Hoping to cash in on the popularity of the Fox teen drama The O.C., MTV's docu-soap purported to be the "real" version, even if it was glossier and soapier than any of the network's reality programming up until that point. If the inspiration for MTV's Laguna Beach wasn't already clear, it was made plain in the show's extended title: Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. Now, here is a series that depicts real-life 'desperate' housewives with an authentic look at their compelling day-to-day drama." Now, over 15 years later, Bravo is a network that stands on a foundation of desperate housewives, from Orange County to Dallas to Potomac to Salt Lake City, even as far as Dubai. When Bravo's then-president Lauren Zalaznick announced the Real Housewives premiere date, that inspiration was explicit: "From Peyton Place to Desperate Housewives, viewers have been riveted by the fictionalized versions of such lifestyles on television. When The Real Housewives of Orange County premiered in 2006, ABC's Desperate Housewives was on its second season and a timely inspiration for this new Bravo show that was also about five women who all lived near each other (a gated community in Fairview rather than a cul-de-sac in Fairview). Some were dumb, some were great, some changed the course of an entire cable network's programming forever - and some introduced the world to a future Oscar winner. ![]() The Real Love Boat is the latest show to pick up on the theme or vibe of a scripted show and turn it into reality gold (and/or trash). There are of course the more well-established connections, like how Survivor was inspired in part by a desire to do a live-action Swiss Family Robinson or how The Amazing Race is basically Around the World in 80 Days but with real-life bickering couples who realize somewhere between Caracas and Barcelona that they should probably break up.īut then there are connections that are far more overt, often made explicit in the titles of the shows themselves. TV shows have been borrowing ideas from one another for years, and reality TV in particular has taken plenty of inspiration from scripted series. This practice of adapting a scripted TV show into an opportunity for reality TV isn't exactly new, though credit due to CBS for making the most out of The Love Boat's iconic opening credits. Even in today's reboot-crazed TV culture, you wouldn't think The Love Boat would fit in all that well, but CBS found a way to marry its love-on-the-high-seas premise with the current trend of reality TV shows that place sexy singles in tropical locales and have them couple up for sport. Running from 1977-1986, The Love Boat epitomized a certain type of glossy 1970s network television, loaded with guest stars and episodic romance, corny in its way but also indelible to anyone who grew up watching it. ![]() With The Real Love Boat debuting this week, we're reminded that it's never too late to revive an old show within a new paradigm.
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