How Many of These Vintage MTV Pretty-People Reality Shows Did You Watch Back in the Day?

Right around the turn of the century, MTV went through a big "looks" phase. Not that it was ever, you know, strictly intellectual, but for a minute there it was just like PRETTY PEOPLE NOW NOW GET THEM WE WANT THEM THEY'RE PRETTY.

This phase, which resulted in several bad and memorable (and in some cases, memorably bad) reality shows, coincided with my going to college. So the fight for my brain was a daily struggle between my liberal arts education and MTV shows with stunning casts and Michelle Branch theme songs.

I like to think the liberal arts education won (thanks, Mom and Dad!), but then again I was unusually excited when MTV announced today that it'll soon start rerunning full vintage Real World seasons including the original New York, San Francisco, and the original Las Vegas (thanks...Trishelle?).

Las Vegas, it should be noted, aired when I was a freshman, and it had by far the prettiest and most debauched cast yet—which is why it's one of our favorite RWs of all time. It made the perfect nighttime viewing for all the crazy one-offs we used to catch reruns of during the day. There was:

That '70s House (2005)

Where did anyone think this was going? A bunch of attractive people lived in a house and couldn't use their cell phones. So... The Real World with shag carpeting. Natasha Leggero (above) would sometimes stop by to do scripted stunts. There were competitions do be "the most '70s," where the contestants would do things like have a dance-off and get eliminated for dancing in too modern a style. SOMEONE SPENT MONEY ON THIS.

Sorority Life (2002-04)__