There was Julie, Kevin, Heather B., Norman, Andre, Becky and Eric, just seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people… You know the rest.

The Real World might be a household name now, but back in 1992, MTV wasn’t that enthusiastic about the concept. In fact, the show’s creator and executive producer says nobody in TV was.

“The people who were in charge of the networks had all come out of scripted television, and they just didn’t get it. They just didn’t understand it,” explained Jonathan Murray, founder of Bunim-Murray Productions, in mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? interview. “We would go to various places and people would ask us, ‘So basically what you do is all improv, right? You bring everyone together and you improv the shows? You have a script and you improv?’ There was just no understanding of how we did this.”

The man behind other hits like Road Rules, Bad Girls Club and Project Runway also gave tips on getting a job in reality TV and whether Kim Kardashian‘s 72-hour marriage was really a sham. ”Kim did not seek us out as to who she should marry, nor should she, ” he said.

Read the full interview.