| The Real World: San Francisco | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Season Information | |
| Season No. | 3 |
| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Season Run | June 30, 1994 – November 10, 1994 |
| No. of Episodes | 20 |
| Cast | |
| Starring | Pedro Zamora Puck Rainey Rachel Campos Cory Murphy Pam Ling Mohammed Bilal Judd Winick Jo Rhodes |
| Season Chronology | |
| Previous | The Real World: Los Angeles |
| Next | The Real World: London |
| Gallery | |
The Real World: San Francisco is the third season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It is the second season of The Real World to be filmed in the Pacific States region of the United States, specifically in California after The Real World: Los Angeles.
The season featured a total of eight cast members over the course of the season, as one cast member was evicted and replaced. This is the first of two seasons to be filmed in San Francisco. Twenty years later, the show made a return to the city in the twenty-ninth season, Real World: Ex-Plosion.
Casting was completed by January 1994, by which time the cast was informed that one of their housemates would be HIV-positive, though they did not learn which one it was until the day they moved into their Russian Hill house, on February 12, 1994. The cast was filmed until they moved out on June 19.
Season Changes[]
This season was the first to feature a castmember, Pedro Zamora, dealing with a life-threatening illness. Future seasons would feature castmembers dealing with other illnesses, such as Lyme disease and cystic fibrosis. This is also the first season to feature an Asian American, Pam Ling, and two Hispanic Americans, Pedro Zamora and Rachel Campos.
Residence[]
The cast lived in a house at 949 Lombard Street in San Francisco, California from February 12 to June 19, 1994. The house is located between Leavenworth Street and Jones Street, one block east of the eight sharp turns that have earned the street the distinction of being "the crookedest street in the United States". Production renovated the third and fourth floors of the building for filming. On June 8, 2000, fire caused approximately $2 million in damage to the house. Several years after the fire, the building was completely renovated and bears only a slight resemblance to its appearance in 1994. The renovations include a second garage on the east side of the house, atop of which sits a patio.
Cast[]
| Cast Member | Age* | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Cory Murphy | 20 | Fresno, California |
| Judd Winick | 24 | Dix Hills, New York |
| Mohammed Bilal | 24 | San Francisco, California |
| Pam Ling | 26 | Los Angeles, California |
| Pedro Zamora | 22 | Miami, Florida |
| David "Puck" Rainey | 25 | San Francisco, California |
| Rachel Campos | 23 | Tempe, Arizona |
| Joanna "Jo" Rhodes | 22 | London, England |
*Age at the time of filming.
Legacy[]
The Real World: San Francisco is noteworthy for the depiction of Pedro Zamora's struggle with AIDS, and his and other cast members' confrontations with David "Puck" Rainey, which led to Rainey's eviction. These conflicts provided what Entertainment Weekly called emotional high points for the season and are credited with making The Real World a hit. It was ranked #7 on Time magazine's list of 32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History. The season is also notable for featuring the first-ever same-sex commitment ceremony on TV, between Zamora and his partner, Sean Sasser.