In this episode of Hootin’ & Hollerin’, the guys take trip back to the era when MTV stopped playing music videos and started changing television forever. They break down how The Real World laid the foundation for modern reality TV, from its awkward early production missteps to the shockingly low pay for cast members who unknowingly became cultural guinea pigs .

From there, the conversation spirals into MTV’s dating show golden age. The crew revisits Singled Out, Next, and especially Room Raiders, uncovering behind-the-scenes stories involving fake abductions, blacklights, confiscated weapons, angry parents, and one extremely missed opportunity involving a pet bobcat. Along the way, they connect the dots between reality TV, early internet culture, celebrity side quests, and how a single Super Bowl halftime show quietly killed the most horrifying prop in MTV history.

It’s a funny, chaotic, and surprisingly informative look at how reality TV grew up in public—and why none of us were ready for it.

In this episode of Hootin’ & Hollerin’, the guys take a nostalgic (and mildly traumatic) stroll through the early days of the internet—back when dial-up screamed like a wounded robot, pop-ups promised free cruises, and nobody trusted putting a credit card online.

From first memories of logging on, AOL screen names, and getting kicked offline by an aunt who just had to make a phone call, to the Wild West era of search engines (Ask Jeeves, AltaVista, Lycos… gone but not forgotten), the conversation hits all the hits—and the misses. They swap stories about early online scams, wrestling spoilers, sketchy sweepstakes, GeoCities pages, Angelfire websites, and the absolute fear of “breaking the computer.”

The episode also drifts into how the internet evolved from a mysterious encyclopedia into something we now can’t live without—touching on early online shopping, PayPal, eBay, the death of landlines, and how today’s kids casually “search it up” like that’s always been a thing. It all wraps with some modern perspective on AI, ChatGPT, and whether today’s tech feels a lot like the internet did back then… just faster and with higher stakes.

Equal parts funny, relatable, and “oh no, I remember that,” this one’s for anyone who ever waited five minutes to connect just to check one email—then got booted offline immediately.

Scattered & Covered (From the Vault)

We took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off… but we didn’t leave you hanging.

Before Hootin’ & Hollerin’ was Hootin’ & Hollerin’, Matt and Eric had a very ambitious idea: set up podcast equipment in random places across the South and interview whoever was brave (or bored) enough to sit down. That concept was called Scattered & Covered.

This episode is the first and last time we ever tried it.

Recorded three years ago inside Sherry’s One Stop — a true Southern multitasker of a gas station featuring tanning beds, pizza, former VHS rentals, and possibly active warrants for unreturned movies — this lost episode captures two guys slowly realizing that no one wants to be interviewed for a Honey Bun.

What you’ll hear instead:

• Peak gas-station philosophy

• Deep dives into Hunt Brothers pizza etiquette

• Stories about stolen cheese, stolen clothes, and stolen VHS tapes

• A surprise appearance from the man who actually runs the place

• The sound of a podcast discovering, in real time, why it shouldn’t exist

Enjoy this unearthed relic from the H&H archives — proof that every good idea deserves one honest attempt… and a quiet burial.