The Osbournes. (Insider Report).

It wouldn't be quite accurate to say that in its latest "reality TV" tour de force, The Osbournes, MTV has sunk to new lows. Television' s premier purveyor of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll has a long, consistent, and unenviable record of substandard fare, including Beavis and Butthead and innumerable pornographic, violent, and outright Satanic rock videos. But if The Osbournes isn't a new low, it comes close. Nestled in a half-hour slot after the equally debauched reality show The Real World, The Osbournes, a sort of real-life sitcom following the life of heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and his dysfunctional family, has become an instant hit (MTV's most popular program to date). Its appeal is not limited to middle-aged devotees. Young and old alike are fascinated by the unabashed, in-your-face rock 'n' roll lifestyle that the Osbournes willingly flaunt on screen.

Filmed over four months in the Osbourne family's Beverly Hills mansion, The Osbournes is heavily edited and at times barely comprehensible because of the coarse language of the Osbourne family, including their nanny. The antics of the 53-year-old heavy metal star-turned-paterfamilias seem ludicrous -- until one recalls that his senile babblings and fumbling behavior are the result of decades of heavy drug abuse.

Billed as the heir-apparent of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, and other wholesome made-for-television families, The Osbournes consciously mocks the genre. The show opens with a candy-colored intro deliberately styled after the animated introductions typical of '60s-era family shows and Disney movies. The Osbournes seems to oscillate between voyeuristic footage of Ozzy's out-of-control offspring partying until the wee hours, and Ozzy's periodic attempts to deal with Mrs. Osbourne's menagerie of pampered pets. A recent episode featured an Osbourne family council, in which the besotted Ozzy tries to "lay down the law" for his rebellious children. His son tells him, in effect, that he uses drugs because he's made a personal choice to do so, and reminds Ozzy that he used drugs through much of his heavy-metal career. To which the senior Osbourne replies, in effect, "yes, and look at me now. Is this how you want to end up?"

The Osbournes certainly shows the long-term fruits of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle in Ozzy Osbourne's drug-racked, heavily tattooed body. Unfortunately, MTV has packaged the show, and Osbourne's pathetic condition, as good family humor. June Cleaver wouldn't find it funny, though.