Ye gods. Leave it to pop culture maven Whitney Matheson to point out an anniversary that passed without much notice, and make every Gen X'er feel ancient at the same time: Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the debut of The Real World.

On May 21, 1992, MTV showed the first episode of what at the time was a daring premise: put seven young adults in a New York loft and have the cameras follow them around as they learn how to get along with each other. When I think back on the first season -- it was one of the few reality shows that I watched on a regular basis, up until about the New Orleans season -- it's amazing to me how different it was than what TRW is now: the roommates ranged in age from the late teens to the late twenties, and a couple of them, like journalist Kevin Powell, actually had real jobs.

Back in the early nineties, the show was more concerned with how the diverse people they threw together got along when it came to big issues like race and sexuality than about who hooked up and who got drunk. It just seemed like a more interesting show back then: then-naive Julie held her own with Kevin in arguments about race; some of the roomies were a little uncomfortable with how open Norman was about his sexuality; Becky was the alterna-chick you wanted to alternatively love and hate; Heather wanted to be a rap star; Eric wanted to flex his pecs; and Andre wanted to stroke his long hair (actually I never thought Andre was all that interesting). The conversation was lively and it didn't take any contrived set-ups by the producers to generate sparks.

I'd imagine, though, if MTV decided to air the show today, it would look really, really old and would be ignored by their viewers, many of whom were either babies or hadn't been born when that first season aired. From Kevin's high-top fade to Becky's quirky hats and dresses to Andre's grunge look, the entire show seems completely dated now.

Also, I get the feeling that today's teens, pre-teens, and twentysomethings would just be bored by the show. It was a bit slower-paced than it is now; no one was skinny-dipping in the hot tub or drunkenly hooking up with each other in one of the bedrooms.

But it was a great social experiment that has gotten lost in the crush of television history; sure, TV had done "day in the life" documentaries before (PBS filmed The Loud Family in the seventies), but The Real World brought the form to the always-coveted younger audience. Without The Real World, we wouldn't have Survivor, The Apprentice, The Amazing Race, American Idol, or any number of popular reality shows on today. So, even though most of the original six have faded into obscurity (it too some longer than others to do it... I wouldn't be surprised if a Eric Nies is still hosting The Grind on MTV Pakistan), they can take comfort in the fact that they were television pioneers.