SERIES PREMIERE: Back in 1999, back even before we had CBS’s Survivor bringing reality TV into prime time in a big way, we had a weird little PBS series called The 1900 House, which put modern contestants in a period environment, asking them to live the way previous generations had – and to document their feelings by speaking privately into a “confession cam” when not churning butter, using outhouses, and so on. As televised “social experiments” go, it was better than, say, Fox’s subsequent Utopia – but for me, the most fascinating thing about The 1900 House came years later, when a fan of the show, Larry Wilmore, told me it was his inspiration for the structure of The Bernie Mac Show, which was filmed like a reality show, and even included a “confession cam” of sorts in which the voluble comedian addressed “America.” Now comes this new variation on this time-machine reality-show theme, called Victorian Slum House: The 1860s. Watch it if you’re curious, but I don’t see the point, and don’t buy that anyone taking part on it actually absorbs and accepts the premise. What’s next? From the same time period, an American spinoff called Civil War Plantation House: The 1860s? Or, from an even earlier time period, The Real Housewives of Salem? For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. Check local listings.