The Real World: Philadelphia is the 15th season of "The Real World." It aired from September 7, 2004 to March 8, 2005.
It is the third season of The Real World to be filmed in the Mid-Atlantic States region of the United States, specifically in Pennsylvania.
The season featured seven people who lived in a three-story building and began filming in April of 2004.
The season premiered in September of 2004 & was watched by 3.3 million viewers.
Season Changes[]
The Philadelphia season is the first with two openly gay men: Karamo Brown and William Hernandez, in the cast. (The first season to have two gay cast members, regardless of sex, was the 2002 Chicago season, although the 1999 Hawaii season featured a bisexual woman and a gay man.)
This was also the first season to feature an openly gay black male.
Residence[]
The cast lived in a building at 249-251 Arch Street at 3rd Street in Old City Philadelphia.
The 14,494-square-foot (1,346.5 m2), three-story building, which is adjacent to the Betsy Ross House, was built in 1902 and known as the Union Bank of Philadelphia Building until 1970 when it was sold to Seamen's Church Institute to house global seafarers.
It was placed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in January of 1977 and purchased in 2003 by Yaron Properties, Inc for $2.2 million USD. $3 million more went into renovating and furnishing the building for production of the series which included 42 mounted cameras for filming.
The interior was designed by Norm Dodge of Norm Dodge & Associates.
In March of 2004, producers ceased construction after completing two thirds of the project, and announced they were leaving Philadelphia because of disputes with Philadelphia trade unions. Joey Carson (the CEO of Bunim/Murray Productions) and Ted Kenney (a producer on "The Real World") met in private over a two-week period with the trade unions.
The meetings were brokered by Mayor John F. Street, Governor Ed Rendell, Congressman Bob Brady, and other civic leaders in order to keep the production in Philadelphia. The flap delayed renovations by several weeks. The interior decorations used for the series remained until as late as October of 2004.
The building is currently an art gallery for the Art Institute of Philadelphia's F.U.E.L. Collection.
Assignment[]
The Philadelphia cast worked for the Philadelphia Soul, an Arena Football League team which was formerly partly owned by Jon Bon Jovi.
As part of their duties for the Soul, the cast planned and built a playground for underprivileged children as part of the Northern Home for Children program.
Cast Members[]
- Shavonda Billingslea
- Karamo Brown
- Sarah Burke
- MJ Garrett
- Willie Hernandez
- Landon Lueck
- Melanie Silcott
List of Episodes[]
- Welcome to Philly! (Season Premiere)
- "Out" in Philadelphia
- Bed-Swapping Begins
- Boys Will Be Boys
- Gunning For Karamo
- The Roomies Have Soul
- Ivana Have Some Fun!
- Frustrations
- Landon & Leo
- Things Change
- Happy Birthday, MJ!
- Passive Aggression
- Switchin' Teams
- Forbidden Affairs
- Gone Sour
- MJ's Having Trouble With the Ladies
- Altercations
- Ew, Scabies!
- Fiji
- Romantic Getaway
- Back to Reality
- Intervention
- Willie's Love Triangle
- Ashley's Visit
- Motherly Love
- Losing You (Season Finale)
Police Altercation[]
On November 29, 2005, two Philadelphia police officers were arrested for aggravated assault, simple assault, criminal conspiracy and reckless endangerment, due to an altercation they had with a plainclothes officer guarding the Real World house during filming the previous year. According to UPI and TMZ.com,
Officers Patrick Cavalieri and David McAndrews were off-duty when they went to the house during filming of the program and began banging on the door.
Officer Brian Copeland (the plain-clothes officer guarding the house) tried to stop them and was allegedly assaulted by the two fellow policemen, who were suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss, according to a department spokesman.
Cavalieri, a five-year veteran of the force, was eventually fired. One of the charges against him was dropped, but he was found not guilty of another and reinstated in his job. He later sued the city and Copeland for violations of his civil & constitutional rights, asking for a minimum of $50,000 in damages.
Copeland alleged that Cavalieri and his "friends" severely beat him, causing severe eye damage. Cavalieri alleged that Copeland was not an officially licensed police officer at the time of the incident, that he did not identify himself as an officer before attacking him and that he lied several times during the investigation regarding his version of the incident and the injuries he incurred.
After Filming[]
Six months after the cast left the Real World house, all seven of them appeared on the reunion special "Fistful of Philly: The Real World Philadelphia Reunion" which aired on March 15, 2005 and was hosted by The Real World: Los Angeles cast member Jon Brennan.