Some notes on tonight’s show…

One of the most difficult tasks of the production crew on The Real World is never letting the roommates know what you know.  For example, if one roommate is lying to another – and we know the truth – we can’t reveal to the roommates what really happened because that would influence the action between them. 

The Brooklyn roommates have given us the toughest challenge yet in keeping a poker face -- and not revealing what we know.  For example, when Scott placed a pail of water over the phone room door to douse an unsuspecting Devyn as he came out, the camera person couldn’t point his camera at the pail as Ryan came out of that phone room – or the prank would be revealed to him.

The current war between the girls and the boys in the house has escalated to the grandest prank in Real World history – what we refer to as the "Great White Rat Caper"!  The great challenge for the crew was never to reveal where the rat was hidden or kept, and to never laugh or grin at the prank that was about to take place.  In fact, in some instances where the roommates were sneaking around the house in the dark we couldn’t turn on the lights because it would ruin the prank.  Instead we relied on surveillance cameras that could see in the dark to record the set up of the pranks. 

As the mystery of these pranks developed the roommates would often try to read the faces of the crew to see who was lying and who was telling the truth.  In the end, the crew did a fabulous job and never revealed a clue and I think we captured one of the funniest episodes of all time.

There really were mice in the house at that time which made the prank all the more real at first.  Scott was somewhat obsessed with catching these mice, setting up traps and sitting very still as the mice gathered around the food he had set out.  If you’ve ever seen Bill Murray in the movie "Caddyshack" trying to catch the groundhog, I think you’ll get the picture!