By Jamie Kanter
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 19, 1997

When Reality TV Goes Bad

Arizona Daily Wildcat Jamie Kanter

I was watching my favorite Sunday evening fare ("The Simpsons") when I saw a rather frightening advertisement. Sharks, crabs, bees, rats, maggots and alligators were all amongst the World's Deadliest Swarms, according to the Fox Network.

While this sort of programming might be a step up from the usual quality of show produced by Fox, it is difficult to see these deadly, intimidating creatures as good entertainment. Don't get me wrong - I love television (second only to my mother), but we may have just stepped over the line.

It started so innocently, too. Remember a charming upstart show called "America's Funniest Home Videos?" That was good stuff. Nowhere else could one see so many hapless fathers get hit in the groin by any means of projectile. Nor could one capture so many talented animals in a half-hour. And Bob Saget's humor was simply the cream of the crop after his success on "Full House." OK, the show was less-than-stellar, but at least it was harmless.

However, a shift started to occur in the American viewer's tastes. We were no longer satisfied with a singing parrot, a clumsy cat or a fat lady falling and crushing a child's swimming pool. Those things failed to satiate our ever-growing appetites. Like so many injury-thirsty vampires, we needed more.

So Bob and his crew over at the video show began to become a little more inclusive in their selection of prime-time clips. Funny pets were replaced by gonad-crunching, head-pounding, eye-gouging, limb-breaking videos of various hapless folks injuring themselves in a variety of unusual ways. Instead of laughing, the audience questioned, "Dear God, why doesn't he put down the camera and help that man?" And so it began.

Our voyeurism overwhelmed us and we could not stop it. Suddenly, watching some trashy, shirtless wife-beater getting arrested was a normal thing to see on a Saturday night. Prostitutes, drug dealers, gang members and drunk drivers became fixtures in the ol' TV Guide, and we just ate it up.

Of course, riding along with the police was just not enough for our ever-growing need to see real-life drama. So we sent out a call to all amateur voyeurs out there and asked them to capture the horrible events in our world. If there's a murder, tape it; rape, tape it; plane crash, tape it. Tape the whole damn world and hope that something bad happens.

The world complied. Rodney King, Reginald Denny, tornadoes, plane crashes, floods and violent crimes were all caught on tape by our ever-vigilant camera operators. They made possible shows like "Real TV" and inspired movies such as "Twister." But it's a long way from Abraham Zapruder, a grassy knoll and a lone gunman.

The spawn of these graphic, reality-based videos is a program line-up of shows like "When Animals Attack," "When Stunts Go Bad (including a sequel)," "The World's Scariest Police Chases" and now, "The World's Deadliest Swarms." What have we become and why have we tainted my precious television?

I'll admit it: I like to watch the misfortune of others just as much as anybody else, but isn't there some sort of limit? We can now watch people attacked viciously by deadly animals, spinning out of control at over 200 miles per hour or crashing into an eighteen-wheeler at breakneck speeds. Woo hoo.

Perhaps I am just desensitized to the violence of these shows after so many years of Roadrunner cartoons, but this sort of reality show just doesn't turn me on anymore. I can appreciate the inherent humor of a football to the groin, but the amusement of life-threatening injuries is lost on me. I can't get over this pesky conscience of mine. This just isn't right.

Of course, everyone has the right to watch what they choose. I, in fact, watched the original version of "When Stunts Go Bad" and found myself mildly amused. If others want to see disaster videos of apocalyptic proportions, so be it. If they think deadly swarms or predatory orgies are cool, that's their prerogative. I only hope that we will go no further in our desire to see real-life tragedies.

What will happen when the current crop of reality-based programs simply doesn't do it for us anymore? Will we take the final step and actually create these tragedies for a pocketful of cash and high ratings? I don't think we will, but it's not that far-fetched of a notion. We've come this far, and who am I to say we will not go farther?

Or maybe I'm worrying for nothing. Perhaps the pendulum will swing back into normalcy. Of course, that would be pretty boring too.

This week on Fox: "An Above-Average Day."

Jamie Kanter is a senior majoring in Spanish and psychology.