By Jody Lee
radio host, author, political and lifestyle blogger, media consultant
Published: November 5, 2009

I guess I’m showing my age when I say I remember a life before reality television.  Even more so when I point out that I remember when there were only 3 television networks to choose from for viewing choices.

I remember when you had to stand up and walk over to the television set in order to change the channels or set the volume. 

On your black and white tv set.

Oh, well.  I guess showing my age is kind of what this space is about, so what the heck – there it is.

Now, back to reality tv - - -

Watching television used to be something we did to escape reality.  Not relive it.  With the exception of The News – which was limited to two 30 minute segments on weekdays (one segment on weekends) , if you can imagine – television was about entertainment.  Sometimes we laughed, sometimes we gasped, sometimes we sat on the edge of our seats, sometimes we even learned something.

But reality as entertainment?  If that be the case, geez, just turn off the tv and walk outside.

But no, these days “reality” tv is all the rage and it is EVERYWHERE. 

TO make matters worse, they appear to be throwing around the word “reality” a lot lately where it is not entirely appropriate, don’t you think?  I don’t know about YOUR reality, but mine doesn’t look anything like what I see on so-called reality television.

To take a closer look at what’s going on, I reluctantly turned off I Love Lucy and took a good hard look at what’s passing for “reality” these days…

to be continued…