“Will & Grace,” another sitcom, broke some ground by chronicling the relationship between a gay man and his straight friend, but discerning viewers couldn’t help but notice that it had about as much bite as “I Love Lucy.” In 2000, “Survivor,” then in its first season, delivered an openly gay (and, often, openly nude) antihero in Richard Hatch, who schemed his way to million-dollar victory. From the Archives: “Billed as a reality-based soap opera, MTV's ‘Real World’ is real largely by accident,” our critic wrote in 1992.A Gay Icon: Danny Roberts, who is returning to TV in “The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans,” was a star of the show’s ninth season during a fraught time for L.G.B.T.Q.A Reunion : In 2021, “The Real World Homecoming: New York” brought back the original cast of the series that set the standards of reality TV, for better and for worse.
A Look Back at MTV’s ‘The Real World’ The pioneering reality show debuted in 1992 and ran for 33 seasons in its original incarnation.
