shelley6441

So, since it's Friday, I thought "let me do a post of fun stuff ppl might want to check out over the weekend." all three videos feature Matteo Lane--a gay, Italian-American comedian. IHNI what his comedy is like, but I found him on YT when it suggested one video where he talked abt informacials. IDEK, hahah.

The shows discussed are things I either watched in real time OR am familiar enough to jabber abt for a bit.

MTV's True Life

Back in the day, one of the reasons young ppl were watching MTV was cuz of their unscripted series. This was a deocumentary-style show where each episode dealt with anything and everything you can think of. Substance abuse, homelessness, being queer, driving while Black, being a cheerleader, going to college, moving to another city, etc. The series started airing in 1998 so reality TV was a huge thing. In some ways (and despite the editing) this MTV version of reality TV felt, well, fairly real.

IIRC, I watched the first three or four seasons? It was cancelled in 2017, so there was that.

ANYWAY

One of the most INFAMOUS episodes was "I'm Getting Married". It centered around Charlie and Sabrina, an Italian-American couple from New York, and their nuptials.

Watching this was a trip cuz I remember my initial O___O when it first aired. Not only the wedding stuff, but also watching what Charlie and Sabrina's life was like, the fashion (!), the nostalgia was there in full force, LOL.

I gotta mention that Charlie had a temper and his relationship with Sabrina was...messed up in a lot of ways. Also, I have a throw in a mild content warning for discussions of what went on in Charlie's life after the show aired. Heartwrenching stuff.

Watch on YouTube

Undressed

This anthology series first aired in 1999 and got cancelled 3 yrs later. Every Monday, the show would follow a group of ppl (usually college-aged, sometimes slightly younger or older) and their romantic and/or sexual relationships (breaking up, getting together, etc). The plots had two, occasionally three, storylines focusing on a handful of the characters. By Thursday, the stories would end. And then a new set of ppl would come up in the following week and so on. The show had an v. adult vibe and would air at 11:30 p.m.

Due to the set-up, you HAD to tune in every night during a week you liked the stories or the characters. Because MTV would not only take their sweet time doing reruns of the anthology BUT ALSO, due to the premise, you wouldn't know IF they were gonna rerun the storylines you liked. It was fun most of the time, tho.

NOT THE BEST ACTING, BUT it was the show that introduced me to Katee Sackoff, so.. hey! Other notable folks who appeared include: Max Greenfield, Adam Brody, Jason Ritter, Brandon Routh, and PEDRO PASCAL.

As a matter of fact, Pedro is IN THE EPISODE Matteo is commenting abt.

One of the main reasons why I liked this show (at the time) and one of the v. few things that MTV did right was showing queer ppl alongside cishet folks without mocking the queers. Frex, the episode Matteo is revisiting is centered around an M/M couple. HOWEVER, culturally speaking, the way the show (and the rest of late 90s/earlyl 2000s media) were handled in a problematique way a lot of the time.

IT WAS ALL US QUEER FOLKS HAD TO WATCH AT THAT TIME THO! Like, on non-MTV networks, queer folks were either the joke OR presented under the "Very Special Episode" umbrella. So, in that sense, I could appreciate this show.

Anyhoodle, I deffo agree with Matteo's commentary here regarding the messiness of it all...

Watch on YouTube

NEXT

Speaking of MESSY...

This is a dating reality show that began airing a little bit after I stopped watching MTV? So 2005-ish and ran for 3 more years. I watched a few episodes while getting ready to go out, but it's not like any of them were super memorable.

This was RIDICULOUSNESS. The basic idea is that there are 5 or 6 daters who are trying to win over a single person. The longer any of the daters remains with the single, the more money they make. The last dater will get the option of keeping the money they've accumulated throughout the date OR go on a second date with the single person. That said, the single person will "NEXT" any dater they're not clicking with.

SHENANIGANS AND TOMFOOLERY EVERYWHERE! It's v., v. early 2000s. I deffo cackled a lot because I lived thru it.

Watch on YouTube