Reality TV shows have been an American mainstay for more than a decade now. But just how “real” is Reality TV?
Our own sense of honesty makes us want to believe that if we read something in print or see it on TV, it must be real. Except, that’s not always the case.
Years ago, networks found a formula to produce cheap entertainment that didn’t require a team of writers, that didn’t require actor’s being paid union salaries and that the general public would eat up like an all-you-can-eat buffet. From “The Jerry Springer Show” and “The People’s Court” to today’s “Maury Povich” and “Judge Joe Brown,” reality shows have been and continue to be all the rage. But why? It’s because we want to believe they’re really real — except (BRACE YOURSELF), they’re not!
Ken Tarr is a reality show veteran who has come forward to bust the myth, after multiple appearances on dozens of “reality” shows and years of collecting pay checks for his made up stories and antics.
Tarr made his first “appearance” on “The Bill Cunningham Show.” Posing as a prince of the gypsies, Tarr made the on-air claim that he was entitled to cheat on his girlfriend, although Victorian rules prevented her from doing the same. Most people know very little about gypsy culture, so no one knew if his claims were true or not and no one cared, since producers of the show never bothered to check out the validity of his story. Tarr was flown to New York City, put up in a swanky hotel, chauffeured to the studio in a stretch limousine and paid a fee for his “gypsy” tale. The raging crowd ate him and his story up alive. He knew he was onto something.
Tarr made a career out of reality show appearances. For “Judge Joe Brown,” he pretended to be a drunk gypsy clown who trashed a bathroom at a kid’s birthday party. On “The Trisha Goddard Show,” he played the role of Eddie the Trucker, who ran up $70,000 in debts by hiring hookers and playing the lottery. For the OWN Network show “Unfaithful,” Tarr posed as an international security expert who was cheating on his girlfriend while she was also cheating on him. And on “The Sit-Down,” he pretended to be a man whose best friend had seduced his girlfriend and crashed his car. In each case, Tarr received first class travel and accommodations, as well as a substantial appearance fee. He even appeared on the same shows more than once, by simply wearing a different disguise. Producers never once checked out his stories and actually encouraged him to beef them up by providing him with coaching on what to say, when to say it, and even permission to fly off the handle and get mad. Their audiences loved it!
After a while, Tarr no longer needed to call the shows and offer them made up tales — they started calling him! They didn’t even care if he was the same guy appearing or not. Tarr was a ratings hit and the shows loved him. His appearances as a reality show hoaxer became automatic cash in their pockets — and a cash cow for him.
“Television insults and manipulates us all the time,” Tarr said. “So I thought I might as well come up with my own hoaxes and demonstrate how you can manipulate them.”
Tarr’s tales just goes to show, everything is NOT always the way it seems!
