Josh Clark

There wasn't any narrative or plot lines.

It was just like, here's some cops and here's a crime that they're going to fight.

We don't have a script.

We just generally know what's going on, which ostensibly is the the basis of any reality show.

Yeah, I think, you know what we should do an episode on at some point is, I can't remember the name of it now because it just came to me, but I think kind of the first real reality show was that one where they followed the American family around in the 70s maybe.

Wasn't it PBS or British or something?

I think it was PBS.

And then they made a fictional account of that as a movie, not like four or five, six years ago, that was pretty good too.

I think James Gandolfini was in it.

Okay.

I would have guessed Peter Sarsgaard as the dad.

It was really good, though.

Anyway, that really kicked off reality TV.

MTV's Real World didn't come out until 92, but Cops certainly laid the groundwork for kind of like trashy reality TV, you know?

Yes.

The other effect that it had on the world was it really reinforced unfair racial stereotypes among white Americans toward black Americans, people of color in general in the United States.

It was an enormous show.

It drew like 8 million viewers each week.

That's a crazy amount of people.

It peaked in the 90s.