At the airport, Teck and Colin give each other a final goodbye hug as the other roommates share their memories and feelings of their time together in Hawaii.

For the generation that had grown up with “The Real World,” reality TV wasn’t a compromise, some crummy stopgap when scripted TV wasn’t available.

From the moment it went on the air in 1992 all the way to its final season in 2019, MTV’s groundbreaking reality show The Real World offered young people a simple proposition: We’ll give you ...