Farewell to OG ‘Vanderpump Rules,’ Bravo’s most chaotic reality show

As a reality TV fan, there’s a strange (and slightly unhinged?) sense of loss when the reality stars whose lives you’ve watched unfold for so many years step away from the camera. You realize that the familiar (and completely one-sided) relationship you have formed with them will not continue in the same way. I’ve been feeling that way ever since Bravo announced it was going to be completely reworked Vanderpump rules for season 12. The rebooted show will focus itself on a new group of “Sur-verses” at Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurants.

This is a bold move. Not since Real Housewives of New York — a show that was completely rebooted for its fourteenth season — Bravo has gotten rid of an entire cast like this one. But it wasn’t exactly unexpected: The fallout from Scandoval — a seismic cheating scandal that revealed a month-long affair between Tom Sandoval and Rachel Leviss behind Ariana Madix’s back — had split the cast beyond repair. And frankly, even before that, the show had been declining in quality for some time. (Pre-Scandoval, even me argued for its cancellation.) But since the news broke that the longtime cast won’t be returning, fans have been reminiscing about the golden years when the show served up some of the funniest, zany, and straight genuine reality TV moments we’ve ever seen. At its peak, there was no competing with chaos Vanderpump rules – and that’s what made it so amazing.

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The very first episode of Vanderpump rulesthat aired back in 2012 was an iconic reality TV moment in its own right. Bravo made the decision to switch to the Season 1 premiere right after Real Housewives of Beverly Hillswithout commercial breaks. “Day One” fans were confused when they walked away from watching RHOBH star Lisa Vanderpump feuds with her colleague Housewives romping around with the staff at her restaurant, SUR, at a moment’s notice. (That’s “Sexy Unique Restaurant,” to you.) “Ken and I own two restaurants in California,” Vanderpump shared on the premiere. “Villa Blanca is where you take your wife – and SUR is where you take your mistress.”

The original cast was held together by an air of desperation. Most of them were wannabe actors or musicians approaching 30 – an age when most people power think about giving up on the dream. While treading water, they worked at Vanderpump’s bars and said things like, “The servers here all want to be models, actors, writers, singers. The servers at other Hollywood restaurants just want to be waiters at SUR.”

Then an opportunity presented itself to become famous in a different way – and boy, they didn’t pass it up. In the first episode, we saw Scheana – then known as Scheana Marie (Now Scheana… ​​Shay? …maybe. Her current last name is honestly a mystery) – open the new show and make a cameo on RHOBHwhere she apologized to Housewife Brandi Glanville for sleeping with her ex-husband, actor Eddie Cibrian, years before while they were married before seamlessly transitioning into the first episode of VPR. She would, of course, later become iconic for moaning into a microphone and making “sexy noises” in a recording studio, insisting she could be the next Britney Spears.

Then there was Tom Sandoval. Years before he blew up his life with infidelity, he was a wannabe artist who admitted he took an hour to get ready to leave the house and whose beauty routine included shaving his own forehead with a razor. Sandoval lived with then-girlfriend Kristen Doutev — a volatile model and aspiring actress who, you guessed it, also worked at SUR. Next came Tom Schwartz – a slightly useless but annoyingly hot model whose then-girlfriend, SUR waitress Katie Maloney (and her angry alter-ego “tequila Katie”) was feared and revered.

It is ironic that a cheating scandal was eventually dissolved Vanderpump rules because that’s what defined its first year. Season 1 revolved around the relationship breakdown between Stassi Schroeder and Jax Taylor – SUR’s alpha male and female. Schroeder was a blonde viper who openly admitted to bullying girls she didn’t like, proudly saying things like, “I’m the devil.” Taylor, on the other hand, was the typical (and later admitted) narcissist and liar. During the Season 1 finale, he dropped the bombshell that, after months of denials, he had cheated on Schroeder and gotten a girl pregnant in Las Vegas.

Season two upped the ante again. This time, Doute – then-girlfriend of Sandoval and Schroeder’s bestie – was revealed to have slept with Taylor behind all their backs. In the season finale, when she finally confessed to her betrayal, Schroeder backfired on her, calling her a “whore,” all while Sandoval stood by her side. (Seriously, there is no high that compares to seeing this for the first time.)

As the show went on, more newcomers were added: Madix – a “cool girl” bartender at SUR who became Doute’s immediate rival and later began dating Sandoval. James Kennedy — a British DJ with anger issues who was introduced as Doute’s new boyfriend (before that too went up in flames.) And Lala Kent — a straightforward SUR host with a “mystery man” from Hollywood who was bankrolling her flashy. lifestyle.

What did Vanderpump rules fun was the sheer level of mayhem on screen. The actors went from enemies to besties, to lovers and exes in one episode, week after week. They would say things like “I’m not sure what I’ve done to you, but I’ll have a Pinot Grigio” in all seriousness, do things like rip off their (chunky) sweaters before a physical fight in the street, or have a full-on raging argument dressed in drag. Taylor, in particular, seemed so desperate for airtime that he behaved erratically — like breaking up with then-girlfriend, recovering from addiction Laura-Leigh, right after an AA meeting, and stealing a pair of sunglasses on a cast trip to Hawaii in 2015. In 2017, he reached his villainous peak when he cheated on Brittany Cartright with SUR staffer Faith Stowers, prompting the iconic response: “Raw as hell!”

Others, however, reversed it. Schroeder was portrayed as a villain in her first season, but she ended up with a redemption arc. In the early years, she seemed aimless, spending half her time being reprimanded by Vanderpump’s daughter—the pushy nepo baby, Pandora—for not writing enough free articles for the “magazine” she supposedly edited. Ironically, in 2019, she became one New York Times bestseller. Sandoval and Schwartz were asked to be (very small) partners in Vanderpump’s next restaurant, TomTom. (Though their own bar, Swartz and Sandy’s, recently announced its closure.) Kennedy has even managed to use the show to launch a successful DJ career. And this year, Madix and Maloney opened their own women-focused sandwich shop, Something About Her, to rave reviews.

But these successes are what became the show’s downfall. Against the background of reality television, which was focused on wealth and opulence, the lives of SUR employees initially provided an element of escapism and even a level of relatability to the audience. We looked (joyfully) down at their dive apartments crammed with ugly, cheap furniture and assessed their poor decisions that reflected that they had very little to lose. This began to change as the stars grew up and carved out lucrative careers as influencers and businesspeople beyond Vanderpump’s restaurants. Arguments were about book deals, trashtalking on their podcasts, or who was and wasn’t cast on Dancing with the stars. (Wouldn’t naked think Scheana?!) Don’t get me wrong, fans were happy to see the cast grow up over time, but as they worked to protect their blossoming careers, it changed the core DNA of the show. Without the central glue of SUR, Vanderpump’s own presence on her namesake show also began to feel awkward and awkward.

Some may blame Scandoval for the cast losing their jobs because it split the group and made it impossible to film together. There was a sense that the story grew bigger than the show – it was mentioned at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, with stars such as Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Lawrence, and Sandoval was described by New York Times as “most hated man in america” while comparing himself to George Floyd. The show’s sudden cultural phenomenon status and record-breaking ratings raised the bar, but it couldn’t keep up.

True enough, though Vanderpump rules had lost its spark for a while. Despite much of the cast’s behavior being dark and evil, there used to be an innocence to it. In the early seasons, the cast didn’t know what was coming next and didn’t always seem aware of how reality TV worked. (This is why the back alley behind SUR, where they used to smoke and argue while on shift, deserves to be a UNESCO heritage site.) But expectations for them soon began to change: The cast was once rewarded for to do and say terrible. things, from bullying to physical altercations and fat-shaming. However, a series of scandals – including a racism scandal that ended with Schroeder and Doute being let go in 2020 – confirmed a new era of accountability where the show didn’t always belong.

Ultimately cast off Vanderpump rules were held together by little else than their reality TV stardom. When the core relationship has disintegrated or is more about monetization than anything else, it is a tipping point that is difficult for reality shows to recover from. At the Season 11 reunion, which ended with a slow flashback montage that now sounds like a goodbye, most arguments revolved around who was to blame for the show – their food ticket – not going well. Some felt resentful that a scorned Madix was soaking up lucrative brand deals and other opportunities instead of focusing on losing his shit on camera. And now they’re all looking for a new gig.

Still, it is undeniable that the golden years Vanderpump rules was genre-defining reality television. Not only did the show create its own language of in-jokes (was it ever about “the pasta”?!), but it’s hard to imagine the now expansive canon of “hot people misbehaving at work” TV shows, such as seam under deck franchise without its influence. (They really threw the first Pump-tini at SUR.) Most importantly, the show is a reminder that having the vulnerability (and desperation) to share the most chaotic and messy parts of your life is what really makes a big reality star – not wealth or status.

Since the news broke, the cast have been posting heartfelt Instagram tributes. I’m amazed at how grateful they are that their run lasted this long. To quote series opening theme music: “These were the best days of our lives.”

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