this year, Alton was part of an episode of Discovery Channel's Blood Runs Cold that told the story of his brother being murdered during his childhood... we'll share that story later during this home-half of War of the Worlds when Alton joins Challenge legends for a mini-Challenge at Universal Orlando.

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 HAWAII - Season 8 

Twitter @AmayaSays

A few years before Vegas rewrote the book, The Real World began to gain traction in 1998 thanks to one unfortunate incident. In Seattle, the first instance of the fourth wall that separated cast and crew being broken came when Stephen Williams sprinted to the car that took Irene McGee out of Seattle and gave her a goodbye slap in the face. The same year, viewers began to discover an MTV that became the place to be thanks to a video countdown show & live afternoon hangout called TRL. It was this in mind that, twenty years ago, Real World took its talents for the second time outside the U.S. mainland to a place that marked its 40th anniversary of becoming America's 50th state.
   For its eighth season, the show selected the state of Hawaii and its state capital & largest city of Honolulu for a season that began to expand the show's horizons which led to that breakthrough Vegas season. And with press from local and national media joining co-creators Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jon Murray and production in the control room when filming began on a cloudy day, they saw an iconic moment: two cast members having to wait out the time for someone with the house keys to unlock the doors to the house... by going skinny-dipping in the house's pool with its own working volcano.
   That moment initiated by Atlanta comedian Teck Holmes put the show on the path to have its most visible season yet as far as viewership is concerned, all by stripping down and giving production reason to now devote part of the budget to giving more time to blurring out the goodies. And the girl who joined him to strip off all the clothes for a bathing session in the water was someone to was a rarity for the series back then: a roommate who was born in the very city where the show was being filmed, something frowned upon by producers fearing that if they did not feel comfortable living in the house they would simply run back home to mom never to return again. But to give the Hawaii season that true at home feeling, casting had to give into temptation and cast someone from Oahu to bring that Aloha feeling into this tropical Real World.
   In came Ruthie Alcaide, a triplet who and foster kid raised by a strict Filipino family on the island, who then found her foster family before going to Rutgers. But after that famous skinny-dip, on the second night she had too much to drink on a night out at the club and spent a night in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. It initiated a turbulent journey for Ruthie that saw her do a lap-dance in front of her work bosses' friends, followed by a night where she got behind the wheel while being inebriated. That led Ruthie to where she had production step in and gave her the ultimatum of a 30-day sojourn to an alcohol rehab center, where she would emerge sober and then go on to a productive Challenge career before turning her focus to being behind the camera working as a producer and production assistant on various TV shows.

   Also that season, the group put on a weekly entertainment showcase at Honolulu surf shop Local Motion, while they also chose where to go for the annual out-of-town vacation, which eventually became India. There was also the time that didn't make the show where the house was broken into on a late Saturday night that saw a convicted murderer in a sarong outfit outsmart the surveillance cameras to go into the loft and steal belongings belonging to the guy who wore a green shirt every day, Matt. And the process of casting this season's seven strangers was helped upon by Real World alum Jason Cornwell, who was on the Boston season two years earlier and after casting several Real World's would later head up his very own casting company that put together the casts of Ex On The Beach and The Hills.

Twitter @AmayaSays

During the same week as the Vegas reunion - and twenty years after she was part of that memorable season, California native Amaya Brecher flew back to Hawaii to not only enjoy a vacation in our fiftieth state, but also conjure up memories of the four months she spent in paradise having her life being taped. She had graduated from UCLA when she moved into the house, but who had been shy of revealing her true self beyond just having an appetite for going to parties. And she was part of something that, up until Hawaii, was a Real World rarity: a serious romance with one of her roommates - something that happened with Judd & Pam in San Francisco and later with Melinda & Danny in Austin, Jemmye & Knight in New Orleans, and Tony & Madison in Chicago.

   There, she started becoming romantic with the season's resident heartthrob, Colin Mortensen, who had a similar story of getting a second chance as the Teen Mom: Young Moms Club ladies. Colin hosted Season 8's casting special as a consolation prize for being rejected, or so he thought... after he impressed producers with his good looks and charisma, casting loved him so much that he was cast anyway. Once he and Amaya first saw each other, it was only 24 hours later on the second night that she began to cuddle up in Colin's bed, and through Valentine's Day gifts, makeout sessions in the dark without cameras in sight and other things, they stayed together during the season. But when a friend of his came to town, the #Colmya boat began to sink when Amaya cuddled up to his friend Tony, and the house turned against her just before the whole house left Hawaii.
   Amaya used her trip back to Hawaii to share with her Twitter followers on @AmayaSays some of her memories and never-before-seen pictures from her time on Real World. She also got to go onto the same beaches where she roamed during filming of that season including donning the same dress she wore in the season's opening title sequence (aka "This is the true story...") and also got to do some surfing in the sea, too. She might be known for her dragging a coveted surfboard on the beach while she and Colin walked on the sea, which is why she wrote in a caption accompanying one of her surfing videos, "As athletic and graceful as always... Hope this adequately shows one of the reasons I stopped doing the #MTV #Challenge."

Though this blogger had watched MTV on and off since his family first had cable back in the late '80s and has memories of watching earlier seasons of the show as well as its first reunion in 1996, Real World Hawaii marked the first MTV season I began to watch as religiously as so many fans do nowadays with The Challenge and most other big shows too. In summer 1999 when I went with my family to Hawaii for a summer vacation, my biggest moment came when I went to Honolulu on the final days of our trip and walked all the way down to the Local Motion store where the cast worked at just it closed for the night. Yes, I have my own memory of when I became a Real World fan, though the goal of actually meeting an alum of that show and this universe remains a holy grail.

Back in the day. #MTV #RealWorld #Hawaii #20Years pic.twitter.com/NLnSrl5odZ

— Amaya Brecher (@amayasays) April 13, 2019

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 SAN DIEGO - Season 14 

Last Friday, the latest twist in the sad tale of one of The Challenge's most-beloved couples unraveled when Brad Fiorenza aired out on Twitter information in regards to the kids he shares custody with in his ex-wife Tori Hall. The tirade is only the latest chapter in a saga that started when Brad and Tori first met on The Duel II, got married shortly after, and shared a kiss on top of a castle in Prague when they won Cutthroat together. Him returning to The Challenge after a decade's hiatus on Vendettas brought into focus his divorce a year earlier from the former pageant queen and Road Rules alumnus, especially when he started to date a girl a decade younger than him in AYTO alum Britni Thornton when they met in Spain last year but broke up after doing Final Reckoning. And it was over the weekend that he posted a note on Twitter that he was retiring from The Challenge, again.
   Before that memorable Challenge career, Brad was a key figure in Season 14 of The Real World, which aired fifteen years ago this year when it was held in California's third largest metropolitan area of San Diego. He took his motorcycle on the long, 2,000 mile cross-country journey from Chicago to America's Finest City (and home of Young Moms Club), where waiting for him was someone who would go onto one of the biggest post-MTV careers for a Real World alum in Jamie Chung. She wasn't as prominent a figure in the house as the other roommates were, but after he winning The Challenge: Inferno II she would go onto one of the most successful post-MTV careers with her recent starring role on FOX's The Gifted among her scripted TV gigs. And in the movie sphere, she had minor roles in the ladder two movies of The Hangover trilogy and starred alongside The Hills' Audrina Patridge in Sorority Row before clutching her hands around an Oscar when the movie she offered her voice to, Disney's Big Hero 6, won an Best Animated Feature Academy Award.

Twitter @BradFiorenza

For Brad himself, he was involved in two memorable aspects of Season 14, including one of the most memorable moments in Real World history. When he and roommate Randy Berry got kicked out of the club, he began to rant about going home, only for random ongoers to fire insults at them. But when he tired to get back at them while also being publicly intoxicated to everyone in the streets, police spotted them and the lights of the camera crew, and soon enough he was being handcuffed. But they had no idea that, on the same night, Robin Hibbard had gotten into it with a patron outside a nightclub when two roommates who were not 21 years old yet weren't allowed to go beyond the velvet rope despite having phony ID's in their hands. It was upon receiving this news back home that one of the two underage roommates, Jacquese Smith, not only stayed up all night to try and get news of the arrest of his two roommates, he began to chant "Free Brad!"... so did the roommates.
   For Brad's other notable claim to fame, he helped to introduce another person who would go onto much post-Real World fame as he and Jamie, in South Carolinan Cameran Eubanks. She came to Surf City as one who loved to be anything but the Southern belle stereotype in embracing the type who loves to make everyone laugh, but who was raised in a picture perfect upscale family that, when her parents divorced it hit her hard. Brad and Cam were together during the season and then for some time after including when they went onto Battle of the Sexes 2, all before he turned to Tori and her to a relatively calm life in Charleston before Bravo came calling in 2013 to make her part of the cast of new reality series Southern Charm. The show, which chronicles her and other socialites who call their quaint state capital town home, premiered the same year as Vanderpump Rules and still airs today.
   Real World San Diego also saw something that, years later, would become commonplace in sexual assault allegations. Late in filming of the season, a 22-year-old unidentified woman pressed charges about her being raped at the house and sexually assaulted in the bathroom by a guest not named as one of the cast members, and eventually charges were not filed... and as a result of the investigation, much of the season never made it to TV. And there was Kansas City native Frankie Abernathy, who came to town as someone who had that punk rock look to her in being pretty and creative, but inside was someone who had been suffering from cystic fibrosis since she was young and was hospitalized a few times when she was in high school. A combination of a phobia of metal objects, conflict with the house and being homesick led Frankie to leave early, and sadly she died in summer 2007 from complications from her disease.
   Perhaps the most fun moment in San Diego came when Brad and Randy got to dress up as two of Nintendo's two biggest stars, Mario and Luigi of Super Mario Brothers fame, for Halloween. And amid the uncertainty of what might happen to him next, Brad took time to post his own Real World memory with a pic of his cast, all as he announced his second and likely permanent retirement from a 14-year Challenge career, and Randy pitching in with a clipping from US Weekly magazine.

#tbt to our first night out on RWSD @DJran @jamiechung1 @cameraneubanks @RobinMTV14 #realworld #sandiego #mtv pic.twitter.com/gL1kje65H6

— Brad Fiorenza (@BradFiorenza) April 11, 2019

This @usweekly article makes me miss my roomies! @cameraneubanks @BradFiorenza @jamiechung1 @RobinMTV14 pic.twitter.com/4zo3EHHl60

— Randy Barry (@DJran) March 17, 2019

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