The Real World's original cast on coming out and coming together

How well do you remember the first season of The Real World? If you’re of a certain age, it’s most likely downright embedded in your pop culture DNA. You can wax rhapsodic about Julie’s nonsensical assertions about Heather B.’s pager, knew Eric Nies well before he graced The Grind, and might have even picked up a Reigndance CD. Hell, you may have even gone as Norman and Gouda for Halloween, oversized top hat and all.

Paramount Plus is making a big bet on the fandom coming out in droves for The Real World Homecoming: New York, which will be on the new streaming service when it launches on Thursday, March 4. Reuniting the first seven strangers picked to live in a loft, Homecoming looks back on how The Real World helped inspire reality television as we know it today, warts and all.

The A.V. Club was able to sit down with the full cast of the original series for two interviews. The first—a chat with Heather B. Gardner, Norman Korpi, Becky Blasband, and Eric Nies—is above, and features the group talking about what it meant to come out on TV, detailing how it felt to become wildly famous overnight, and reminiscing about Gardner’s fascination with onetime Charlotte Hornets star Larry Johnson. The second of our interviews—this time with Kevin Powell, Julie Gentry, and Andre Comeau—will run on Friday.

The Real World is available to stream now on CBS All Access. Come Thursday, March 4, it will be available on Paramount Plus along with The Real World Homecoming: New York.