The BEST episodes of The Surreal Life

Every episode of The Surreal Life ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Surreal Life!

The Surreal Life is a reality television series that sets a select group of past-their-prime celebrities and records them as they live together in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills for two weeks. The format of the show resembles that of The Real World and Road Rules, in that the cameras not only record the castmates' participation in group activities assigned to them, but also their interpersonal relationships and conflicts. The first two seasons aired on the The WB, and subsequent seasons have been shown on VH1.

Last Updated: 11/1/2024Network: VH1Status: Ended
star
8.50
2 votes

#1 - Book Signing & Pool Party

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/8/2004

Erik, Rob, Trishelle and Traci see another side of Tammy when her gay following shows up for a book-signing for her autobiography, I Will Survive...And You Will Too. Meanwhile, Rob stays back at the mansion and prepares for a very surreal pool party, where Trishelle makes another unsuccessful pass at Rob and a successful pass at houseguest Andy Dick. Music legend Rick James makes a surprise visit to Rob. Directed by Ross Beritenbach, Omid Kahangi and Fernando Mills.

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star
8.50
2 votes

#2 - Mel's Diner

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/18/2004

Housemates report to work at Mel's Drive-In, where manager Gary Coleman loses control of his staff and suffers a meltdown. When, Todd Bridges, former 'Diff'rent Strokes' star shows up, Gary is humilated and upset that the gang can't pull together, so Gary leaves. Todd Bridges then takes over as manager for the night. Also, the gang decides to sell cookies to their new neighbors.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#3 - Wedding; Goodbye

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/20/2003

The couple speak their vows before a rabbi and minister MC Hammer. Housemates Jerri Manthey, Gabrielle Carteris, Emmanuel Lewis, Vince Neil and Brande Roderick are all in attendance, along with guests who include Playboy magazine's Hugh Hefner. Manthey originally told Feldman she thought a TV wedding was a bad idea, but she serves as videographer of the "absolutely beautiful" affair that she's "honored" to be a part of. But the joyous occasion is bittersweet: The next day the seven celebs must pack up and say their goodbyes.

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star
8.00
2 votes

#4 - Battle of the 80's Hair Bands

Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/30/2006

The housemates must form a hair-band to go up against cover band "Posin" in a battle of the bands. C.C. feels the pressure as he prepares to perform "Talk Dirty to Me", a song from his Poison days.

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8.00
1 votes

#5 - Movin' On In

Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/19/2006

The Surreal Life 6 cast move into the mansion. Smart-mouthed bellhop Jimmy Pardo greets, insults and coerces our cast into carrying their own luggage as they check into a surreal motel.

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star
8.00
2 votes

#6 - The Last Straw

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/9/2005

Omarosa apologizes to Janice; cast members have a final dinner together.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#7 - Vegas Dead Ringers

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/21/2005

The celebrities play a game of baseball, with team captain Jose, against a group of Las Vegas celebrity impersonators. Although the final score is very close, the Surreal Lifers we love beat the Dead Ringers, including Barbara Streisand, Dolly Parton, Madonna, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Jose Canseco himself! Later, the cast, finished with their pit stop, takes the improved Surreal Life charter bus to the Palms Hotel, where everyone goes to a club to party. But Janice parties harder than ever, ticking some of her fellow celebrities off.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#8 - Sunshine Strikers

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/17/2005

The seven new castmates compete in a bowling league against a mentally handicapped team. Tensions continue to fly between Janice and Omarosa, when Omarosa sees Janice making fun of the other team.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#9 - No Way, It's Jose

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/10/2005

The Surreal Life is back for a fifth season with a new house and a new bunch of celebrities. “Surreal Life Security”, Andy Dick meets each celeb at the door and performs a security check before allowing them to enter the house. The pressure gets to Andy as he snaps and calls it quits before the last cast member arrives. Surprise! It’s baseball bad boy Jose Canseco! Rounding out the rest of this season’s cast are motocross superstar Carey Hart, self-proclaimed first ever supermodel Janice Dickinson, Sandi Denton a.k.a. Pepa from the hit rap trio Salt N’ Pepa, supermodel Carpice, comedic actor Bronson Pinchot from Perfect Strangers, and The Apprentice villainess and beauty queen Omarosa Manigault Stalworth. Will this be one big happy family or turn into a family feud?

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8.00
1 votes

#10 - Burning Questions

Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/17/2005

A series of clips are shown that never made the final cut to television......until now.

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8.00
1 votes

#11 - Celebrity Pitch Fest

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/13/2005

Adrianne continues to pursue for Chris' affection, but still not getting much of a response back. Meanwhile, the cast heads to VH1 offices where they try to get a development deal going so they can create a new series---giving us the chance to meet the mysterious Missy and watch as she and Chyna Doll pitch their ""Man-Eaters"" concept to a befuddled executive panel. Adrianne and Chyna Doll wrestle and Chris confronts Adrianne's outrageous behavior.

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star
8.00
2 votes

#12 - The Surreal Seven (a.k.a. It's In My Contract!)

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/2005

A checker cab driven by reality TV über-fan Kathy Griffin picks up each of the housemates and drops them off at the house. Chyna runs amok, stealing, moving things, thigh-mastering and generally causing chaos. Da Brat's afraid of being in the house with has-beens. Chris tries to maintain the peace when Verne tells Chyna that her private room is his (""it's in my contract""), and the others wonder what it is they've gotten themselves into. Once the room conflict has been resolved, the cast gathers for ""Dinner on Adrianne,"" which will forever change the way the cast feels about sushi, particularly Verne, who shows a big ""perve"" can be in a small package. Later, Jane and Adrianne go skinny dipping, while Verne drinks too much and passes out. Chris, the new father to this wacky quasi-family, carries Verne to bed, only to get a bizarre ""nose-job"" from the soused dwarf.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#13 - Last Supper and Goodbyes

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/7/2004

Hurt from Ryan's trash talking on in the last ""Dirty Laundry"" episode, Flavor Flav is not holding back when it comes to pushing her buttons. Charo pleads with Flav to make peace with Ryan, but he will not. At the last supper Flav is the last to show, but eventually makes a very loud entrance. When the goodbye cake comes out, Flav calms down and it's all love. Ryan starts a food fight, and the night ends with Flav and Brigitte taking one last dip in the hot tub. In the morning everyone says their goodbyes and goes their separate ways.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#14 - Nude Resort

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/15/2004

Vince Neil invites the housemates to join him at a Palm Springs resort. Everyone perks up when they find out that they have arrived at a nudist resort - everyone except for Tammy Faye, who bursts into tears and refuses to stay. The housemates take part in a nude volleyball game, Trishelle and Ron bare all, and Rob pleases the crowd at a Karaoke bar. Directed by Ross Beritenbach, Omid Kahangi and Fernando Mills.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#15 - New Roommates

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/11/2004

A one-hour reality series from the producers of ""Road Rules"" and the upcoming Next Action Star. Intriguing and notorious celebrities including Tammy Faye Messner, Ron Jeremy, Erik Estrada, Rob Van Winkle (a.k.a Vanilla Ice), Trishelle Canatella and Traci Bingham once again find themselves in the spotlight as they work the nightshift at a famous restaurant on the Sunset Strip, take a trip to a nudist colony, go crazy at a porn pool party and tell all to Sally Jesse Raphael.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#16 - Vegas; Church

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/30/2003

The housemates paint the town red in Las Vegas. Tensions among the roommates heat up when Vince Neil is irritated by a taxi driver and Corey Feldman gets on Gabrielle Carteris' last nerve. The roommates then take on Vegas in their own ways: the girls get a little wild at a strip club and some of the guys have a dance off at Fatburger. After a long night of heated arguments and hard partying, they return to Los Angeles for a spirit-filled worship service led by MC Hammer at the First A.M.E. church.

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star
8.00
1 votes

#17 - Dirty Laundry

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/3/2005

The cast goes to the race track in the morning that day before they leave the house. It's that time of the season where Sally Jessy Raphael comes ""The Surreal Life"" house with a live audience and sits the cast down for ""Dirty Laudry"" where the cast hears things that they didn't know.

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star
7.50
2 votes

#18 - Check-out Is At Noon, Parts 1 and 2

Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/14/2006

The final morning finds the guests packing and reminiscing about their time at the Surreal Life Motel. Tawny spends most of the day sleeping and ignoring the rest of her cast mates. Later, tensions begin to bubble in the house as Tawny breaks up with her fiancé on the phone. In complete disbelief, the cast watches as Tawny throws her clothes off, and jumps into the pool naked. CC is left scratching his head and wondering what has happened to Tawny in the last few days. She has become completely erratic. Once reclusive and closed-off from the rest of the cast, Tawny is now skinny-dipping, and sensually kissing the other women on the lips. Better order some room service, it's going to be a very bumpy final night at the Surreal Life Motel.

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star
7.50
2 votes

#19 - Flo's Final Word

Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/7/2006

The Surrealifers awake to find the living room rearranged for a group therapy session with in-house advisor, Florence Henderson as "Dr. Flo"! Can Maven face the truth about his pain? Will Andrea finally come clean with Florence when she is shown footage of herself aggressively badmouthing Flo? And, can Tawny cope with any advice or criticism given to her, or is this just one more reason for her to think Florence is "a pushy, pain in the ass"? It's the moment they've all been dreading, Mrs. Brady challenges them to come clean and face their biggest fears.

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star
7.50
2 votes

#20 - Six Degrees of Irritation

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/2004

See this year's cast arrive in their respective rides. You'll never believe who's on this year's show! Room politics get under way and Charo takes charge while Jordan bums out at the lack of privacy. The guests start to unwind with a quick swim and a stiff drink and before you know it Brigitte passes out from ""jetlag."" Young'un Ryan seems uncomfortable amongst the colorful characters and Dave is forced to move into the closet because of Flav's snoring. And this is only the beginning!

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star
7.00
2 votes

#21 - Action News, Part 1

Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/2/2006

Part 1 of two. The cast must do a TV news report, with Alexis as executive producer, Florence as anchor, Sherman as weatherman, C.C. doing the sports, Steve as field producer and Andrea reporting from a local winery.

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star
7.00
2 votes

#22 - Makin' the Video

Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/26/2006

The housemates help film a video for Smash Mouth's “Story of My Life.”

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star
7.00
1 votes

#23 - Dirty Laundry, Part 2

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/2/2005

Sally makes an accusation; Omarosa defends herself.

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star
7.00
1 votes

#24 - Dirty Laundry, Part 1

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/25/2005

The cast returns from golfing to discover Sally Jessy Raphael and an audience in the mansion.

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star
7.00
2 votes

#25 - The Knife Incident, Part 1

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/11/2005

Janice and Omarosa disagree in front of the press; a portrait creates bad blood.

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