The Business
A Producer's Past in Reality TV Led to Lifetime's 'UnREAL'
The new dramedy UnREAL is a major departure from the typical Lifetime fare. The series co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro tells us how her past experience working on The Bachelor led to the creation of a show all about the behind-the-scenes machinations of a reality TV producer.
By Kim Masters • • 29m ListenAs a young woman working in television, ardent feminist Sarah Gertrude Shapiro found herself almost conscripted to work as a producer on The Bachelor. Problematic as the show is to her ideals, she does understand the appeal. Shapiro tells us how she mined her ambivalence about that experience to create the new Lifetime series, UnREAL, a dramedy set behind the scenes of a reality show that is not The Bachelor...except it kind of is.
Photo: UnREAL co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
