Most TV Series just come and go, claiming a few fans and a few detractors. Occasionally, a show can grow huge and live for many seasons, not necessarily because it is superb, but just because spectators were kind enough to answer "yes, I am watching it" to the phone calls, made by people who try to measure a production's popularity, in order to justify the high figures for related merchandise and commercials.

But measuring popularity is a risky business. "Popularity" is such a vague and subjective concept, that its easy to miss the truth. I believe that is what happened with Clyde Philips' "Get Real", a Fox-TV production.

"Get Real" (GR) lasted just 20 episodes, and north american spectators weren't even allowed to watch two of them. The show got cancelled. That has got to be one of the dumbest TV decisions ever!

Contrary to some icon shows, like "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "The X Files", that apply every possible success ingredients very early on the season, GR is (or was) a slow starter. For example, I didn't appreciate the first episode (the "pilot"), where one the main characters (Meghan Green - Anne Hathaway) engages in direct conversation with you, the audience, explaining why Get Real is different - yeah, "different for worse", I thought.

The next couple of episodes didn't help either... Get Real is strictly focused on the everyday problems and joys of one simple family - the Green family. You don't get to watch green monsters, car pursuits, explosions, hard sex, or vampires. All you have is two brothers, one sister, their parents, their grand-parents, and a few other persons they relate with. Nothing spectacular, as in "no fireworks".

Yet, by episode #4 or #5, my initial reluctance on accepting pretty-boy Chris Olsen (playing Cameron Green) as a capable actor or, for example, Debrah Farentino (playing Mary Green) as a mother of three grown teens... was gone, completely buried down under solid performances and the beauty of simple solutions to situations that happen to just everyone. Not quite the same thing as with Mulder's "truth" or Buffy's "Angel".

Get Real made me laugh and cry. I get laughing easily, but one thing I am hard on, as the hardest rock, is crying over fictional stuff. And I did it!, more than once. More interesting: I didn't cry because of sadness, but because of the joy! The joy on watching how the Green family faced life!- with a simple nobility that feels possible, tangible, and fair.

I have all the episodes, and they represent one of the finest items on my TV series collection.

I leave you with a few related links and a small video, also available from the video page. Unfortunately, there is absolutely NO merchandise available anywhere, including online auctions...

To watch the video, just right click its link below, chose "save as" to somewhere on your PC, and then play it with Real Player (free). This is a high quality (600 kbps) file. Do not try to play it from the website, because you won't have enough bandwidth.

arturmarques_dot_com_get_real_600k_17s.rm [908 KB RM file]

This video is also available from the videos page.

As for external links:

http://www.efanguide.com/~getreal/ - The "Get Real" Fan Club.
http://getrealtribute.tripod.com/ - Andrea's GR Tribute.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=23 - Kind of a forum.
http://www.efanguide.com/~dfarentino/ - Debrah Farentino Website (not by her, but about her).
http://www.efanguide.com/~annehathaway/ - Anne Hathaway Website (not by her, but about her).
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/9848/indx.html - A Jon Tenney Fan Page.