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Was the first reality show lampoon really in 1979? It appears so! Forrest Miller, Conan Neutron, J. Andrew World, talk about Albert Brooks with the return of Sam Seder of the Majority Report.
Hot off the heels of the (excellent) Defending My Life Albert Brooks documentary the crew tackle a lesser known work of the master comic, the resoundingly prescient and very funny REAL LIFE Albert Brooks 1979 Directorial Debut. Joining them is Mr. Sam Seder, comic and host of the Majority Report, weekdays 12 PM ET or @TheMajorityReport
Real Life is a prescient, wry and droll mockumentary (maybe the first?) that lampooned and predicted “reality” television. Albert Brooks plays “Albert Brooks” an egocentric, inept and egomaniacal film director in what has to be one of the most negative self portrayals in film!
It’s a bit astonishing how ahead of his time Albert Brooks was with this one.
He’s parodying “An American Family” the first Reality TV show ever filmed in 1973.. which catapulted a normal “typical” middle class American Family into a spotlight for a 12 episode experiment.
Nowadays, you see a lot of people “turning the camera back to the audience” with reality television, questioning what is reality and what is prompted and scripted and why. Nathan Fielder has made an interesting career of it, but to see this done when the IDEA of reality television was still in such an embryonic phase is damn impressive.
This is the first feature film by Albert Brooks. Wow.
