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Road Rules
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Road Rules, MTV's second reality show, debuted on July 19, 1995. The series followed six strangers between the ages of 18 and 24 (five strangers in the first four seasons) after stripping them of their money and putting them on an RV traveling from location to location only guided by a set of clues and a mission to complete at each location. It was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001.
The ground-breaking series was a pioneer in travel/adventure/reward reality television (together with Mark Burnett's Eco-Challenge productions).
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Encyclopedia
Road Rules, MTV's second reality show, debuted on July 19, 1995. The series followed six strangers between the ages of 18 and 24 (five strangers in the first four seasons) after stripping them of their money and putting them on an RV traveling from location to location only guided by a set of clues and a mission to complete at each location. It was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001.
The ground-breaking series was a pioneer in travel/adventure/reward reality television (together with Mark Burnett's Eco-Challenge productions). Road Rules was created by Jonathan Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim of Bunim/Murray Productions. After Bunim died of cancer in early 2004, the show went on hiatus for three years. After season 14 ended, it has been confirmed that Road Rules is no longer in production, although MTV nor Bunim-Murray have commented on the status of the series.
The show was spawned from its sister show The Real World. The idea of Road Rules came to mind, when Real World castmates Jon, Tami and Dominic traveled in an RV across the United States to get to their The Real World: Los Angeles house in the first two episodes of the second season. Bunim-Murray began working on the show soon after the third San Francisco season, and finally debuted in 1995. The show garnered a spin-off series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, which is still in production.
There was also a 1998 mini-series, Road Rules: The Real World All-Stars, in which five former stars from The Real World go on a short Road Rules course managed by infamous former Real World housemate Puck, who, until the very end of the series, was disguising his identity with the alias "Mr. Big". However, this is generally considered the first season of Real World/Road Rules Challenge.
Seasons
| Season | Year | Cast members | Handsome Reward |
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| 1 | USA - The First Adventure | 1995 | Allison Jones | Kit Hoover | Los Jackson | Mark Long | Shelly Spottedhorse | N/A | European Trip |
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| 2 | USA - The Second Adventure | 1996 | Emily Bailey | Tim Beggy | Christian Breivik | Devin Elston | Effie Perez | N/A | Honda Civics |
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| 3 | Europe | 1997 | Patrice Boudibela | Antoine de Bouverie | Elizabeth "Belou" Den Tex | Chris Melling | Michelle Parma | N/A | Home entertainment center and $1000 cash |
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| 4 | Islands | 1997 | Jake Bronstein | Kalle Dedolph | Vincent Forcier | Oscar Hernandez | Erika Ruen | N/A | Enrollment and Tuition on Semester at Sea Program |
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| 5 | Northern Trail | 1998 | Jon Holmes | Roni Martin | Tara McDaniel | Dan Setzler | Noah Rickun | Anne Wharton | Trip to Greece |
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| 6 | Down Under | 1998 | Susie Meister | Chadwick Pelletier | Shayne McBride | Christina Pazsitzky | Kefla Hare | Piggy Thomas | Choice of Seadoo, Motorbike or Harley |
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| 7 | Latin America | 1999 | Brian Lancaster | Sarah Martinez | Gladys Sanabria | Josh Florence | Holly Shand | Abe Ingersoll | Volkswagen Beetle |
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| 8 | Semester at Sea | 1999 | Veronica Portillo | Yes Duffy | Pua Medieros | Pawel Litwinski | Ayanna Mackins | Shawn Sealy | iMac Desktop Computer Package |
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| 9 | Maximum Velocity Tour | 2000 | Laterrian Wallace | Kathryn Kolb | Holly Brentson | James Orlando | Msaada Nia | Theo Vonkurnatowski | Cumulative Cash Prize on Cobalt Credit Card |
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| 10 | The Quest | 2001 | Jisela Delgado | Sophia Pasquis | Adam Larson | Blair Herter | Steve Meinke | Ellen Cho | Suzuki Grand Vitaras |
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| *Katie Doyle | | 11 | Campus Crawl | 2002 | Kendal Sheppard | Shane Landrum | Rachel Robinson | Darrell Taylor | Sarah Greyson | Eric Jones | Trip around the World |
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| *Raquel Duran | | 12 | South Pacific | 2003 | Cara Zavaleta | Dave Giuntoli | Christena Pyle | Abram Boise | Mary Beth Decker | Donell Langham | Car |
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| *Tina Barta | *Chris Graebe | *Jeremy Blossom | | 13 | X-Treme | 2004 | Jodi Weatherton | Danny Dias | Kina Dean | Derrick Kosinski | Ibis Nieves | Patrick Maloney | Subaru WRXI |
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| *Nick Haggart | *Angela Trimbur | *Jillian Zoboroski | | 14 | Viewers' Revenge | 2007 | Abram Boise | Kina Dean | Shane Landrum | Adam Larson | Susie Meister | Veronica Portillo | Mazda 3 |
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| *Dan Walsh | *David Leech | *Angel Turlington | *Tori Hall | | *Derek McCray | *Dan Walsh | *Susie Meister | | *Monte Paka |
Show's evolution
The series began with a simple format, closely mirroring its parent show The Real World. The concept was simple, abandon five strangers on the road, take away their money, have them drive around in an RV completing missions and doing odd jobs for money, and if they lasted to the end of the trip, they would win a "handsome reward". It was touted as The Real World on an RV, but as the show progressed, several changes were made to the show for various reasons, mostly having to do with causing excitement and raising sagging ratings.
Europe (Season 3)
In its third season, producers of the show took production to the next level by deciding to move the show from the United States to Europe. While the first two seasons were not themed according to the series' location, the third season introduced the subtitle into the concept which would usually strand the Roadies in different locations around the world.
Islands (Season 4)
For the first time, the RV was completely abandoned for a short time in favor of an alternate mode of transportation. The cast traveled in and around the Caribbean islands and for a short time traveled on a catamaran. This season also competed against the Boston season of the Real World in San Juan, Puerto Rico, planting the seeds for The Real World/Road Rules Challenge and future face-offs.
Northern Trail (Season 5)
Changing the dynamic of the cast in hopes of creating more drama by including more people in the RV, an additional cast member would be included in each season, changing the number of cast members from five to six.
Jon is considered the "stand out" of the season. With his zany antics and half-baked notions of romantic hijinks, he became both one of the most loved and conversely despised characters in the show's history.
Semester at Sea (Season 8)
Enticed by the idea of sailing around the world, producers put the cast on the (for 2005) University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea educational program. For the first time in any season, in order for the cast to get their handsome reward, the cast needed to complete coursework aboard the ship. Prior to this, cast members only needed to get to the end of the trip, and would not be penalized for refusing to do a mission. The most unusual mission was "Anime Mission", visiting Japan and experiencing ADR recording by their voices with Japanese director, Yuji Moriya who was center in the anime industry in the USA at that time.
Maximum Velocity Tour (Season 9)
Due to an exaggerated trend of sagging ratings, some say due to the Semester at Sea season, the show underwent a major re-tooling. The Maximum Velocity Tour represents when the series transitioned from a documentary-style reality show to an entertainment reality show. The show was brought back to the US and given a "game show" format. At the helm of a trip was a fictional character named the "Road Master" completed. After the cast would complete a mission, they would have money added to the group pool and if they failed to complete a mission, they would lose the money.
The Quest (Season 10)
Producers continued to re-tool the show. This time, if the cast members lost two missions, they would have to vote out a cast member. Any additional mission lost after that, another cast member would be voted off. Also, instead of adding money to a group pool, the cast competed each mission for a "key" to the handsome reward. The "keys" were placed in the RV on a large board where each "key" represented a virtue the cast learned in that mission. For this season, the "key" would be represented as part of a crest. If the cast lost a mission, they would not receive the "key" until they voted off a cast member. Jisela Delgado was the first cast member to be voted off in the series. Katie Doyle was the first replacement in the series. The series remained largely unchanged after this season, although each subsequent series had its own variation on the rules of the game.
Viewers' Revenge (Season 14)
After the series' thirteenth season, MTV decided not to renew the series, giving the official status of "on hiatus" for three years. In March 2005, Bunim-Murray Productions pitched the idea of an interactive format to the show in which viewers at home would be a part of the series, and running the series in real time in order for the viewers at home to have a say in the competition.
Road Rules face-offs
Setting up the idea for Real World/Road Rules Challenge, the face-offs have come to be an instrumental part of each season. The current cast competes either with a current "The Real World" cast who would be filming their series parallel to theirs or a former Road Rules cast, if Real World was ever out of its production season. The first official face-off, between the Islands and Boston casts gained such high ratings, that another spin-off series was begun, the ever-popular Challenges, and a pattern in every season where the cast would compete against another cast for a separate prize.
- First Adventure - No face-off during this season. Although cast member Mark initially appeared on the Real World: San Francisco season to replace Puck.
- Second Adventure vs. Real World Miami - The Road Rules cast posed as house cleaners and stole the Miami's cast eight-ball. They did so successfully. Timmy fooled Miami's Dan and Cynthia who were obviously suspicious of the unannounced cleaning crew.
- Europe - No face-off.
- Islands vs. Real World Boston - The casts competed in a series of competitions in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Boston cast narrowly won the games. Syrus, while competing in the final mission, busted his shin on a bench for his team to take the prize. The Islands crew, who desperately needed money at that time asked the Boston cast to split their winnings. The Boston cast declined to do so. They also played paintball with a team of former Road Rulers from different seasons.
- Northern Trail vs. Road Rules All-Stars - The casts competed in a series of Olympic-themed games including luge, ski jumping, and figure skating. The Olympic-theme was due in part to the fact that the casts were competing in the Olympic facilities at Lake Placid, New York. The All-Stars won the competition in the figure skating competition. The Northern Trail handed the keys off to their RV, which the All-Stars cast used for their season.
- Down Under vs. Real World Seattle - The cast competed in the "Aqua Games" in Seattle's main harbor. They competed in various games, including holding onto the back of a raft attached to a seadoo, jumping into rings from a platform, and the finale: a bull-riding contest. Nathan won the competition for the Seattle cast, while Christina and Susie both took the competition as a joke.
- Latin America vs. Road Rules Down Under - The cast competed in Veracruz, Mexico in a series of games. The Down Under cast took the prize, but the more serious implication of this face-off was when Abe of the Latin America cast hooked up with Susie in the RV. This started the tension between Abe and Gladys, which led to Gladys hitting Abe and being sent home.
- Semester at Sea - Did not do a face-off. However, during the filming and airing of the series, rumors were rampant that the two casts met up in India, where The Real World Hawaii took their vacation and the Semester at Sea cast landed in port. This was never confirmed or denied. Various students on the Semester at Sea program participated in various missions during this season.
- Maximum Velocity Tour vs. Real World New Orleans - In a throwback to the very first face-off, the Maximum Velocity Tour cast worked with a Make-A-Wish child to pull off a sting on the Real World: New Orleans cast. They included the Make-A-Wish child in the mission, as the cast posed as Make-A-Wish ambassadors to distract the cast members while James and Laterrian jumped a back wall to steal the New Orleans' cast robotic dog. Hearing that the cast was in town, Melissa of the New Orleans cast hid the eight-ball in anticipation of the cast stealing it. This cast also competed in Los Angeles, CA against the cast of the first season of Making the Band (O-Town) in which O-Town won. They also competed against a group of winners from an MTV.com contest in Provo, Utah, which Road Rules won.
- The Quest vs. Real World Back to New York - The casts met up in Morocco. These two casts met up after spending a week in Palm Spring during casting. Members of each cast had already made friends and enemies, creating instant drama and the casts playing practical jokes on each other. In direct contrast to her competitive persona on the Challenges, Back to New York's Coral and fellow cast member Nicole refused to compete in a mud wrestling challenge. This left Back to New York's Lori and Rachel to compete alone against the Road Rules girls. In a grueling mud wrestling competition, Road Rules won because Coral and Nicole refused to compete.
- Campus Crawl vs. Real World Las Vegas - The Campus Crawl cast first had to take a photograph with one of the Las Vegas cast members handcuffed to the bathtub. Because Raquel had met Steven of Las Vegas in the College Station casting call, Raquel was able to coax Steven to show her and Rachel the Las Vegas suite. Not knowing that the two were from Road Rules, they were able to handcuff and photograph Steven. The cast competed at Lake Red Rock near Las Vegas, Nevada which The Real World won.
- South Pacific vs. Road Rules Campus Crawl - This cast competed in a marathon challenge, in which the cast was required to compete in different games but were not allowed to sleep during the 48-hour period. In the last competition, in which they had to remember various details in the past 48 hours, the Campus Crawl cast pulled off a win.
- X-treme vs. Road Rules South Pacific - The two casts competed in a series of games which concludes with a boxing match. The X-treme cast beat the South Pacific cast.
- Viewers' Revenge vs. Pit Crew. Roadies beat out the Pit Crew in a mission that had players carrying tires from sand dunes. They also beat the Pit Crew in a mission that involved weight lifting and weight puzzles, along with a football game. The final challenge was carrying boxes across semis and dropping them into the hole; Pit Crew finally won, making the score 3-1.
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