Back in the early 1990s, which used to seem like just yesterday, MTV began airing The Real World which featured a group of twenty-somethings from different backgrounds who had to live together while being filmed constantly. It was the, dare I say, innocent age of reality TV, a far cry from where we are today. Controversy came from racial tension and “naive southern girl adapts to big city” moments. Every episode ended with the production logo of Bunim-Murray. This being MTV, I pictured Mary-Ellis Bunim as a young producer, a fresh-faced Tabitha Soren type. I was wrong. Bunim came from a long history of daytime TV, producing soaps like “Search for Tomorrow” and “As the World Turns.” Her pioneering reality TV work continued through to the current age of the ubiquitous genre. Mary-Ellis Bunim died last week, aged 57, after a long battle against breast cancer. Her many microcosms live on.