Paper plates on reality TV?

[Anonymous]

Why do families on reality TV shows always use paper plates for their regular meals? Is this more of a normal thing than I realize or is it something to do with reality TV?

[Anonymous]

Huh?

[Anonymous]

A lot of families use disposable plates. They may not have dishwashers.

[Anonymous]

Washing dishes for lots of kids takes a long time snd not glamorous. And paper plates are used a lot more often than you think. Im very old school and serve family style in nice bowls and pretty plates for every meal. But i only have 2 kids, a dishwasher snd a husband who does dishes well.

[Anonymous]

Need examples. I watch a lot of reality tv, have never noticed this. If this is the case maybe there's a safety issue - if something falls and breaks? Dunno.

[Anonymous]

Whenever we go to the beach with extended family in one big house, we use paper plates and bowls. Just too many people to do all those dishes.

If it's a big family on the show, I'm sure they use a lot of paper products.

When I was growing up in the 80s-90s, my parents used so many paper products on week nights. They both worked, had commutes, and we were not getting home from aftercare until after 6pm. We didn't get a dishwashing machine until we moved when I was in 10th grade!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever we go to the beach with extended family in one big house, we use paper plates and bowls. Just too many people to do all those dishes.

If it's a big family on the show, I'm sure they use a lot of paper products.

When I was growing up in the 80s-90s, my parents used so many paper products on week nights. They both worked, had commutes, and we were not getting home from aftercare until after 6pm. We didn't get a dishwashing machine until we moved when I was in 10th grade!

All that to say - it's probably a class signifier if you use paper products regularly. My parents were working-middle class and we used paper plates A LOT. My spouse and I are clearly upper middle class and we basically never use paper products, aside from napkins (even with two kids and both working).

[Anonymous]

They may actually use real dishes the rest of the time, but use paper during filming. If you've ever had a film crew follow you around, it totally upsets your daily routine. Plus the crew may suggest using paper plates so the family spends more time doing things the viewer wants to see like going on outings versus mundane things like dishes. That's part of the "scripted" element of reality tv--they will suggest you do exciting things with your time that are filmable versus boring stuff.

[Anonymous]

I don't watch much reality TV so can't think of examples where I've seen paper plates, but I wonder if it could be because silverware on ceramics or porcelain is reality loud and if they have cameras with audio recording all the time it could lead to a lot of extraneous noise.

[Anonymous]

Seems very wasteful

[Anonymous]

The Sister Wives family used paper plates I recall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't watch much reality TV so can't think of examples where I've seen paper plates, but I wonder if it could be because silverware on ceramics or porcelain is reality loud and if they have cameras with audio recording all the time it could lead to a lot of extraneous noise.

That, plus the crew probably wants the family to rush to giving interviews and doing other things after they finish eating, not doing dishes.

[Anonymous]

We were very much a working class family growing up. Paper plates were expensive and only used for bbqs or larger family gatherings. Double up.

We did use the hell out of the McDonalds melamine plates and a very old set of Corelle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't watch much reality TV so can't think of examples where I've seen paper plates, but I wonder if it could be because silverware on ceramics or porcelain is reality loud and if they have cameras with audio recording all the time it could lead to a lot of extraneous noise.

That, plus the crew probably wants the family to rush to giving interviews and doing other things after they finish eating, not doing dishes.

This. It’s a time saver.

[Anonymous]

We are using paper plates because our dishwasher broke. It has nothing to do with your “class.”