Ozzy Osbourne was key to lighting something almost more culturally important than metal: television realities

The death of Ozzy Osbourne is generating multiple manifestations of condolenceand it is not for less: one of the latest genuine stars of classic rock leaves. However, although his passage through Black Sabbath and his solo career are his most relevant milestones within music, it is also worth remembering him for how he helped configure modern television in one of his most popular aspects: the reality shows.

The Lord of Darkness. It is impossible to summarize here the relevant role that Ozzy Osbourne has in the history of rock, as it is impossible ‘I’m Ozzy’, edited by Espop). However, and despite the success of classics such as’Crazy Train‘ either ‘War Pigs‘, In 2002 nobody already remembered Ozzy. Until The Osbournes revolutionized the genre of realities forever.

Mrs. Osbourne. Sharon Osbourne was Ozzy’s wife since 1982, although he had been as a representative of his solo career since 1979 (his father, a historic industry, had also been Black Sabbath’s manager). Sharon was fundamental in Ozzy’s sound in the 80s, oriented to a more pop metal that opened the doors of the MTV. And it was also the brain of the reality ‘The Osbournes’, conceived as a project in which their children were clips presenters, but ended up evolving to show the daily life of the family. His inspiration was also MTV’s canonical reality ‘The Real World’, but with a difference. Here the protagonists were famous.

The never seen. The concept was very novel for the time: show the intimacy of a famous family, of the most trivial details to the most dramatic. The chaos that breathed Ozzy’s life gave him a strange air of likelihood and lost that semi-guy air of ‘The Real World’. Success was immediate: razed in audience (In his day, it was the most watched program in the history of the channel) and became the first program of its kind in win a primetime emmyin the category of best non -fiction series. The fault that MTV will become a video clip channel to one of realitieswith programs such as’ Jersey Shore ‘(a phenomenon that would give rise to’ Gandía Shore ‘),’ Teen Mom ‘, ’16 and pregnant’ or ‘catfish’ coping the channel grill? It is from ‘The Osbournes’.

Sitcoms in real life. What makes ‘The Osbournes’ so iconic is possibly that he had all the elements of a classic sitcom (hallucinated but endearing father, cunning mother, rebel children), but with themes and vocabulary that could not be seen in a fiction series (continuous swear Patriarch jumping again and again Sharon’s attempts to have something remotely similar to a script. Something of that spirit was transmitted to the next great success (which still lasts) of the genre, ‘Las Kardashian’ and, in Spain, ‘Alaska and Mario’.

Ephemeral success, indelible footprint. The program only lasted four seasons, not for a fall at the audience, but because Success surpassed its protagonists. Ozzy was not prepared for all that attention again (in fact, he fell to the drink), and Jack had to go to therapy. He configured, yes, the image of Ozzy that already accompanied him until his death: a rock star that started snacks of pigeons on stage, but with which you would not mind sitting up for a while in front of TV in slippers to listen to his comments about the “horrible, horrible music” that the kids do today.

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