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That ignorance was just bliss.

(Twenty seasons, just waiting for you!)
At the time, some critics considered the series too phony and dismissed its stars for being vapid.
More than enough, in fact, wrote Tom Shales in anespecially scathing reviewin the WashingtonPost.
You might want to think about getting a real job.
You might want to think about getting a real life.
You might want to stop watching head-emptying drivel likeThe Real World.
Its weird that Gen-Xers have always resented their elders so much.
I cannot figure out why.
Actually, the first season ofThe Real Worldis remarkably low-key and authentic or at least authentic-adjacent by modern standards.
None of the castmates hook up with one another, though romances are hinted at for dramatic purposes.
(Yes, my young friends, we actually lived like this.
No, I dont know how we did it either.)
What the first season ofThe Real Worldbecame most famous for were its conflicts involving race.
Im sick of it!
that became the stuff ofReal Worldlegend.
As the shows intro promised, sometimes these 20-somethings really did stop being polite and started getting real.
Fast-forward: Wheres the lie?
Everyone looks good but, naturally, older.
Waists are a little wider.
Its crazy, I met your mom when she was a teenager, he tells her.
And youre a teenager.