You could call it 'Surreal World'

The newest cast of The Real World says aloha to Hawaii, not your everyday locale for most American twentysomethings. Nor do most young people live with cameras in their face every minute.

By PAMELA DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 15, 1999

The Real World's new season serves up Hawaiian punch with, top row, from left, Ruthie, Matt, Colin, Kaia and Justin and, bottom row, Teck and Amaya. [Photo: MTV]

It didn't take long for the clothes to come off.

We knew there would probably be skin showing when The Real World went to Hawaii this season, but we didn't know it would happen so soon.

Or last so long. One of this year's cast members pretty much walks around topless 24/7.

If seeing too much skin offends you, chill out. MTV blurs the naked parts. This isn't Cinemax.

Nudity, crying, fighting, it's all part of The Real World. It's the sort of behavior viewers have come to expect.

Who wants to watch some twentysomething do regular stuff like go to school, visit the post office or order a McDonald's hamburger? That's the real real world.

Most everyone knows what the show is about by now, but for those of you without cable, here's the deal: It's MTV's reality-based soap opera. Seven people who are not actors live together for four months for free in a fabulously decorated house with one condition: every single thing they do and say can be videotaped.

No matter how creepy and kooky that sounds, more than 23,000 young people auditioned to be in the Hawaii cast. When you're 22, single, attractive and somewhat talented it's mighty tempting to put your face on MTV, the young adult channel of choice.

And it's tempting to watch the show, too.

After Tuesday's episode, chances are you'll tune in next week to find out if Ruthie joins AA or if Teck goes skinny-dipping again.

The show is in its eighth season, outlasting such traditional sitcom as Mad About You and The Nanny. MTV is scouting now for next season's city.

The cast ranges in age from 19 to 22. One is really smart. One is really naked. One is really blond. One is really average. One is really troubled. One is really loud. One is really sensitive.

The gang gets to mix it up in a Honolulu plantation-style beachfront home and run their own cafe and performance space on Waikiki. Entertainment Weekly reported that one of the roomies, Justin, bails before the season is over, something that happens happens quite a lot on The Real World.

The magazine also reported that another cast member, Ruthie, is forced to take a 30-day leave of absence and two other members, Amaya and Colin, become tangled in a romance.

Too much reality? Hardly.

"These kids are living in this phony environment for a limited period of time to make good television," says TV Guide critic Matt Roush. "I find it to be so un-real. It's got that phony self-awareness and self-promotionalism that MTV smacks of all the time."

Though Roush is down on the show, viewers are still into it. According to MTV, last season's The Real World, which took place in Seattle and included a big fat slap from one roommate to another, was the highest-rated Real World so far.

"It has not outlived its purpose," says Matt Kunitz, the show's supervising producer. "This is one of the most dramatic seasons we've ever had."

Cast member Colin, 19, figured "four months in Hawaii? Where do I sign up?"

Fellow cast member Kaia, 22, goes a little deeper than that.

"I appreciate that the show attempts to portray people from the point of view from a viewer who might not have been involved in the actual activity that's being portrayed."

Huh?

Alrighty, then

Both Colin and Kaia say they aren't embarrassed by anything they did on The Real World, though they have yet to see all the episodes. More than 2,000 hours of video were shot and will be edited down to 22 episodes.

"I was very open," Colin says. "I didn't hide a thing on this show. There was actually one time I cried and I was like "Man! I can't believe I cried on TV.' It wasn't like little-kid crying but it helped me realize a lot of things that I think about myself."