Before "Big Brother" there was another reality series where people went and lived in a house while cameras filmed them. Unlike "Big Brother", the cast of "Real World" can leave the house, have people over and lead "regular" lives. "Real World" celebrated it's 10th season by going back to where it all started: New York City. This "best of" disc contains moments that weren't shown on TV, and they're pretty darn funny. Living in Canada we didn't have MTV until a few months ago so I never saw "Back to New York" when it aired. We have a channel that carries the "Real World" show, and I watched, and loved, the San Francisco season until they cut it 3/4 of the way through! I heard Pedro died shortly after the show aired. Anyway, join Coral, Kevin, Lori, Malik, Mike, Nicole and Rachel as "Real World" goes back to New York.
Video
Shot on video, this release is free of any problems like dust or scratches you'd expect from a show shot on film. The colors are nice and clean and the video only suffers from the odd shimmer or moire pattern. There are 18 chapters, although there's more material then that on the disc. Here are the chapter names so you can get an idea of what's covered on the disc: "The Miz", "Cleanliness is Godliness", "Michael is My Little Boy", "High Maintenance Hair", "Hella What", "Take 1 Porno", "The Vegan Conspiracy", "Rock Star Lori", "The Ladies Man Part 1", "Real World vs. Road Rules", "The Ladies Man Part 2", "Arista Records", "Scatological Puppets", "Rachel the Squealer", "Lori the Entertainer", "The Confessional", "The Hampton's" and "To The Memories".
Audio
The audio for "The Real World You Never Saw: Back to New York" is nice and clean. The DVD holds a stereo track but because it's a dialog driven show so the center speaker holds most of the audio.
Cast Bios & Audition Tapes
Each cast member (Coral, Kevin, Lori, Malik, Mike, Nicole and Rachel) has a 1 screen writeup and a link to part of their audition tape. The audition tapes are: Coral 0:53, Kevin 1:11, Lori 0:47, Malik 0:56, Mike 0:53, Nicole 1:20 and Rachel 0:52 (6:52 total).
NYC Haunts
VERY short snippets from some of the cast member haunts while they were in The Big Apple. Flights 0:27, Chelsea 0:49, Lot 61 0:13, Bar & Books 0:38 and Kate's Corner 0:40 (2:47 total).
House Tour
This is the most interesting of the extras found on the disc. We're given a tour of the house by Mike and Coral, and what a house it is! I really like "the Bug Room", a room filled with various dead insects. It's definitely a house I'd like to live in.
Summary
Even though I've never seen "Back to New York", I loved this DVD. "Real World" puts "Big Brother" to shame and was on long before the "Reality Show" trend started by "Survivor" and "Big Brother". It's nice to see Paramount put out a solid release but instead of these "best of" discs I'd rather see them bundled with the entire season in a box with maybe a few more extras tossed in there for good measure. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but there's a possibility that season sets of "Real World" (and maybe "Road Rules") could be coming. In a few weeks Paramount Home Video is releasing "WWF Tough Enough: Season One", another of the MTV reality series along with a "behind the scenes" disc. Maybe we'll see "Real World: Chicago" released in a season set, or maybe I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope.
