Flipping through the six fuzzy channels on my non-cable boob tube which provides for nominal entertainment, I had to stop and stare in disbelief at a commercial for the show Amish in the City. Yes, Amish in the City.

The show is basically The Real World with five Amish young adults who chose to leave their community and share a mansion with six frisky, city kids in Los Angeles. The Amish folk are there as part of “rumspringa” -a rite of passage in which young Amish adults may elect to leave the community and experience life in the outside world.

Amish in the City is one of many clones of the tired formula called reality television. It’s the same concept with different people and a different mansion each time. A huge difference from the genre’s humble beginnings.

The reality phenomenon started back in the early 90s when MTV (back when MTV was good, but that’s another article) premiered The Real World. You know the gist about the seven strangers picked to live in a house. The people on those first few seasons were actually interesting, they discussed and dealt with real issues that people of that age at that time were experiencing for themselves.

Now when you look at The Real World or almost any other reality television show, you get a half-hour of shallow, fake people sleeping with everyone in the house.

Is this reality? If so sign me up, because I could use free rent, free food, a job set up for me and to live in a mansion with a pool and hot tub to boot! Hell yeah!

These days reality TV is all about the money, not life, and certainly not reality. Shows like The Bachelor and Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire have got people signing up left and right to see if they can last long enough to get a huge check.

They ignore the fact that along with the check they have to get married to a stranger on TV. D’oh!

Recently I watched a reality show called Trading Spouses in which a pampered wife of a cosmetic surgeon traded places with a black middle class wife and mother of three.

The wealthier white mother of two raised havoc with a quick, mean temper when her host husband refused to take her out to dinner but suggested she help him prepare dinner. This was one of many gross displays of how spoiled and rotten some people can be.

The only good thing about reality television is that it gives endless examples of how not to behave. These shows show me the person I do not want to be. I prefer my own dysfunctional reality to any of those seen on TV.