It's been almost a full decade since "Teen Mom" premiered on NBC, bringing Maci Bookout, Farrah Abraham, Catelynn Lowell, and Amber Portwood back into fans' homes after they were introduced on "16 & Pregnant."
Since then, we've seen them (and their families) change and grow — including two spinoff shows, featuring even more moms — but the cast's lives aren't always exactly what they seem like on TV. Babies have been born, some of the stars have been married, divorced, and married again, and now, the fourth wall has been broken and we get to see the moms interact with their producers and the crew like never before.
It doesn't seem like "Teen Mom" is going anywhere anytime soon, and that's partly because there's so much going on behind-the-scenes.
It wasn't meant to last this long.
Originally, "Teen Mom" was meant to be a schedule filler show, but when it became such a massive hit, MTV ordered more episodes.
When cast and crew shared the history of the show with Cosmopolitan in 2017, former MTV director of programming Tony DiSanto pitched "Teen Mom" as a way to fill time until another season of "16 & Pregnant" was filming, but as we all know now, it took off from there.
Tyler and Catelynn Baltierra used to have a filming curfew.
Cosmo's oral history also revealed that in order to keep their lives as teen reality stars normal — as if that's possible — Catelynn and Tyler Baltierra, who are now married, were only able to film after school and had to finish up early so that they'd still have time to do their homework. It looks like it paid off, because they both did get their high school diplomas (and they're still together to this day).
"I can remember, during the first two seasons, only being able to film with Catelynn and Tyler from 4 p.m. to about 8 p.m. because [Tyler's mom] Kim had a rule that they were not allowed to film past 8," producer Kirsten Malone (who you might know as KiKi from the show) said. "They had school and had to do their homework, which I thought was fantastic. It did not make our jobs easy, but we did it, and we're still super respectful of the kids and their schedules."
The cast has gotten super close with their producers.
As we've seen on both "Teen Mom OG" and "Teen Mom 2," the cast has spent so much time with their producers that they're practically family at this point, and that actually makes a lot of sense. They're essentially co-workers, right? And over the years, they've become friends — but that doesn't mean they don't have to keep boundaries in mind when it comes to the personal crossing over to the professional.
"I know I feel much more comfortable because whatever I'm talking about on camera, I've probably already talked to [my producers] about it," Maci Bookout told Cosmo. "It just takes everybody remembering there's a difference between our friendship relationship and our professional relationship. But we've all done this for so long that we are very aware of times when one relationship needs to override the other one."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider