ABSTRACT
Rural reality shows offer a unique way in which residual identities justify contemporary urban life. There are two different forms of nostalgia on rural reality shows. The first represents the country as an Eden-like paradise stuck in a perpetual golden age. Looking at the past through the prism of a golden age privileges simplistic celebration over complex understanding. Buying Alaska injects rural reality television's fixation on golden ages into the standard reality real estate show so that purchasing a home becomes a way to access utopia. The fact that TLC chose to cancel Here Comes Honey Boo Boo in October 2014 because Mama June was secretly dating a convicted child molester is the ultimate demonstration of the country's repulsive backwardness. TLC focused on programs where the family was defined as abnormal; that is, the family fell outside of the middle-class suburban ideal of a mother, father, and two or three children, all of whom are able bodied.
