When MTV Cribs premiered 25 years ago, it promised to pull back the curtain on celebrity homes. The series followed in the mold of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which aired from the mid-1980s to the mid-’90s and showcased how the wealthy lived. (It wished its viewers “champagne wishes and caviar dreams.”) But MTV’s take had a distinctly informal air: A star welcomed viewers at the front door, then leisurely steered them from room to room, their chatter directed toward a Steadicam-secured camera. These extravagant, often eccentric displays involved living-room jacuzzis, shag carpets, and costly collections—of lingerie, limited-edition sneakers, even tropical fish. The tours also featured more ordinary domestic details, such as unmade beds and the half-eaten contents of refrigerators. The goal, as David Sirulnick, one of the show’s executive producers, said in a 2002 interview, was to demonstrate that celebrities were “just people like everybody else.”
Sticking to this motto helped Cribs walk the line between being relatable and aspirational—an effort that, 25 years later, in an era
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