Life often takes you in directions you least expect, and this is true of my relationship with my coeditor, Julie Anne Taddeo, with whom I first discussed this project during a telephone call in 2002. She inquired about my call for papers distributed on H-Net for a proposed anthology on the PBS historical Homes series. Julie, a British historian steeped in Victorian texts, gravitated toward “classy” productions such as 1940s House and Manor House, whereas I, a fan of the western and cowboy boots, wanted to compare such tame British fare to PBS's Frontier House and Texas Ranch House. Working together as coauthors and coeditors, we discovered that such programs were not simply a guilty pleasure for us as viewers, but another valuable resource for understanding the complex relationship among history, myth, and current social and political concerns.
Since that phone call, Julie and I have guest-edited two issues of Film & History devoted to scholarship on reality TV and history. Throughout this process we have been encouraged and supported by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor, who pushed us to look at all angles of this genre: as a tool for teaching and learning about history, as an experiment in documentary and film, and as a way to measure the pulse of contemporary society in the United States and other Western nations. We are honored with their friendship; they are true mentors for so many of us fascinated with the study of film and television and its cultural influence on our global society.
The University Press of Kentucky, notably Stephen Wrinn and Anne Dean Watkins, has been incredibly supportive of this collection, even before we sent our proposal. This collection is, of course, the sum of its parts, and our contributors have been gracious and patient, often given deadlines with only two weeks’ notice. They also forced us to look beyond our own intellectual interests as historians and to envision the interdisciplinary connections that a study of reality TV promised. Finally, both Julie and I would like to thank our families for putting up with us as we sometimes used as an excuse (however legitimate) from household chores the necessity of watching more TV!