When is reality Real and when is it staged?

As the title states, that is the question a discerning viewer must ask these days. Especially after revelations of Storage Wars being rigged for bidding and lockers ...and the terrible fakery of one female cast member getting fake boobs just for the show! Is NOTHING real anymore??

Well... Even a staged event can feel pretty friggin real to the guy getting the stuffing beat out of him for the cameras.

The Discovery Channel let cameras roll as cast members of the biker reality show "The Devils Ride" beat a man in a bar brawl, and then broadcast the assault without his consent, the man claims in court.

Plaintiff Ashi Fachler, who describes himself as a "street photographer," says the now-defunct Lincoln Room invited "Devils Ride" filmmakers into the bar on the night of Jan. 27, 2012 so cast members could provoke fights with members of the public for the reality show.

In short, they roared in, they surveyed the scene and then proceeded to beat whatever was in range and not carrying club colors or a camera.

"Cast members instigated an enormous fight between numerous invitees and guests of the Lincoln Room," the lawsuit states. "The fight began in The Lincoln Room and then carried over into the street. During this mayhem, plaintiff was severely beaten."

Fachler claims there was not enough bar staff or security to stop the brawl from spilling onto the streets. He claims motorcycle club members continued to beat him as he was on the ground, while security personnel stood by and watched.

Source: Courthouse News

Now that is just uncool! What is security there for???? Are they just making sure no cast members (Biker gang members) get skinned knuckles from the teeth and bone of the people they're abusing for the show??

In fairness, I CAN see how a situation can spin so far out of control that security no longer COULD intervene without becoming as much victims as those they'd be trying to help. It happens and usually without notice or way to predict it.

This??? This wasn't unpredictable. If it wasn't the whole point, to get fighting started, then it was a very foreseeable consequence to the actions taken here. It would almost have been surprising, had it not turned out that way, by how the story reads. They weren't going to this bar with Discovery Show crew so everyone could have some quiet drinks around a big table in the back.

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...and think, you could have been this man. Out for a drink or maybe lonely and just looking for some warm company through the night. Whatever brought you (or him) to a bar in this case. Nothing whatsoever intended to violence...of course not. Yet, because a TV crew had a show to make? You'll end your evening severely beaten and with no damn clue why, or what you did to deserve any of it ...until well after it's over.

This isn't the first reality show stunt to go horribly wrong and get someone hurt. They've had their fun with Dodge City rules. I think it's time some regulation come to reality TV. If porn actors can be forced to wear a condom? Then reality show producers can be forced to insure no one is BEATEN OR KILLED just for their stupid show.

Sound logical?

I used to watch Ghost Hunters all the time. I loved it. But then I saw on You Tube how some of it was faked. Not that it COULD be faked ... but that it really was faked. Now I can't watch Ghost Hunters anymore because when the things happen I don't know if it's real or if it's them faking it. You never know. So I stopped watching.

reply to post by FlyersFan

Oh how depressing. I still watch that show occasionally. I doubt I will anymore. You're right. That is the kind of thing which, once you confirm it for certain on a specific show? It's never the same trying to watch it again. Trust is just an all or nothing proposition, IMO. One proven fakery incident is enough to kill credibility. Why can't they realize that??

I guess the ones I still care to watch at all now are the ones they CAN'T much fake because the circumstances are too dangerous already or the people on the show are too Non-P.C. to care enough about bothering with such nonsense.

COPS and Lockup are two for the first type and Duck Dynasty for the second. I still watch those 3 from time to time ...but precious little else for TV. Sadly, because of the trash it's really become anymore? My TV is turned off 90% of the time now. Its a shame too...I once loved watching TV, too.

Its all garbage. I watched the very first season of Axmen because I wanted to actually see what logging was like and the first one was pretty good. I cant stand it now, its all scripted, there always just happens to be a camera conveniently placed where a log is going to fall lol, not to mention you really cant understand what theyre talking about because literally every other word is "beep" hey you mother "beep" get your "beep" over here right "beep" now. ridiculous.

The last good and to my knowledge true reality/survival show was Survivorman

All reality TV is well, NOT real. People just don't behave like that normally, right?
Even shows I like such as Hell's Kitchen you can tell that show is heavy on the editing. Don't get me started on Honey Boo Boo....

I think in the end people just don't care. Entertain me that's all they want. The bloodier and more violent the better! Find me a show that teaches about love and respect of other humans and life (Elmo and Big bird don't count)

As long as most of the people keep there heads tuned in no body will care about the content of shows. Entertain me. Film at 11.

Well that Bear Grylls guy is a total fake. I think women just like to look at him. There was an episode of him jumping around on some rocks, but because of the camera angle you can't see the highway behind him.

Now, Survivor Man is fairly legit. He's done some episodes in my neck of the woods and his techniques were pretty good.

Some of the gold mining shows aren't exactly "fake" or "real". Those are real people, and I know people that know them.

I also know someone who is a "Time Bandit" groupie. Oh the stories...the stories...

If it is on television, even if it is a reality show, and especially if it is the news, I would say fake. I'm not kidding. I don't like watching television because it gets me confused about what is going on. I find print to be a much better medium.

I do promote Netflix though, and watching shows that are not pretending to be real when they are, in fact, fabricated.

Even in Storage Wars, they place objects in the garages, and I'm sure that a lot of the drama on reality shows is made up - for me, it isn't healthy to watch something that I think is real that isn't, because it might get me confused, you know?

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Wow, well, I mean it is a choice to make, I'm sure some people like watching them and can tell the difference, I actually like watching reality shows more than sitcoms myself. The news is also interesting, but both are entertainment,

I don't think it is a good idea for me to take them seriously if I want to have an accurate assessment of reality, which from your O.P. seems to be what you are advocating, which I agree is important.

Unfortunately not even news is real.
Fox went to court and actually had the law changed so that it is no longer illegal to lie and fabricate "news" stories.
Ever seen the CNN stuff from the Gulf War where the commentators are in front of blue screen pretending they are under chem attack?

This is a conspiracy site with thread after thread on things like 9/11 conspiracy and moon hoax stories.
Its sort of refreshing and amusing to see this thread on the validity of "reality shows" - to be honest, it leads me to believe in my heart that because you are even surprised by this - you are very genuine and real. Thank you for reminding me that out in the wide world - there are still people that are not automatically cynical.

reply to post by wrabbit2000


Just because I can't carry my gun into the bar doesn't mean that I won't have it in the car. And my little 4'11" wife? She has 9mm hell to spray on her own. Two words that do not go in a sentence together is "Bigfatfurrytexan" and "victim". Period.

As far as the OP goes, those channels are garbage. Discovery is getting just as bad. They used to be the last decent hold out.....but that ended a couple of years ago, and the random "Shark Week" won't change that.

TLC - Used to be "The Learning Channel". Now its the Honey BooBoo channel. You watch TLC to learn how strange people live. Or dwarves. Or people who think they should repopulate the Earth singlehandedly. Bottom line: TLC isnothing but reality TV covering oddities.

History Channel - This has become the Pseudoscience and Aliens channel. I used to love watching the history shows. Their years long Hitler and WWII kick was awesome. Now.....just a bunch of reality TV shows and fringe science.

Thank god for the internet and Netflix.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I laughed while reading your response because it sounds so familiar. I've also grown completely tired of the garbage which the old channels have now become. I was using the History channel as background at home and in hotel rooms on layovers to go to sleep to back then and do say they probably overplayed the Word War II kick by a year or so...ahem... Yeah... at least... You'd think they'd come to believe no other history had happened. lol

Although, like you say, it WAS history to see and worth leaving on. Some neat and interesting stuff in all that. Now? Heck.. I haven't had it on for more than an occasional show which really caught my eye in a one-off thing in a couple years.

National Geographic is more like National Pornographic when it isn't National Nut-O-Graphic with every Ted Kazinsky in the making they can find to turn a camera on. (You catch that guy making the castle? I guess the word SIEGE never crossed his pea brain. Siege and Sewage...an ugly truth. Check-Mate! Just add patience. Take a vacation on his hill. Wait for his very very solid and very very tight container to become as full of crap as he is. lol..... Ratings I suppose..)

I used to love Discovery too, but even the crab boats in Alaska started making the show FAR more about their OWN life and themselves in a big pity party than anything about the work and the job, which was all that was interesting in the first place on those shows.

Lets not forget things like Amish Mafia pop up.. Oh.. Sheesh. Just one of many, these days. I bought that it was real at first too. The first season at least....but they expect people to believe their nonsense is happening, on film no less and long enough ago to have been edited and run on scheduled TV...and people aren't dead or across headlines for it? Yeah.... riiiight. They've become so full of it, they float.

The only thing real about reality TV anymore, it would seem, is that it's really fake. Rigged. Contrived!