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.