"Laguna Beach" started as a pun on "Beverly Hills 90210" in 2004 following the lives of high school teenagers living in Laguna Beach, Calif. The show was an instant hit on MTV and was followed by thousands. After season two, the narrorator of the show Lauren Conrad was offered a spin-off show entitled "The Hills." She had graduated high school and moved to Las Angeles to go to college.
The show was highly criticised and always questioned weather the show was supposed to be "reality" television or just another show for entertainment. The question was not answered until the final episode of "The Hills" seven years after "LC" (Lauren Conrad) had begun her MTV career.
If you skip ahead in the clip to 2:45 left, the ending tells the answer.
The Hills finale final clip
This show was all fake, set-up, and lead everyone to believe these people were truly living these lives. But we were fooled. If you look at how much people live and thrive off of reality television, it's astonishing how people were literally heart broken to find out what they were lead to believe for 7 years, was all fake.
We play a huge role in the formation of reality television and keeping it on the stations. "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills" were set up to look real because "reality" television is what was popular when they came out. MTV knew that in order to make the ratings sky-rocket, the show HAD to be "reality."
The show was watched because of the people being followed, not because of quality, or of how much it impacted our lives, but simply on beautiful girls in a beautiful city. They were the "popular" girls living out the "perfect" life, and that is what every 14 and 15 year old girl wants to know and see.
Most of the story line, if not all, is based around boyfriend drama, aka, sex appeal. We as viewers were judging the girls' boyfriends and thinking what we would do in those situations, but in "reality" those girls were never even dating those guys.
Reality television is the biggest joke, but that is "where the money is." I feel as though Gabler was exactly on point as to why people do and watch reality television. They want money, we want to watch people live lives we only dream about.
