So it all started with PBS’s 1973 “American Family,” which followed the Loud Family from Santa Barbara. That show inspired “The Real World” on MTV. That inspired another show, and another show and another show. Will this crazed mania ever stop?

From “American Idol” to “Wife Swap,” reality shows are taking over your cable television. According to www.realityshows.com, there are currently over 100 reality shows on television. There is a reality show for everything. Their subjects vary from living with strangers, fixing up a straight man’s house to watching a snotty 16-year-old daddy’s girl disrespect her parents and spend thousands of dollars on a party that only lasts for about four hours. I say, enough is enough.

It was fine with just “The Real World.” I rather enjoyed watching strangers argue over who will wash the dishes, whether or not someone opened someone else’s mail or watching Flora climb through a window during the Miami season. Still, MTV is not free from blame. It has about 45 reality shows it can call its own. Why, it’s enough to make me cry.

“It all plays out like a modern version of a soap opera,” Timi Poeppelman, a professor of communications at Sacramento State, said. “In general, it’s a sad reflection on our society today. The TV industry takes a formula and just beats it to death.”

Once MTV caught on to the reality hype, ABC, NBC, A&E, VH1, BET and many more jumped on the bandwagon. I think the most famous next to “The Real World” would have to be “American Idol.” I’ll admit, I was hooked this last season, but I have no idea why. I think it was Simon Cowell and I was dying to know what would come out of his mouth next. The other thing that made me addicted was the awful display of singers they presented in the beginning of the auditions. They portray people and embarrass them by showing them fail on national television. If you ask me, those contestants bring it on themselves. If you take yourself on national television and embarrass yourself, that is all on you.

“I admit they are getting out of hand,” Beth Rogers, a sophomore recreation and leisure studies major, said. “But I can’t help it. It’s all too addicting!”

America is captivated by the many shows streaming through mainstream cable. Society’s obsession is overwhelming and it just hypes up the networks to make more shows that will show the “reality” of everyday people. Even celebrities have cashed in on the excitement. Some celebrity newlyweds have joined the reality buzz and have let cameras into their homes to record the first few years of their marriages. And, of course, it has proven it doesn’t work. The three most famous couples to do this have all split up with in the last year. Wow, I wonder why.

One reality show to catch the media is the second season of FX’s “30 Days.” With its catchy phrase, “A lot can happen in 30 Days,” series creator Morgan Spurlock takes individuals out of their comfort zones and places them into a situation that is hostile to their beliefs, religion and/or environment to show them the other side of how people live.

Have I heard this before? Maybe, because it’s just like every other reality show out there and there’s always a lesson to be learned in them all. All reality shows ever do is take people out of their comfort zones and put them into a situation that is different to show the “reality” of their thoughts and emotions. They are all the same and they all need to go away.

Poeppelman agrees that they are definitely getting out of hand. According to Poeppelman, people feel as if they “relate or commiserate with the individuals on this show.”

Are our lives really that boring that we have to fill them with nonsense of fake acting and sampled editing? It’s all a sad display of bad television.

Rosa Pastran can be reached at [email protected]