FAREWELL, MTV

Dartboard mourns the ending of "Real World VI: Boston," the latest installment in MTV's voyeuristic soap opera. Though we weren't able to watch every episode (due to the lack of cable TV in our dorm rooms and, perhaps, the business of our own real worlds), we were able to keep up with the adventures of Montana, Syrus, Genesis, Elka, Jason, Kameelah and Sean by catching the occasional show over the summer and Thanksgiving break and, of course, by reading the media reviews of the show the Boston Globe summed up as "generic and unmemorable." Generic, sure. After all, how many times can you put a group of Gen Xers in an apartment together without being bored by the results? But unmemorable, never.

What set this "Real World" apart from the juicier editions set in New York and San Francisco was not the nasty infighting or the steamy on-set relationships--there were neither--but the atmosphere: a funky redecorated firehouse on Mt. Vernon Street in Boston. When the angst of our magnificent seven got to be too much to handle, the background shots of Faneuil Hall, the State House and even Harvard Square redeemed the episode. With the conclusion of the Boston "Real World," the firehouse is funky no longer and we've lost one of the few shows filmed in Beantown. Guess we'll have to settle for watching "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal," and repeats of "Cheers." Either that, or we can hop on the T to visit our own Real World.