Archive Entry #9: May 9, 1991

A big story from network TV land last week was the on-air revelation of the runner up in the latest season of ABC’s “The Bachelorette” that he and the show's star had slept together just days – or perhaps the night – before she announced her decision to go with the other guy.

It was stirring television. The spurned suitor choosing his words with care, his eyes frequently downcast as struggled for the right way to remind the woman who had rejected him (while informing the rest of the world!) of their intimate past.

She absorbed the impact of his announcement then said something like, “I can’t believe you just said that about our very personal moment.”

Really. She said that... on a reality show whose mission is to package for national broadcast a person’s journey through a marital decision tree that is constructed of attractive options who are very publicly eliminated one per week. She actually objected to the revelation of their tryst on privacy grounds...while sitting under the lights and atop the billboard of national TV. Amazing.

I detest modern reality shows (I know about the scene reported above because of an online news item, not because I watched the show). It’s odd and eerie that people willingly expose their lives to the vast and anonymous review of such shows. It’s equally troubling that people sit as curious voyeurs on the other side of the television screen. We have to do better.

The following column comes from an era of few prime time reality shows; back then afternoon talkers provided the grist for our curiosity mills. As you will no doubt conclude, I didn’t like “reality” in 1991 any more than I like it today.

COMING NEXT: From January 2009, the power of first impressions – wisdom about Sunday morning guests that was true long before I finally published it more than 23 years into my FCCEM ministry. Find it HERE.