'The Osbournes' Photofest Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Back in 2022, Fox's The Masked Singer revealed that the Jack in the Box was actually former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani - a figure once known, however speciously, for unifying his city in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, but more recently for a string of high-profile humiliations linked to his role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. At the time, I wrote about reality TV's history of image laundering, particularly when it came to disgraced and semi-disgraced conservative politicos, from Omarosa Manigault Newman to Anthony Scaramucci (Celebrity Big Brother), Sean Spicer (Dancing With the Stars) to Sarah Palin (The Masked Singer) and more. Related Stories News Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler Mourn Death of Black Sabbath Co-Founder Ozzy Osbourne: "Lost Our Brother" News House Republicans Vote to Rename Kennedy Center Opera House After Melania Trump Image laundering isn't necessarily the thing reality TV does most frequently; its primary appeal still stems from its ability to turn ordinary people into quick-burning stars, stretching back to landmarks like Candid Camera or The Gong Show. But it's a venerable subgenre, based on the principle that unscripted programming can reveal truth that supersedes pre-existing evidence: "What you thought you saw, what you thought you understood, wasn't real. THIS is real. You can tell because 'reality' is part of the programming listing." The ultimate canary in the coal mine of what became the dominant programming wave of the '00s was, of course, Ozzy Osbourne, who died on Tuesday, July 22, at 76. Prior to the March 5, 2002, launch of MTV's The Osbournes, Ozzy Osbourne would have been considered more likely to bite the head off of that canary. If you grew up in the '70s or '80s, Osbourne was a figure whose dark aura bordered on mythological. Nicknamed the Prince of Darkness, the Black Sabbath frontman projected savage intensity with an occult edge. The music felt almost secondary to apocryphal stories tangential to the music. Black Sabbath was so dark, so unholy, that the band's songs inspired murders and self-harm. You didn't need to know a single Black Sabbath song to be able to reference Osbourne's drug-and-alcohol-fueled antics, which included fights, various arrests and, yes, a tendency to bite the heads off various winged creatures, from doves to bats. Ozzy Osbourne was a BAD man, cultivating and curating that badness - at least if you believe that Osbourne was, at the time, capable of image curation. More than anything, he seemed to be out of control, which conveniently was a theme of more than a few Black Sabbath songs. The Osbournes, which utilized a jazzy cover of Osbourne's solo smash "Crazy Train" as its theme song, took Ozzy Osbourne's image, well-earned across multiple generations of fans, and flipped it on its head. What if, the show posited, one of the fiercest rockers to ever evoke Aleister Crowley and all things Satanic was just a fuddy-duddy father, a mumbling 50-something with an epic past but a present dominated by a loving-yet-controlling wife (Sharon) and two kids (Kelly and Jack, since daughter Aimee refused to appear) who had no interest in kowtowing to their easily distracted dad just because he was once globally notorious. The Ozzy Osbourne of The Osbournes wasn't entirely neutered, but he was a near-parody shell of the man who was once banned from the Alamo for urination. He was constantly swearing and frequently stoned, but much of the show, at least initially, was governed by the principle that nearly every aspect of ordinary family life instantly becomes funnier when the family in question is fronted by the Prince of Darkness. It was The Addams Family writ real. Your father can't figure out the remote control for a new TV? Funny. Your father is Ozzy Osbourne? Hilarious. Your dog needs therapy? Funny. Ozzy Osbourne's dog needs therapy? Hilarious. A father-son fishing trip runs amuck? Funny. Ozzy Osbourne is the father and the former dove-biter's biggest catch is a bird? Hilarious. Maybe if you were deeply invested in the authenticity of Black Sabbath and that incarnation of Ozzy, The Osbournes was a betrayal, turning mayhem into minstrelsy. But in acknowledging the artificiality and performativity of Ozzy's terrifying persona, The Osbournes seemed to be protesting "This is real" - even as what we watched on TV came across as equally contrived. Sure, this doddering middle-aged version of Ozzy Osbourne was every bit as much a persona as the earlier guy. But enough in The Osbournes cut through the contrivances of a genre that was still finding its voice that it built a synthetic credibility. Maybe some scenes and interactions were right on the edge of scripted