4 Lies Reality Shows Rely On (That Are Worse Than You Think)

Most reality shows liberally mix the live stuff with re-enacted bits. The trouble is that there's a fine line between re-enactment and outright lying. Operation Repo peed all over that line when they filmed an episode in which one of their repo crews got chased by a shotgun-wielding psychopath ...

EGA Productions

... only to have an eagle-eyed viewer spot that this apparently unhinged gun nut's property was actually just a set, also used for an episode of Jackass:

Paramount Pictures
No death threats, even though this time it'd be absolutely deserved.

We also leave a lot of gold on the cutting room floor whenever it's at odds with how our producers want someone's "character" to develop. We had one cast member spend two straight nights in a vet's office, waiting to see if his dog was going to live through a terrible illness. That's gripping, personal stuff. But the show had built him up as this cold, emotionless person, so we couldn't show him crying after that. We wound up cutting that whole bit because it humanized a human too much.

Tashi-Delek/iStock/Getty Images
"The director wants you to call him a bad dog and show him clips of Old Yeller."

Jed turned out to be the most popular person on the show because he was so genuine. Everyone else tried to act, to some extent, and he was just himself in front of a camera. There is usually one guy like that on every reality show, and they often turn out to be fan favorites for everyone but the producers.

One of the producers I worked with used to be with The Biggest Loser. A contestant's backstory that year was that her husband had been killed in an industrial accident. So the psychopaths in charge wanted to interview her next to the same type of garbage compactor that had killed the love of her life. The plan was to turn it on halfway through, so she'd start spontaneously crying. If you think that sounds like some straight-up serial killer shit, well, that's probably offensive to serial killers.

NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Honestly, that's just the tip of the dickberg.

A lot of work goes into keeping the cameras offscreen. That's easier said than done: The cameras we use weigh 30 pounds, with another 20 pounds of necessary gear. Even a show like Cops, which uses the bare minimum of equipment, requires a set-up like this:

Langley Productions
Not to mention the danger of, you know, being fucking shot.

One of the first camera guys I worked with was a 35-year-old who'd been working for 10 years, and had the back of a 60-year-old professional wrestler because of it. And not one of the good ones that wins a lot.

One day, we were filming on a frozen pond to get a poignant shot of some guy walking away. Then we heard a stomach-dropping crack, and the ice beneath us started breaking up. We booked it, but our field producer didn't quite run fast enough. He wound up halfway into the freezing water. He lived, but he understands shrinkage better than Rick Moranis now.

Elenathewise/iStock/Getty Images
It was weeks before he could handle his schwartz again.

One of the great ironies of filming reality television is that, as fake as the end product can be, some amazing real stuff happens to the crews trying to film it. One of our other field producers (we've gone through a few) was nearly assaulted by a moose. We had to scare it off mid-charge.

tvirbickis/iStock/Getty Images
His squirrel friend killed three production assistants.

There's a running joke among the crew that the show should actually be about us, but the poor bastards filming the people filming the people would probably have their realities irrevocably fucked.

One time, we shot a scene where a survivalist bought his supplies from a grocery store in gold. Some prepper-types hoard gold for the apocalypse (apparently people will still want bling when the Earth is a scorched and radioactive hellscape?), and we wanted actual shots of someone using gold as currency. Here's the problem: That's really stupid. Stores don't generally accept gold handed to them on the spot.

John Gomez/iStock/Getty Images
It's the only way to trump that asshole who breaks a hundred with a pack of gum.

The cast member wasn't into the idea, but we pushed him to do it, and we bribed the grocery store owner with real cash to go along with it. Then we bought some gold -- he didn't actually have any on him. Even to the supposedly "fringe" people we were filming, no part of this made any sense outside of the mind of some delusional producer.

But all our viewers eventually saw was someone panning up a nugget of gold, then directly using it in lieu of cash. For weeks after the episode aired, we'd have complaints come in from people who tried to pay with gold themselves to no avail (seriously, you just can't do it). We also pissed off a lot of people who had wasted hours fruitlessly panning, when our show made it seem like you can't take a drink from a creek without choking on a gold bar.

Wheninusa/iStock/Getty Images
"My daughter's birthday parties were probably boring, anyway."

In another episode, we showed a woman cooking beaver meat. She didn't actually have a recipe in mind -- it was all for show. She'd just dumped it in a pot and hoped for the best. But that episode had apparently unlocked a deep hunger for beaver meat, and people got pissed that the recipe she used on screen didn't bring out that tangy beaver flavor.

Turns out, people will try to emulate just about anything they see on TV: bartering gold for Hostess Fruit Pies, scary, rapid weight loss as portrayed on The Biggest Loser, crossing international borders without visas like on The Amazing Race.

Jerry Bruckheimer Television
"The other teams were shot by border patrol; you win by default! Congratulations!"

The one thing they have in common is that they usually end up in bad shape. So hey, maybe more folks going to town on some beaver isn't the worst legacy to leave the world.

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For more insider perspectives, check out 6 Ways Prison Is More Horrifying Than Movies Make It Look and 5 Realities Of The Rehab Camp My Parents Paid To Kidnap Me .

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