Fans may find it hard to believe, but “The Real Housewives” franchise is marking its 20th anniversary this year.
The series that started it all, “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” debuted back in 2006, and since then viewers have witnessed two full decades of table-flipping, backstabbing shenanigans.
One constant throughout all those seasons has been Vicki Gunvalson — something Real Housewives” mastermind Andy Cohen admitted he never could have predicted at the time.
Andy Cohen Couldn’t Predict Vicki Gunvalson Would Be the Face of ‘RHOC’
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Cohen — who was head of Bravo when he greenlit “RHOC” — discussed the series’ ongoing and enduring legacy 20 years later.
“I don’t know that in Season 1 we would’ve put all our money on Vicki being the housewife whose story we’re still telling,” Cohen admitted. “As much as her life has changed, she has not changed.”
Vicki Gunvalson Has Remained Authentically Herself
Continuing to discuss Gunvalson, Cohen observed that certain women cast in a “Real Housewives” show feel like they have to exaggerate their personalities when on camera.
That, however, is something that has never been a concern for Gunvalson. “Some people feel like they have to do a different personality when they’re on,” Gunvalson said. “I don’t, because I can see right through it.”
Viewers Have Watched Her Highs and Lows
Nicknamed “the O.G. of the O.C.,” Gunvalson’s tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve has won favor with fans. However, Gunvalson never imagined that the little “social experiment” she agreed to join would become a decades-long career.
“When we first started, [series creator] Scott Dunlop said, ‘This is going to be a social experiment,’” Gunvalson told the Times. “‘We have no idea what’s going to happen. It’s a documentary of your life.’”
That “documentary” has seen Gunvalson open up her life, good times and bad, for millions of viewers — and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m a crier, so I’m very emotional and I try to stuff it, but then it wouldn’t be me, you know?” she explained. “So I just let it all hang out and see where it goes.”
This O.G. ‘Real Housewives’ Legend Set the Template
According to Brian Moylan — author of the book “The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives” — Gunvalson and the other woman in the show’s first season were reality-TV pioneers.
Speaking with the Times, Moylan observed “that you’ll never be able to replace with these early-stage Housewives is they weren’t playing Housewives. And in just being herself, Vicki did create the model of what a housewife is supposed to be, which is real, authentic, a little bit crazy, a little bit narcissistic, a little bit delusional.”
An Insurance Agent from Orange County Became an Unlikely TV Star
While ruminating on the “Real Housewive” franchise, and Gunvalson’s role in its success, Cohen praised her.
As he told the Times, for two decades “the world has been reflected through this unlikely insurance agent in Orange County.”
