UNSIMPLE LIVES ON AN MTV REALITY SHOW

For a generation that has witnessed Paris Hilton's sex video and seen
photographs of Kate Moss snorting cocaine in a recording studio, a
documentary about an unknown 20-something woman prostituting herself
to buy crystal meth might seem a bit ho-hum.

And it probably would be if the producers followed the typical
documentary style, with stale video clips, voice-overs and talking
heads debating morality and offering character analysis.

But that is not how MTV does documentaries, and it is one reason
"True Life," the documentary series that has been a staple of MTV's
programming for nine years, has fared so well.

"True Life" begins its new season tonight with "I'm Addicted to
Crystal Meth," an examination of the toll that methamphetamine can
take on lives, loves, family and friends.

In a world where "reality shows" are as scripted as serial dramas, it
can be hard to find authenticity when following anyone around with a
camera. But unlike many of the narcissists who might answer an
Internet casting call, the addicts who are the subjects of the
"Crystal Meth" documentary are so obviously beholden to the drug that
their ability to act seems short-circuited, to the viewer's benefit.

"We're capturing the authentic behavior of our audience in the moment
that they are going through it," Dave Sirulnick, an executive vice
president who oversees MTV's news and documentaries division, said
recently in his office at MTV in Times Square. Unlike in mainstream
documentaries, which often provide a record of things that had
already happened at the time the piece was assembled, "the people in
our shows are going through things in their lives that they don't
know the outcome of."

When people think of MTV today, they often think of shows like "Pimp
My Ride," "Real World" and "Newlyweds," said Brian Graden, president
of entertainment for MTV Networks music group. (The only people who
still think of music videos are those who probably have not watched
the channel in at least a decade.)

"But there are also people from this generation who are in Iraq, or
who are concerned about what is going on in Iraq," Mr. Graden said.
"We are in a unique situation in being able to focus on what is at
the top of our audience's minds."

"True Life" and other documentary series at MTV are produced by the
"news and docs" unit, which grew out of but is different from MTV's
news unit. "It's a little bit of this hidden gem," said Mr. Sirulnick, 42.

In the 1980's, the news division was responsible for covering all
developing issues in the music business, producing shows like "The
Week in Rock." The news unit also began covering live music events,
like Live Aid and the Woodstock revivals, and was one of the few
organizations covering what the network refers to as "music social
issues," like the lyric content of rap music, legal issues
surrounding music sampling and the liability trials that were waged
over the influence of bands like Judas Priest.

"After doing that for a number of years, we felt we had the
credibility to step out and do longer-form shows about issues
affecting our audience," Mr. Sirulnick said. As the operation grew,
the documentary efforts were split from the news operation in 2000,
although now Mr. Sirulnick says there is about a 20 percent overlap
in content. Most things that require coverage of more than a
half-hour of television time fall to the documentaries unit.

The MTV news and docs unit produces a style of documentary that would
not have been possible even several years ago, when producing hours
of television-quality video would mean invading the subject's home or
other space with at least a five-person crew, lights, bulky cameras
and other behavior-altering paraphernalia.

"We couldn't do this if we had to rely on the old equipment," said
Marshall Eisen, a vice president for news and documentaries for MTV.
" 'True Life' works because we're fly-on-the-wall observers. Intimacy
is so important to these shows."

One of the ways MTV maintains both an intimacy with and a distance
from its subjects is to spend hours and hours with them. The network
will shoot up to 150 hours of video over a period of months to get
the 43 minutes of material that makes it into the final program.

About half of the "True Life" documentaries are produced by MTV staff
members, and about half are made by outside production companies.
While most of the ideas included in the series originate at the
network, "True Life" also take pitches from production companies.

The "True Life" series has ranged widely in search of subjects, from
the seemingly mundane ("I'm Adopted") to the bizarrely interesting
("I Have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder"). Other recent installments
have chronicled the return home of Katrina refugees and the
reintegration of soldiers recently returned from Iraq into their former lives.

This season continues those trends, with the first month of programs
including "I Have Tourette's Syndrome," "I'm a Staten Island Girl"
and "I'm Jealous of My Sibling."

In June, Mr. Sirulnick sat down with Mr. Eisen and Betsy Forhan, a
supervising producer for the documentary unit, for a pitch meeting,
at which several dozen potential subjects were considered for pursuit
by "True Life" crews.

The ideas at the pitch meeting ranged widely, several of them
centering around issues of self-mutilation, like cutting or pulling
out one's own hair, or medical conditions like anxiety and autism.
Others focused on changes in the world, like a potential look at
user-generated Web content and those who produce it.

Some of the topics considered were evergreens, ideas that had been
done before but which can be repeated after several years and aimed
at a new audience, like those involving money or credit and debt. By
the end of the meeting, 50 to 60 ideas had been whittled to about 10
potential show topics that were then sent to the unit's research
division, which maintains a constant cycle of polls and surveys of
the MTV audience, for further study and development.

"Sometimes we're not sure if something we think of is really going
on," Ms. Forhan said, like several years ago when an idea emerged
about the drug OxyContin. The docs division did research, "and they
said absolutely, we're hearing about OxyContin all the time."

The news and documentaries unit has recently commissioned two new
series: one looking at marriage among 18- to 21-year-olds, "Engaged
and Underage," and another looking at the social phenomenon of "show
choirs," competitive groups that combine music and choreography.

An intense look at the seemingly mundane world of juvenile detention
marks the debut of another series, titled "Juvies" and scheduled to
begin later this fall. Set in the juvenile division of Lake County,
Ind., Superior Court, the series follows roughly 18 juvenile
defendants through their detention and court hearings.

"These shows aren't about the crimes," Mr. Sirulnick said. "They are
really psychological studies, about who has support systems and who doesn't."

While the juvenile court sees cases ranging from murder to
shoplifting a pack of gum, the producers focused on issues that are
more typical of what the average teenager might face, like underage
drinking and its potential criminal effects.

In the premiere episode, Sarah, a 16-year-old runaway, is brought
into the Lake County juvenile detention facility after being arrested
in Texas. A look of shock settles over her face as she is first
shackled to a desk during her admission, then later deloused and
issued a set of prison-issue clothes. When her mother tries to sneak
a note in to her by stuffing it in the toe of new sneakers that she
sends to Sarah, it is confiscated without Sarah's being able to read
it, a development that almost pushes her past the breaking point.

Mary Beth Bonaventura, the senior judge for the juvenile division of
Lake County Superior Court, said she agreed to let MTV pursue the
idea after being assured that it wouldn't be just another reality show.

"I didn't want to trivialize what we do," Judge Bonaventura said.
"But I thought it was important to let kids see what actually happens
when you make certain choices in life. We want them to take away
something about the seriousness of being locked up. At the end of it,
hopefully they won't want to do something that will have them end up here."