The Surreal Life Season 1

Corey "Cryin" Feldman and MC "Sermon" Hammer

The first season of The Surreal Life was a good start to what has become one of my favorite reality TV series which VH1 has dubbed Celebreality. The show has a group of washed up stars or as VH1 calls them “out of the spot light” stars, if you want to be nice about it, live in the Hollywood Hills together in a mansion. The show is much like MTV’s The Real World except instead of normal people you get to watch once famous people have issues in the house.

The first season starred MC Hammer, Corey Feldman, Emmanuel Lewis, Gabrielle Carteris, Jerri Manthey, Vince Neil, and Brande Roderick. A pretty good cast but they went way back to get washed up stars this time. I hadn’t even heard of some of these people until I Googled them, but overall not a bad selection they kept the show interesting enough that I tuned in for the next 5 seasons.

First in the door you got the man MC Hammer, everyone knows the guy who made parachute pants cool, and “Can’t touch this” a catch phrase. The rapper turned pastor, reaffirmed his beliefs in 1997 and that was a part of him on the show. He even took the cast to a church where he led a sermon; you get to see a new side to MC Hammer that you wouldn’t ever expect to see. You may not be able to touch him but he has been touched by something that made him turn spiritual activist. A new Hammer isn’t a bad one; he brought a good vibe to the show.

Gabrielle Carteris you might remember as the old one on 90120, she was 29 and playing a high school student. During the show she has some highlights but in my mind was pretty much obsolete, I didn’t much care for her and don’t think the show would have been any worse off without her.

Emmanuel Lewis the popular kid from Webster, he is only 4’ 3” which makes him a dwarf or midget or something. He also didn’t bring much to the show; he had a few times where he helped the show in some dull spots, but overall another character that I wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t even there.