Oh, the Drama: a look back at 'Real World'

April 1, 2008 at 10:20PM

Nearly 20 seasons of "The Real World" have led to some of reality TV's highlights and low points. Here are moments that still resonate: Season 1 New York (1992): Julie Gentry befriends a homeless woman, spends the night in her makeshift community, Reagan-Ville.

Season 2 Los Angeles (1993): Tami Roman has an abortion.

Season 3 San Francsico (1994): Pedro Zamora struggles with AIDS and becomes an activist. He dies shortly after the season finale airs.

Season 4 London (1995): During a concert, Neil Forrester playfully kisses a drunken male heckler, who responds by biting his tongue.

Season 5 Miami (1996): The housemates listen outside the window as Mike Lambert has sex in the shower with a woman he picked up.

Season 6 Boston (1997): Montana McGlynn gets fired from the cast's after-school program after allowing a child to taste some alcohol.

Season 7 Seattle (1998): Stephen Williams slaps Irene McGee as she moves out. He is forced to take anger-management classes.

Season 8 Hawaii (1999): Ruthie Alcaide passes out after a drinking binge. Her roommates eventually persuade her to check into rehab.

Season 9 New Orleans (2000): Melissa Howard is upset when a tour guide uses the "N" word.

Season 10 New York (2001): Coral Smith is offended by Mike Mizanin's views on black people.

Season 11 Chicago (2002): Episode in which the cast learns about the Sept. 11 attacks is one of the highest rated in MTV's history.

Season 12 Las Vegas (2002): Trishelle Cannatella and Steven Hill, who refuse to use condoms, have a pregnancy scare.

Season 13 Paris (2003): CT Tamburello and Leah Gillingwater are caught submitting fake reviews for their jobs at Frommer's.

Season 14 San Diego (2004): Frankie Abernathy engages in self-mutiliation. She dies in 2007 from cystic fibrosis.

Season 15 Philadelphia (2004): Sarah Burke takes off her shirt and invites her new roomies to inspect her breast implants.

Season 16 Austin (2005): Johanna Botta lies that Nehemiah Clark got in a bar fight; Danny Jamieson runs outside and gets beaten up.

Season 17 Key West (2006): John Devenanzio thinks he's funny when he removes Jannelle Casaneve's bikini without her permission.

Season 18 Denver (2006): Alex Smith, Colie Edison and Jenn Grijalva share a three-way kiss. Edison later comes down with mono.

Season 19 Sydney (2007): Trisha Cummings and Parisa Montazaran compete for the affections of a guy named Alex.

about the writer

about the writer

Neal Justin

Critic / Reporter

Neal Justin is the pop-culture critic, covering how Minnesotans spend their entertainment time. He also reviews stand-up comedy. Justin previously served as TV and music critic for the paper. He is the co-founder of JCamp, a non-profit program for high-school journalists, and works on many fronts to further diversity in newsrooms.

See Moreicon

More from Minnesota Star Tribune

See More
card image
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece