Reality Television

2000

Reality television has been around since the earliest days of commercial television. Programs like the Ed Sullivan Show, Julia Child's The French Chef, and Candid Camera could all be considered reality TV to varying degrees. The genre exploded in popularity, though, after producer Mark Burnett introduced the program Survivor to the U.S. in 2000. Following the popularity of Survivor, many other TV networks introduced similar "unscripted" shows, such as Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and The Osbournes, in which participants are filmed nearly 24 hours per day and in which they may or may not be competing to win some sort of prize.

Our Thoughts...
Mark Burnett combined two things that were not thought of as related prior to his big idea--reality and television. It is often said that there are only three ways to innovate. Invent something totally new. Make an existing invention better. Or, combine two or more things in a novel way. Whether you're working on the next big invention or the next big idea, understanding the modes of thinking that have to do with interrelating ideas is a critical skill. ThinkBlocks are designed to develop deep thinking skills that help you to see connections that others miss.

Looking for the next big idea? Start by interrelating something in your field of interest with something from an outside field...

ThinkBlocks helps us to visualize and manipulate relationships by assigning distinctions to blocks, relating them (magnetically) and then deconstructing that relationship by replacing it with a new block (into a barbell pattern) that has distinctive, systemic, relational and perspective qualities.