http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/front/3232213 OK, Austin, ready for The Real World? By MIKE MCDANIEL Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle It took 14 years for MTV to find us, but find us it did. As of Tuesday, Texas can officially proclaim it has encountered The Real World. Tuesday's premiere (9 p.m., MTV) is the standard introduction of the houseguests to us and one another. Per usual, they'll check out their expansive digs while one-eyeing each other. Expect: Coupling, cursing and alcohol consumption beyond reason. (What else is new?) With no booze in the house, one of the first orders of business is a visit to a nearby liquor store. Don't expect: Any same-sex coupling. Although there's a smooch between a couple of girls in Episode 1, the seven roomies are all flaming hets. The houseguests include: • Danny, 21, a jock from Bellerica, Mass., with the Boston accent to prove it. • Rachel, 21, a nurse originally from California. She served a year in Iraq. First impression: She's loud. • Nehemiah, 19, of Mesa, Ariz., the only black houseguest. • Lacey, 23, the house's self-described low-key resident, originally from Tallahassee, Fla. • Wes, a 20-year-old Kansas City native who parties hard. • Johanna, 21, from Riverside, Calif., with an eye for each of the male houseguests. (Which is tough to do. Two eyes, three guys — you do the math.) • Melinda, 21, of Germantown, Wis. Look for her and Danny to form an immediate mutual admiration society. Rachel has a boyfriend, but "we took a break while I was out there," she told us in a post-taping interview (shooting of the show has been completed). "We made up some rules, like no sex, no dating other people. But flirting and making out with others was OK." She spent a year in Iraq, most of it in Balad, a town 30 miles north of Baghdad. She got out in March 2004 and is not in a hurry to go back. "It was scary just being on those roads where the day before you knew somebody had gotten hit," she said. "I can't even watch the news on Iraq (now)." The housemates' work assignment will be to make a film while attending the South by Southwest music conference. "We were trained to film a documentary through the eyes of two bands performing there," Danny said. "I had a blast." Not that his entire experience went so well. "There's a lot of things you look back on and think, 'Oh, crap, my girlfriend's going to be watching this. I hope she misses this episode,' when you're hooking up with a girl or drinking or doing something stupid. "A lot of people think this is a four-month vacation, but it's really stressful. Some days you don't want to do it anymore. But at the end of all of it, I'd definitely do it again." IMPRESSIONS I got the impression that Rachel and Danny didn't get along during their time in the Real World house. Their answers here, evaluating their housemates, suggest both saw their roomies in a different light. SMARTEST Rachel: Lacey. She's really witty and was accepted into Princeton. Danny: Wes is really well-spoken and has a good head on his shoulders. SEXIEST Rachel: Johanna. Danny: Definitely Melinda. BIGGEST DRINKER Rachel: Wes. He's definitely a party frat boy. Danny: All of us. CUTEST Rachel: Wes. He has a very good personality. Danny: Melinda. BIGGEST CUSSER Rachel: Wow, we all had really dirty mouths. I'd say everybody but Lacey. Danny: At first it was Johanna. She had a mouth like a trucker. I'd say Rachel. BIGGEST GOSSIP Both: Lacey. COOLEST Rachel: Nehemiah. Sometimes he went off on his own. He was too cool for school. Danny: That's got to be me. No no no, I'd say Melinda. She'd party with the best of them but kept it together for the most part. She was the one everyone went to when they had a problem. A warehouse in Austin — tricked out with indoor swimming pool, neon Texana and, of course, a hot tub — serves as home for the sweet 16th season of the reality show. There have been 15 previous editions of The Real World dating back to May 1992. 1. New York 5/92 2. Los Angeles 6/93 3. San Francisco 6/94 4. London 6/95 5. Miami 7/96 6. Boston 7/97 7. Seattle 6/98 8. Hawaii 6/99 9. New Orleans 6/00 10. New York 7/01 11. Chicago 1/02 12. Las Vegas 9/02 13. Paris 6/03 14. San Diego 1/04 15. Philadelphia 9/04
My buddy has a condo at the Railyard (right behind the house). You could see them staggering back from 6th Street most nights. The crew would occationally stop them and make them retrace their steps if they felt they got a bad audio take on some stupid conversation they were having. It's so very real.
It would have been cool if your buddy had a spy cam so he could have documented what really goes on. Did he say their house was sweet?
I heard that they would close down restaurants to film them eating. Then they would select a few regular Austinites to eat so it looked like a regular meal - LAME!!! My buddy told me that they had their house blocked off too. I hate the Real World, but I will probably watch this once since I lived in Austin for 4 1/2 years.
It's a fact its not "Real", but lets hope its entertaining...I'll be watching the hot, young college co-ed's...
Yea...who cares? What I don't get is they don't have a single Texan in the mix? Who cares about a bunch of out-of-staters? They should have had at least one Austinite representing.
This is going to be an amusing situation. Those asshats took a lot of sh*t from us downtown. They got into several fights on 6th St, and were taunted mercilessly. Hopefully some of my verbal jabs made it on the show.
Did the camera crew always have a cop with them on 6th or was this added after one of the guys got knocked the f out?
My friend lived in New Orleans during that season and he said the house was blocked off and if you attempted to meet the cast or go to the house you would be blocked.
On like their 2nd night here, one of the guys got into fight outside Aquarium. Ever since then, they've had off duty cops follow them around when they go out. Also, some hoodlums threw a stone threw the window, and ever since then, there's been an off-duty APD officer out there all the time. That's too bad, because I wanted to do the old flaming bag of poo on their doorstep.
The dumpster area at the Railyard has a chainlink fence that gave the only view of the back alley. The cast apparently could not smoke in the house, so they would smoke out back. The camera crews, audio personel, etc. would change shifts back there, as well. It was actually kind of interesting talking with the film crews. My buddy was talking with one of the sound guys and one cast members pops off and says, "hey this is private property" to which my buddy replied, "number one, I'm standing on my property and number two, f*ck off and smoke your cigarette...I'm not talking to you."
I got down on Real World after the Hawaii season, but I will defintely watch this one just to see how MTV portrays Austin and TX in general for a national audience. I'm always curious about outsiders perception of our great state.
Shoot, I dunno how Road rules finished yet, which is a lot more fun if you ask me. Drama and competition. But alas, I will watch Real world too!
I think I was most attracted to the blonde in New Orleans. Yummy. But also liked the short girl in Las Vegas, the spoon chucker.
