How Mavericks at MTV Invented a New Genre - The Early Days of Reality TV with Producer Rick Telles

Unscripted, reality TV series have been around for decades. Now, you can hear the story of how it began from Rick Telles, a producer who was there at the start. Rick started in Hollywood as an actor, but was disappointed in the roles offered a young, Latino man. He was more interested in how shows were made, anyway, so he took a huge pay cut to start work at a company called Bunim Murray, which was producing a new series for MTV-- The Real World. The TV landscape has never been the same since. Rick then goes on to talk about how the genre has evolved over time, in sometimes disappointing directions. Now he's producing an amazing feature for Amazon Studios, A Million Miles Away. This episode is brought to you by The Anonymous Production Assistant. The theme music was written and performed by Daniel Clingman. Chapters: 00:00 Rick Telles - Actor? 01:14 The Importance of Community 03:59 Inventing a Genre - Reality TV 08:18 Is Reality Television Really Real? 13:23 Real Haunted Houses? 18:10 Finding the Characters, Or: Is Omarosa Really Like That? 20:25 When the Footage Doesn't Match Your Pitch 23:35 The Long Road from Reality TV to Narrative Films 27:26 Save Your Money! 28:20 Finding Hidden Gems 29:49 Surviving the Lean Times 32:13 Pitching "The Space Between" to Every Studio 34:38 Early Christmas Present from Netflix - Turnaround 36:54 Advice for When Your Project Falls Apart