Ten years ago, Insomniac with Dave Attell began its four-year run on Comedy Central. And today, thanks to Insomniac, we have a myriad of reality shows of the same one-dude-travelling mold.
Insomniac followed Dave Attell, a then-moderately successful comedian, as he got drunk in different cities. It changed at once travel and reality programming.
It’s because of Insomniac’s rawness, that we see Discovery Channel, A&E, TLC, and others run travel shows like Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, An Idiot Abroad, Strange Days with Bob Saget, and more.
Insomniac brought reality to reality television. In its nascent years, reality TV was about putting real people in contrived situations (Survivor, Real World, etc.) Dave was the Every Man. But Insomniac was the first show where the Every Man did things every man actually does.
Insomniac may have also influenced a broader segment of reality programming.
Now that’s not to say Pawn Stars owes anything to Insomniac, but its fun to look at the convergence of the two shows with the benefit of hindsight.
Insomniac seems novel because the show had no point other than to entertain. In doing so, it represented life accurately. There were no travel tips. There were no contests or instigated drama. And reality programming, today, strives for that kind of accurate representation of life—whether it’s a travel show, or the currently popular ‘people-who-have-interesting-jobs’ show.
These connections are easy to make in hindsight. But perhaps when a commercial for a new show airs, and you say, “Wow, they’ll make a show out of anything,” you can thank Insomniac with Dave Attell for setting the bar so high.
