How ‘The Osbournes’ changed reality TV

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Ozzy Osbourne was an architect of heavy metal music, but that’s not the only medium in which he blazed a trail.

The rocker, who died Tuesday at the age of 76, also helped shape reality television. An argument might even be made, for better or for worse, that Osbourne and his family gave rise to the Kardashians.

The idea of celebrities doing reality shows was far from common in 2002, when MTV first launched “The Osbournes.”

Ozzy Osbourne’s music career was no longer at its height as he and his wife, Sharon, opened the doors of their home to share to share their private life with their then-teen children, Jack and Kelly, as well as their beloved pets.

Audiences fell in love with the family members, as funny as they were fascinating. It was quite a different version of Osbourne, who was known as the “Prince of Darkness” for his stage performances, including the now infamous story of him biting the head off a bat.

The series featured the British rocker as a domesticated dad who loved to totter around the house, often loudly yelling, “Sharon!”

There was also some serious moments.

The show documented Sharon Osbourne’s colon cancer diagnosis in 2002 and her husband’s quad bike accident in 2004.

It marked one of the first times an already established celebrity pulled back the curtain on their lives for a more intimate look. The series was so successful that other networks scrambled to replicate it.

Within months, E! had debuted “The Anna Nicole Show,” while MTV launched “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” featuring then-married singers Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.

The next few years brought even more reality shows, including UPN’s “Britney and Kevin: Chaotic;” Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and his then wife Shanna Moakler’s “Meet the Barkers” on MTV; wrestler Hulk Hogan and his family in “Hogan Knows Best” on VH1; MTV’s “Run’s House,” featuring Rev. Run of the rap group Run-DMC and his family; and Bravo’s “Being Bobby Brown” about the lives of married singers Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, all of which launched in 2005.

Eventually both the ratings and the Osbourne family’s interest in sharing their lives waned.

“The level of success that TV show got us was too much,” Osbourne told NME in 2020.

“I had to bow out. I said to Sharon: ‘I don’t like the way it makes me feel, and I can’t stand f**king cameramen in my house.’ I’m not upset that I did it, but I wouldn’t do it again,” he said. “People were going: ‘Aren’t you worried about losing your fans?’ I said: ‘I’m not worried about losing my fans – I’m worried about losing my f**king mind.’”

Following Osbourne’s death, former MTV executive Van Toffler reflected on the musician’s role as reality TV pioneer.

“The language! We had to bleep so much of the dialogue,” Toffler told Variety. “That became such an integral part of it, the way we bleeped it, how often we bleeped it, and we weren’t making it up.”

“It was so wrong, but unlike anything else that was on TV.”

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