As a reality TV fan, there’s a strange (and somewhat unhinged?) sense of loss when the reality stars whose lives you’ve watched unfold for so many years turn away from the camera. You realize that the all-too-familiar (and entirely one-sided) relationship you’ve built with them won’t last in the same way. This is how I’ve been feeling since Bravo announced it was going to be a complete recast Vanderpump Rules for season 12. The rebooted show will focus on a new group of ‘Sur-vers’ at Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurants in West Hollywood.

This is a bold move. Not since then Real Housewives of New York – a show that was completely rebooted for its fourteenth season – has rid Bravo of an entire cast like this. But it wasn’t exactly unexpected: The aftermath of Scandoval — a seismic cheating scandal that exposed a months-long affair between Tom Sandoval and Rachel Leviss behind Ariana Madix’s back — had divided the cast beyond repair. And honestly, the quality of the show had been declining for a while. (Before Scandoval, I even advocated for its cancellation.) But since news broke that the old cast won’t be returning, fans have been thinking back to the golden years when the show produced some of the most hilarious, twisted, and straight-up Real reality TV moments we’ve ever seen. At its peak, there was no competition with the chaos of Vanderpump Rules – and that’s what made it so great.

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The very first episode of Vanderpump Ruleswhich aired in 2012, was an iconic reality TV moment in itself. Bravo made the decision to jump to the season one premiere right after the premiere Real Housewives of Beverly Hillswithout commercial break. ‘Day One’ fans were left confused when they stopped watching RHOBH star Lisa Vanderpump arguing with her colleague Housewives to take charge of the staff at her restaurant SUR in the blink of an eye. (For you, that’s “Sexy Unique Restaurant.”) “Ken and I have two restaurants in California,” Vanderpump said during the premiere. “Villa Blanca is where you take your wife – and SUR is where you take your mistress.”

The original cast was held together by an atmosphere of desperation. Most of them were wannabe actors or musicians approaching their thirties – an age when most people power think about giving up the dream. While treading water, they worked at Vanderpump bars and said things like, “The servers here all want to be models, actors, writers, singers. The servers at other Hollywood restaurants just want to be waiters at SUR.

Then an opportunity arose to become famous in a different way – and they didn’t miss it. In the first episode, we saw Scheana – then known as Scheana Marie (now Scheana… ​​​​Shay? …maybe. Her current last name is honestly a mystery) – opening the new show and making a cameo RHOBHfor which she apologized Housewife Brandi Glanville for sleeping with her ex-husband, actor Eddie Cibrian, while they were married years ago, before seamlessly segueing into the first episode of VPR. Of course, she would later become iconic for moaning into a microphone and making “sexy noises” in a recording studio, insisting she could be the next Britney Spears.

Then there was Tom Sandoval. Years before he blew up his life through infidelity, he was a wannabe artist who confessed to taking an hour to get ready to leave the house and whose beauty routine included shaving his own forehead with a straight razor . Sandoval lived with then-girlfriend Kristen Doutev, a volatile model and aspiring actress who, you guessed it, also worked at SUR. Next came Tom Schwartz – a somewhat useless but annoyingly good-looking model, whose then-girlfriend, SUR waitress Katie Maloney (and her evil alter ego ‘tequila Katie’) were feared and revered.

It’s ironic that a fraud scandal eventually came to light Vanderpump Rules because that was what defined the early years. Season one revolved around the breakup of the relationship between Stassi Schroeder and Jax Taylor – the alpha male and female of SUR. Schroeder was a blonde viper who openly admitted to bullying girls she didn’t like and proudly saying things like, “I’m the devil.” Taylor, on the other hand, was the ultimate (and later admitted) narcissist and liar. During the season one finale, he dropped the bomb that, after months of denials, he cheated on Schroeder and got a girl pregnant in Las Vegas.

Season two upped the ante again. This time, it was revealed that Doute – Sandoval’s then-girlfriend and Schroeder’s best friend – had been sleeping with Taylor behind their backs. In the season finale, when she finally confessed to her betrayal, Schroeder backhanded her in the face and called her a “whore” while Sandoval stood by her side. (Seriously, there’s no high that compares to watching this for the first time.)

As the show progressed, more newcomers joined: Madix – a “cool girl” bartender at SUR, who became Doute’s direct rival and later started dating Sandoval. James Kennedy – a British DJ with anger issues who was introduced as Doute’s new boyfriend (before he too went up in flames.) and Lala Kent – ​​an outspoken SUR hostess with a Hollywood “mystery man” who bankrolled her flashy lifestyle.

What made Vanderpump Rules The enormous amount of chaos that was on display was fun. The cast went from enemies to besties to lovers to exes, all in one episode, week after week. They said things like “I’m not sure what I did to you, but I’ll have a Pinot Grigio” in total seriousness, did things like taking off their (fat) sweaters for a physical brawl in the street, or had a violent rage having an argument, dressed in drag. Taylor in particular seemed so desperate for airtime that he behaved erratically — like breaking up with then-girlfriend, recovering from addict Laura-Leigh right after an AA meeting, and stealing a pair of sunglasses during a 2015 cast trip to Hawaii . In 2017, he reached his villainous peak when he cheated on Brittany Cartright with SUR employee Faith Stowers, prompting the iconic response, “Rawt in hell!”

Others, however, turned it around. Schroeder was portrayed as a villain in her first season, but she was eventually given a redemption arc. In the early years, she seemed aimless, spending half her time chastised by Vanderpump’s daughter – the pushy nepo baby, Pandora – for not writing enough free articles for the “magazine” she allegedly edited. Ironically, she turned one in 2019 New York Times bestseller. Sandoval and Schwartz were asked to be (very minor) partners in Vanderpump’s next restaurant, TomTom. (Although their own bar, Swartz and Sandy’s, recently announced its closure.) Kennedy has even managed to use the show to launch a successful DJ career. And this year, Madix and Maloney opened their own female-focused sandwich shop, Something About Her, to rave reviews.

But these successes are what became the downfall of the show. Against the backdrop of reality TV focused on wealth and opulence, the lives of the SUR staff initially offered an element of escapism and even a degree of relatability to the audience. We looked down (gleefully) at their dive apartments full of ugly, cheap furniture and judged their poor decisions that reflected that they had very little to lose. This began to change as the stars grew up and built lucrative careers as influencers and businesspeople outside of Vanderpump’s restaurants. Arguments broke out over book deals, trash talk on their podcasts, or who was and wasn’t brought in Dancing with the stars. (Won’t someone think Scheana?!) Don’t get me wrong, fans were happy to see the cast grow up over time, but as they worked to protect their blossoming careers, it changed the core DNA of the show. Without the central glue of SUR, Vanderpump’s own presence on her eponymous show also began to feel awkward and awkward.

Some may blame Scandoval for the cast losing their jobs because it divided the group and made it impossible to film together. There was a sense that the story was becoming bigger than the show – it was mentioned at the White House Correspondents Dinner, with stars like Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Lawrence, and Sandoval was described by the New York Times as the “most hated man in America” while comparing himself to George Floyd. Its sudden status as a cultural phenomenon and record-breaking ratings raised the bar, but it couldn’t keep up.

Honestly, but Vanderpump Rules had lost its luster for a while. Even though much of the cast’s behavior was dark and mean, there was always an innocence to it. In the early seasons, the cast didn’t know what was going to happen and didn’t always seem aware of how reality TV worked. (This is why the alley behind SUR, where they smoked and argued during their shifts, is a UNESCO Heritage Site.) But the expectations placed on them soon began to change: the cast was once rewarded for doing and saying horrible things. things from bullying to physical altercations and fat-shaming. However, a series of scandals — including a racism scandal that ended in Schroeder and Doute being let go in 2020 — cemented a new era of responsibility in which the show didn’t always belong.

Ultimately, the cast of Vanderpump Rules was held together by little other than their reality TV stardom. When core relationships have broken down or become more about monetization than anything else, this is a tipping point that reality shows find difficult to recover from. During the season 11 reunion, which ended with a slow flashback montage that now reads like a farewell, most of the discussion revolved around who was responsible for the show — their meal ticket — not going well. Some felt outraged that a scorned Madix was gobbling up lucrative brand deals and other opportunities instead of focusing on losing her stuff on camera. And now they’re all looking for a new gig.

Yet it cannot be denied that the golden years of Vanderpump Rules were genre-defining reality TV. Not only did the show create its own language of jokes (was it ever about “the pasta”?!), but it’s hard to imagine the now extensive canon of “hot people behaving badly at work” TV programs, such as the Below deck franchise, without his influence. (They really threw the first Pump-tini at SUR.) Most importantly, the show reminds us that the vulnerability (and desperation) to share the most chaotic and messy parts of your life is what truly makes a great reality star – not wealth or status.

Since the news broke, the cast has posted heartfelt Instagram tributes. I’m struck by how grateful they are that their run lasted so long. To quote the show’s opening theme music, “These were the best days of our lives.”

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