It's far from a secret that many residents of New Jersey and the actual Jersey Shore absolutely hated the show. After all, it painted the area in a pretty demeaning and, in some moments, negative light. This is because the cast of the hit MTV show and its sequel/spin-offs tended to act like absolute buffoons. While reality TV fans know how entertaining this was, it really irked people. They represented the lowest class of citizens in the town (according to many residents), but that was the joke. While the cast of the show may or may not have been aware of it, they embodied a very unappealing stereotype. One that was constantly liquored up and partied away their minds.
Even today, the cast of Jersey Shore is plagued by drama, most recently with Angelina Pivarnick purposefully ignoring her colleagues. But it's safe to say that many of them have calmed sustainably, aside from Ronnie Margo's ongoing legal issues. After all, so many of them have families of their own. And that's a big difference in lifestyle given how crazy their boozy lifestyles were...
Heavy Drinking Was Supposed To Be Part Of The Jersey Shore Show
In a fascinating and almost comical oral history of Jersey Shore by Vulture, the cast revealed that the producers were keen on getting the cast drunk because it made the show more fun. This was especially true for when they would send the cast out for a night on the town.
"We would start pregaming at 9:30, 10, so’d we all have a good buzz on for the club," Nicole Polizzi, AKA Snooki, said to Vulture. Her Snooki persona is far from the woman she is today, which is why fans are curious about what her kids think about Jersey Shore.
Of course, part of the 'pregaming' was T-shirt time, which was the optimal attire when spraying a ton of hairspray and self-tanners all over their bodies.
"I’m pretty sure we destroyed the ozone layer with the amount of hairspray and aerosol cans we used on a daily basis. Actually, I’m surprised I didn’t get bronchitis because we never opened a window. We all had to have spray tans, layers of hairspray, thin eyebrows. It was at least two or three hours because of the rotation of the bathroom. It was insane," Jenni Farley said.
One of the cast's favorite spots to party on The Jersey Shore was The Bamboo Bar. According to the manager of the iconic spot, Bryan Hutenburg, the producers basically gave them 20-minute notice whenever the cast was on their way. In the beginning, nobody really cared that they came in because the show wasn't yet a hit. However, as soon it became an international sensation, Bryan and the rest of the crew at The Bamboo Bar had to accommodate the commotion.
"By the end, it was a totally different situation. It was like people watching a movie being filmed, waiting for the next shoe to drop," Bryan explained.
"Back in the day, I would drink, like, four Long Island Iced Teas and be cross-eyed, and then five or six shots on top, lemon drops. I’d just be completely nauseous and hugging the toilet for eight hours," Jenni said.
"We drank a ton. I don’t even know how we’re alive," Nicole added.
While the cast was encouraged to drink their faces off, those who they brought home to their communal "smush" room weren't.
"People are literally given a field sobriety test to get into the house," executive producer SallyAnn Salsano admitted. "We have the same carding system they have at that club — that electronic thing where they run your ID — because we don’t let anybody in the house that’s not 21. Also, if someone is that inebriated, we’d ask people to leave."
The Dark Truth Behind The Partying On Jersey Shore
Of course, with excessive amounts of alcohol tend to come fights. While the fights in the later seasons became totally acceptable the time when Snooki was punched by a man got the show into major trouble. Not only was it perpetuating negative Italian-American stereotypes and showing the worst qualities of the residents of The Jersey Shore, but some felt it was causing advertisers to abandon ship due to the violence.
"The morning after MTV aired the first episode of Jersey Shore, our third-party media buyer told MTV the content wasn’t right for the Domino’s brand," the executive vice president of communication and investor relations and legislative affairs at Domino's Pizza, Tim McIntyre, said. "We requested that our spots not air on future episodes. We had not been given a chance to review the content ahead of time — had we had the chance, we would have said no before the show ever hit the air. One of our objections was a scene in which a man at a bar was shown punching a woman, Snooki. We did not and do not condone that kind of violent behavior against anyone, and we could not support the programming with our advertising dollars. We do not consider men hitting women to be 'entertainment.'"
While the controversy caused by all the partying was too much for some, it ultimately made the reality show what it was.
"We had so much controversy in the beginning," Pauly DelVecchio said. "A lot of people wanted to see what all this was about, so that gave us a lot of viewership. I can’t really even hate on the haters. I gotta thank them."
